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So I'm looking at ordering some Vallejo primers, they're available in a lot of different colors, but I'm looking at the bigger 200ml bottles which come in Grey, White and Black.
But do I really need all 3...? I've usually primed my minis black before, but can anyone tell me if there are situations where grey/white primer will be superior?

Maybe someone can shine a light on when and where you need or don't need a certain primer.

the brighter the top coat, generally the lighter the primer you want..

so if you're painting Dark Angels, black primer is just dandy, but if you're painting something you want to be bright, like Imperial Fists or eldar or really anything with yellow/orange as a main colour, white primer helps a lot...

as a rule I also prime in black, it allows me to be lazy with my shading, but for something as bright as this, I used white primer...



for this guy I used black, but it took me a few layers to get the yellow nice and bright on top of black primer..

I figured the same, but in what cases do you need grey primer then, is it the one that would be the "least" useful of the three?

I'm just trying to figure out if I need to buy all three in the long run (I might as well order them all now in that case) or if I'll manage with black and white only.

Grey is totally neutral, so is good for a model which may have areas that you want vibrant and others that you want more muted, as the paint colour will have more of a say in the final look.

Also, if you want to try zenithal priming, grey is a useful intermediate step between black and white.

I have only ever used grey primer on tanks, because I was painting them in an urban camo scheme anyway...

obviously the brand of primer makes a HUGE difference, but as a general rule I have found black primers to give a smoother coat than either white or grey. on vehicles this doesn't really matter, but on a key mini it makes a huge difference obviously...

All these are black primed:


Black works well with metallics and dark tones. You can overcome the black primer with strategic basecoats - brown if you're going to be doing red, for example. Though, I think it's too much hassle if you're model is going to be mostly bright colors. The high elves I did with a black basecoat were just too time consuming and I could have gotten better/easier results with gray or white primer. My marines are pretty much all silver black and red, so the black primer works well for them.

I only use white primer. From what I've seen on my Mini's it doesn't change the colours.

Here's a question about grey primer since I don't really wanna start a new thread and it fits in this one pretty well. Are there any tips or tricks to seeing what's fully primed using grey spray primer on grey plastic?;p. I'm having trouble seeing if I've hit everything for full coverage and I've had a few hiccups with paint because of it.

Edit:I've always used black primer but recently switched to grey because I'm doing eldar I'd like to be a bit more vibrant but not too bright.

I think with grey primer, you just have to eyeball it. I'd like to add that my experience with Army Painter's Spray Primers has been quite good, so take a look at those. I don't quickshade my models, but I do love those primers. In addition, if you prime black, it's worth painting any human flesh areas white before you apply your skin colors. White leads to a brighter coat, which aids flesh inks/washes a great deal!