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Hey people, I've been looking through some old posts, this question is a popular one.

Im looking for a cheaper alternative for chaos black spray as im using a lot for scenery.
Really it needs to be available in the UK, some of the international posters are lucky to have such a wide variety, the only alternative i can find at the moment is at halfords and its about the same price as GW, i dont mind it being primer just matt black.

Any help would be great folks thanks.

army painter.

I'm keen for a decent alternative thats cheap in the uk.
I can use my airbrush to spray gesso and I like that. But its not always as convinient as a can can be.
But for 6 cans from GW i can actually buy a compressor and airbrush for it! lol jog on GW!

Go to your local hardware /diy store (not homebase or b&q ) these normaly have there own brand spray paints. I use one called hycoat and its far better than the gw stuff. Go's on smoother and covers better and costs £3 per can.

There is a local car panel replacement shop that sell paints for spray guns, and will fill up cans of custom colour for cusotmers. Local to me, its actually the place where all the local body shops get their paint supplies.....
Anyway, they sell cans of white, grey and beige automotive primer for about £5 a can, I've not tryed it yet but am concerned that itle melt the details on my plastics, so will test on some sprue or an old unwanted figure (do I have any unwanted figures?! I dont think so! )
And then report back to you

The stuff gw sells is just rebranded car primer in 25yrs of painting I've not found a acrylic matt spay that has had any problems with plastic. No one i know spends more than £3-4on primers/spray.

You do save £3 on this:
http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_storeId_10001_catalogId_10151_productId_210031_langId_-1_categoryId_165495

But any matt black spray will do. B&Q Maybe?

I picked up some matt black from an auto parts shop. Some brands are a bit crappy though. We use it on the race team I'm part of to spray random bits of the car that we were too disorganised to fabricate before we powder coat the chassis. Some of them look ok when you spray them but fade to a dull grey after a month or two.

Maybe I will just use some halford matt black then. Others use this in the UK? I can remeber back when i was 15 i tryed some halfords brand grey automotive primer and it melted a marine up pretty bad. But that was a primer, while this matt black is actually acrylic paint aerosol rather than an automotive grade primer.
I hear the GW can is just paint and not what a painter would call a primer, and it always did a fine job for me as a young hobby'ist. Since i got back into it in my 20's I have used thinned down gesso sprayed in my airbrush, but its not always ideal to get it out and clean it just to prime one figure, an aerosol can would be handy for that at the least.

I'm no expert on the matter as I have only bought a few cans of GW sprays over the course of many years (and they probably change their formula from time to time) but it's my observation that the black GW sells is just black and not a primer, while the white they sell is a primer. The cans of white I've bought off GW typically give a nice absorbent primer-like finish while the black typically just gave a smoother but not quite so absorbent and as good as an undercoat finish.

Maybe it's just me or maybe I just got bad tins of black (I think I've only bought 2 cans of black spray in the past 2 decades, lol).

Thats exactly what I was talking about. When I thin out gesso and spray it on, this is an actual primer, the kind an artist normally applies to canvas before acrylics or oil paints go on.
It works fine, but thinning some out to spray and cleaning up the kit afterwards can be a chore from time to time. Gesso also has quite a long drying time and I might just want to sit down and paint a figure without planning a day ahead sometimes.

When I shop for aerosol gesso, what I find is usualy more expensive than the GW cans. So if the White is actually a real primer the £10 may not be such a bad deal. £10 a can for black paint on the other hand isnt very good value at all, but I'm happy to airbrush a basecoat of paint over a genuine primer.

I agree with the general consensus.

If you're not using it on miniatures, grab whatever black rattle can that tickles your fancy. I've even seen a few texture based spray paints that could really interest you (depending on the circumstances).

Hell, I'd thin out some latex based paint and splatter than on your scenery. Don't shun the idea, properly thinned latex paint is excellent for miniatures...

Sad thing is you don't have Wal-Mart. $.97 for can of flat black.

Hey folks, thanks for some great replies.
I have used some black sprays from some of the pound shops we have here in uk, despite saying flat, matt and primer I'm still to find one that is actually matt.
I have heard about the halfords matt black will get around to trying it, I do use a halfords red primer for my marines and it works perfect.
I will try the halfords one on my orks.

Where did you get the hycoat paint from?

Iv got to agree with all the Halford sprays. The 1 I use currently is a Matt Black Spray Paint 500ml. Can't give a proper value of the saving since I get it at discounted prices thanks to my brother. Even then over the GW stuff you are saving a bit.

I think its cost around £6 for 500ml from Halfords compared to GWs 400ml for £9.50

leroy233 wrote:..., despite saying flat, matt and primer I'm still to find one that is actually matt.

Keep in mind that 'matte' and 'flat' are not actually the same thing.

'Flat' paints should have no sheen.
'Matte' paints are nearly no sheen... but depending on the manufacturer can be anything from a nearly-flat finish to a satin or semi-gloss.

You can't go wrong with Halfords.

I got the hycote from my local hardware store. But I've seen oi around in other places. Trick is to avoid places like b&q and halfords as there overheads are so big there mark up has to match.