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So, after getting some advice with my airbrush, I've ordered some Vallejo Model Air Grey primer and white.

I've been reading about priming and undercoating and I just wanted to run this past you guys to make sure I really do understand it.

My necrons are red and bone.

After I've cleaned the mould lines and duff bits on my models, I need to coat it in a layer of the grey primer to prepare the models surface for the following layers of paint.

Once the primer has set, I put an undercoat of the white on top of the grey primer because I'm using red and bone and the white will make the red stand out and bone, well, look boney.


I do need the primer and the white base don't I? And I'm not missing something and doing essentially the same thing twice with two colours?


I've just gotten a bit lost in the articles I've read where the descriptions seem to go off in tangents and not give a difinitive: No. priming it grey and then basing it white is not the same thing, and you do need both to get a pretty model.

Vallejo Game Colour offers a white primer that works well in airbrushes so you can go either way.

That being said, priming gray and basecoating white works just as well. Keep in mind that priming =/= basecoating. They are very much different steps. So you can basecoat with regular white paint after you've primed with proper primer like the Model Air Gray Primer.

Thanks for the reply.

I just want to check what you mean by '=/='? It's late here an I'm being dense..


I just want to make sure that, in my case, with the colours I'm using, neither step is superfluous.

The reason I'm focusing on airbrushing these steps is as a way of my becomming familiar with using an airbrush, and I'm having difficulty finding my feet with the paint thinning part, hence why I'm buying the Model Air primer and base.

It means "does not equal".

I highly advise going for the gray primer, however, if you're wanting to do a darker shade for your Necrons. Colors on white tend to look much 'warmer', while on gray they look neutral, and on black they tend to look menacing.

Ahh right, that makes sense to me now.

As for the shade of red on my necrons: I've been basing white and painting red over them and I'm pretty happy with the warmer red result, so I'll prime in grey then apply a white base over it for the bone effect I want and the warmer red.

Glad we could help!

Thank you both!