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My Vallejo Model Air Grey Primer and white base have arrived today while I was testing out some shading on some old models and I wanted to just ask a quick question before I dived in and started spraying up my crons and Mrs Salmon's orkies.


Do I just throw this stuff in the airbrush bottle and start spraying away or is there some magical prep work I need to do before I start spraying the primer that I don't know about yet?


I know never to start spraying straight on to a model. I have some other stuff I want to paint but am happy to strip if the testing goes wrong. So I'll use these test objects to adjust the paint flow and air pressure and to make sure I don't need to tinker with the Model Air paint mixture.

Just go about prepping your models as usual. In my experience, priming with an airbrush may take a bit longer than with a spraycan, but you do have total control over what you are doing.

Just take your time and lay down thin and even coats of primer and you'll be golden.

Good Luck,


IK-Painter

From what I saw in a painting workshop the other week, you do not even need a "coat" of primer. You need it speckled on and still be able to see bit of the grey plastic. All you are looking for is something for the real coats of paint to adhere to. The way it was explained by the presenter, the guy that owns Secret Weapon Miniatures, what you do not want is to replace one smooth surface, the plastic, with another smooth surface, your standard method of priming a coat on, as paint does not stick as well to a smooth surface. He dusted the model he was working on in the workshop. The model was mostly the color of the primer, but not "coated" entirely. His point was that most people try too hard to get a coat of primer that they loose detail, that we think of primer as paint, but with primer all you are really looking for is to give the model some tooth to accept your basecoat of real paint. That is the whole purpose of priming, to provide a bit of tooth.

I went back and looked at some of my models the next day that I had primed (i.e. coated) and definitely could tell where I had lost detail trying to paint the get a good thin coat. While I did not lose a ton of detail, it had pooled just a bit in a few spots when I compared it with an unmolested mini. So I am going to try easing up quite a bit on the priming on my next round of minis here tomorrow and see what happens.

Anyhow, I just wanted to put that out there since I am about a day behind you in trying out the Valejo primer in my airbrush too. I would LOVE to get away from the smell of rattlecans as they make me sick, so I am really hoping this works well.

First outing with Vallejo Model Air?

I'm in love.

A dream to use, covers fantastically. I need to use a thinner coat and be a bit more patient next time but even the slightly thick coat is 100 times better than anything I've managed with paints I've thinned myself or with spray cans.


Thank for both of your advice.

I'm going to experiment with coverage too, including having a go at Synchro's suggestion which I can see comming in incredibly handy when I'm painting the OOP lords and their extra detailed cloaks, collar and iconography.


All this help is why I love Dakka. Thanks Dakkanauts again for the help and advice!

dave_salmon wrote:A dream to use, covers fantastically. I need to use a thinner coat and be a bit more patient next time but even the slightly thick coat is 100 times better than anything I've managed with paints I've thinned myself or with spray cans.

Heh, I remember the first miniature the primed with model air. It looked so beautiful even in just white, it almost seemed a shame to paint over it.

One thing I like to do before I start painting is to give the miniature a good blast with the airbrush on max pressure while the airbrush is empty (make sure it really is empty though!). This is probably the easiest and best way to remove any annoying bits of dust or lint that might be clinging to the surface.

I usually repeat this step before varnishing, or if the miniature has been stood out for any length of time. Airbrush is not only useful for painting... I also use mine to clean my computer keyboard.

You're not wrong about it looking beautiful. Its going to kill me painting the next layer over the primed models.

I'd not thought about giving the model a blast before I start painting...

I'll have to think about varnishing as well. The old OOP necrons aren't terribly well balanced and the warrior I primed yesterday fell over a few times, taking the priming off in a few places.

Oh! You're painting metal... Yeah regular acrylic spray doesn't seem to adhere well to metal. I find even just touching the model or laying it on its side will cause paint to rub off. I think it should be fine after a few coats of varnish, give it a gloss coat first for a bit of extra toughness, and then finish off with a coat you like (probably matte or satin I'm guessing).

For future reference you might want to lightly dust metal models first with a real primer to give the surface little more grip. Automotive primer is usually the least overpriced. By 'lightly dust' I mean literally so light that you can hardly see it has had paint pointed at it at all.