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I have ran out of spray paint a few days before an apoc battle. I'm panicing a bit TBH. Do you know if it is possible to somehow prime without spray? Maybe bi stippling or drybrushes?

As always, thanks for feedback.

sure its possible. GW once had primer for the brush. I dont think they sell that anymore..
Once when I was out of primer I painted a few models without priming. Just painted them black for undercoat. However this is not advicable since the paint will come off a lot easier..

I guess you could prime with some fairly thinned out paint and a decent tank brush.

Thin enough to get in all the crevices but to not swamp the details.

Thinned out paint will not stick to the model. believe me i have tried..

Thinned regular paint dosent stick to plastic well. Priming, what ever method used, is usually done with primer paints. If you have, for example, vallejos primer paint you can indeed brush it on without a problem. Ofc that is not the optimal method but it is doable.

If you dont have primer paints, paint sticking on plastic will be a problem but I would suggest doing it anyway with a few layers before starting to slap on the base colors.

I think you would save some trouble by getting primer though, some hardware stuff will do for the urgent need.

If I did that then drybrushed, I wonder if that would have a similar effect. Ill try it.

I bought some Krlyon primer at wal mart... surely something like that is available. Army Painter - while I'm sure its good - isn't the only primer in town.

I used to prime models with chaos black straight out of the pot, basically drybrushing with a large tank brush. Didn't really obscure details too much, I mean I was able to paint models to this quality after :



Not my best work, but it shows how the detail really wasn't obscured.

vallejo polyurethane primer seems quite popular, never used it myself tho

While it doesn't necessarily obscure the detail, brush priming is inadvisable. Spray paint sticks to the model really well, for some strange reason that I can not explain only attest to, where brush priming chaos black only covers and can chip fairly easily. That being said, if you are going to brush prime this is the way to do so [/url] http://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/Priming_With_Acrylic_Gesso [/url]

Do not prime with regular paint. You prime for a reason; to give the paint something to adhere to on your smooth model, and this is what a primer does. So 'priming' with a layer of chaos black is the same as not priming at all.

Brush-on primer is called gesso, and painters have been using it for hundreds if not thousands of years.

I'm sure if you look you can find special modelling gesso that doesn't obscure details but I've had very satisfying results mixing my normal (thickish) painting gesso 50/50 with black acrylic paint and watering it down a bit. Gives a very strong, even coat that doesn't even come off when you scratch your nail over it + it gives a 50% grey base colour which I like.

Honestly, after you paint on the chaos black basecoat, all you need to do is be careful not to rub the paint off the model... just handle it delicately, or hold it by the base and the head ONLY, and repaint the head last.

After you seal the model with varnish as the last step, it doesn't matter how you primed it, the coat isn't coming off.

I prime with regular paint ALL THE TIME now that I have an airbrush... I just hit it with a coat of satin varnish after I finish the basecoat + Zenithal Highlight layers, and its a pretty durable base coat (It takes some doing to scratch it off with a finger).

Wow, there's alot of interesting and questionable advice here. Let's review the options so far.

Using brushed-on acryilc paint (Chaos black) as a primer.
-It will work reasonably well
-It will not be as durable as proper priming
-It will not have the same "tooth" (proper painting surface)as proper primer

Using model-specific brushable primer
-Will give you excellent results and cover very smoothly
-Is very durrable.
-Has very good tooth and provides an excellent painting surface.
-Is about the same price as model paint.

Using Gesso (what artists use for primer on canvases) for primer.
-Gives excellent results. Some folks think the coverage isn't quite as smooth as model-specific primer, but I haven't found this to be the case.
-Is durrable and provides excellent tooth.
-Shrinks as it dries. This means that it can be applied quickly (and slightly sloppliy) and it will dry without obscuring detail
-Is extremely inexpenisve. Costs about 1/4 or less (per oz) the price of model paint or model-specific primer.

Myself, and most of my gaming club now swear by Gesso. I use it for small batches of figures. For larger batches or certain base colors I still use colored spray primer for fast basecoating and acryilic paints to touchup where the primer doesn't cover well enough (sometimes in crevases), but everything else gets Gesso.

Unless following up with a varnish coat after bascoat (like Horst with his airbrush) I would never recommend using brush-on acrylic paint as a primer. It's an inferior product that costs the same or more than the alternatives.

I use chaos black as a paint on primer with all my models, as I don't have a place to spray since i live on campus. It works well enough for my purposes and never obscures detail.

Just go buy more spray primer. You can get it cheap at the local hardware store. Just buy it. It's like $2. Don't risk your models (probably worth $30 - $50 or more) by glopping on a paint-on primer. That's my advice.

Thanks for feedback, as always. That article is helpful Enicko, I will probably look into this gesso.

I normally varnish metal miniatures, but leave plastic unvarnished. I use a spray primer in the normal way even though I'm not too fussy about chipping. It has never been a very bad problem for me, TBH. I will probably varnish these unprimed minis though, just to be safe.

Vallejo Poly Primer also shrinks as it dries, btw. It comes at the right consistency too, so I like using it for sheer ease of use as well as a great outcome.

jelrik wrote:sure its possible. GW once had primer for the brush. I dont think they sell that anymore...

I think the black primer paint pot still comes in the Space Marine "Starter Pack" that has a brush, some paints and a single marine figure.

Is foundation paint made for priming? It does have a slightly rough grippy texture to it.

zilegil wrote:Is foundation paint made for priming? It does have a slightly rough grippy texture to it.

Short answer, no. Long answer, while you can do it that way (and indeed, the brush-on primer in the Starter Set is a Black Foundation Paint) it's not a true primer and is fairly easy to rub off, much like using Chaos Black from the bottle. It also doesn't have the same toothed texture, as it's simply formulated to have a much greater pigment ratio. If you're happy with the idea of using Chaos Black as a primer, you'll probably be okay with a foundation paint. If not, I'd suggest picking up either some of the coloured sprays, if spraying is more your thing, or check out Vallejo's Surface Primers, which come in a variety of colours.

zilegil wrote:Is foundation paint made for priming? It does have a slightly rough grippy texture to it.

NO!

Dude, we're going round and round here. Paint is for painting, primer is for priming. Head down to your local art or craft store and for the price of a single foundation paint you can get a bottle of 4-6 times as much gesso.

Unless you're going to spray it on with an airbrush and follow up immidiately with some varnish acrylic paint is not good for priming!