Airbrush and Priming - Should you prime prior?

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**Havok210**

Hello all,
I have been enjoying the benefits of basecoating minis with my airbrush and a gaming friend and I got into an interesting discussion. The question came up as to whether or not you should prime your minis before adding the basecoat with an airbrush.

So famed airbrush users of Dakka, what do you think? Prime the mini (with GW Chaos Black, Krylon, etc) or just straight base them with your primary color from the airbrush?

**IK-Painter**

Definitely in favor of priming. Gives your paints a far better bond with your mini and you can control the overall tone your finished paintjob will have - Black for a more somber tone, white for a more vibrant scheme.

Cheers,

IK-Painter

**AesSedai**

Prime them first.

Also, here is a little prediction: 4 posters will tell you to prime the model first for every 1 who swears that a straight basecoat is the secret of his/her modeling success.

**AustonT**

Anyone who advises that you skip priming is taking you for a ride. Getting a primer that produces good results consistently is a process of trial and error but once found IS the basis on which any great paint job starts.

**notprop**

Counts advice............Prime, always prime especially metal minis or you are just wasting your time painting it.

**Havok210**

This has always been my thought process as well. When I mentioned I still prime them with Krylon Camo Black prior to airbrushing, they looked at me like I sprouted a second head. But they have been painting a lot longer than me, so I started to think that **maybe** I was wrong.

**dave_salmon**

Having asked this question a couple of weeks ago and then tried it: Yes, prime the buggers first.

I prime with Vallejo Air Colour Grey Primer and then base with VAC White.

**GCMandrake**

Prime black. Then whatever colour you airbrush with next, any primer left uncovered in the recesses looks like shadow. Means you can get a 'free' layer of highlighting.

**AustonT**

dave_salmon wrote:Having asked this question a couple of weeks ago and then tried it: Yes, prime the buggers first.

I prime with Vallejo Air Colour Grey Primer and then base with VAC White.

Unless something has changed VAC Grey Primer is actually just a color. But Ive heard it works fine anyhow

**winterdyne**

Yes. Prime.

**dave_salmon**

AustonT wrote:Unless something has changed VAC Grey Primer is actually just a color. But Ive heard it works fine anyhow

Yeah I thought it was just Grey colour but on this page:
http://www.vallejo.nl/gb/assets/s2dmain.html?http://www.vallejo.nl/gb/vallejo/modelairchart/index.html

and on the eBay page I grab it from:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/170662135109?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649

its listed as Grey Primer.

Vallejo generally confused me to begin with if I'm honest, I've heard the airbrush range called different things (Vallejo Model Air, Vallejo Air Colour, Vallejo Model Air Colour) and differnet people seem to call some of the colours by different names and it had me thinking that vallejo paints were a bigger range with more colours than it actually is/has (Although the range IS extensive).

**SilverMK2**

Always prime

And there is no excuse if you have an airbrush - get an airbrush primer

**dave_salmon**

I get my VAC from a guy on eBay at £1.69 a bottle (works out at 10p per ml as apposed to 19.1p per ml on the citadel paints) and I can recommend the VAC Grey highly!

**Synchro**

yes to priming. the vallejo primer that is being talked about works great in your airbrush. just dilute it a bit. It comes in white, grey and black. There are colors too, but they are more drab I would say. Just remember not to paint your mini with primer. You are just looking for some tooth for the base coat to stick to. you want some of the gray plastic to show through. not much, but some. Otherwise you are replacing one smooth surface, the plastic, with another smooth surface, the primer. You need a tiny bit of roughness.

**webmax**

Yes. Prime always.

**fenrir1997**

+1 to priming. Always prime.

I favor Krylon Grey primer, but will be testing gesso in my airbrush not long from now.

**Havok210**

Awesome. Thanks for all the info.

Kind of sidebar question - has anyone ever tried applying a citadel wash by airbrush?

**gilljoy**

On the GW page they actually recomend using there spray brush with there washes to wash models. I'd imagine it would work quite well on a huge army.

**AustonT**

I haven't down it with citadel washes because they are so god awful expensive but I shoot washes at vehicles. You have to use very low airpressure otherwise you are atomizing the paint and just shooting another pigment.