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The following is my own personal experience, so take it or leave it...

We are painting small plastic figures, not your car or something that needs to weather the environment, so the 'bonding' of the primer with the mini is not really a critical process - the bonding of the top coat with the bottom coat is, though.

I might argue the constant handling of your minis does constitute a severe environment - maybe it does, but here is what I do and have done for many years with absolutely nothing but stellar results.

1. I use an airbrush to paint the first layer (prime if you will) using flat enamel, usually Tamiya or Testors. Enamel being thinner based and not water based atomizes better for a coat less likely to obscure details. Also the enamel forms a much more sturdy base, less likely to chip (great for those metal models) and the flat provides an excellent 'tooth' for subsequent acrylic layers.
2. The first coat is done in the primary color of the mini. This is easily done with the myriad of colors available and why paint your mini a color only to cover up 100% of it again. Save a ton of painting time by already having your primary color on the mini - heck, I have even done silver with perfect results. And by using a cheap airbrush to spray quickly I can cover big areas and custom mix the color to whatever is needed.

Enamels via spirits clean up much easier than water acrylics in your airbrush; however, that is a whole other topic, so I won't go into any more details. If you do not have an airbrush you can still buy flat enamels from the discount store or model paints from the hobby store in a can in a large variety of colors.

Again, these are my personal preferences and I feel I am a well-above average painter and between me and my three sons' armies I have probably done over 1,800+ minis over the past 20 years and never a chip or crack (unless dropped/abused) and with having the primary color of the mini already done in the first coat, probably has saved me nearly 1,000 hours of work.

Ahh, yeah. I've seen that before. Could be a couple of different reasons why you have that "powder" look. It comes down to environment, how well the paint is mixed and the distance from the mini as you apply the paint. I've had it happen with Krylon as well.

If you can stand the price barrier to entry, I would suggest moving to an airbrush, you don't have such problems and it is cheaper over time.

yeah but unless you have a dedicated airbrush station in your domicle, its such a pain in the arse to do, especially just for priming. id much rather grab a spray can, go outside with a cardboard box. the model will be primed in less than 2 minutes. more more efficient than setting up my airbrush, preparing the paint, preparing the booth, spraying, disassembling then cleaning the airbrush. nah.

I could never get away with running an airbrush in this apartment. I'd have six noise complaints within an hour.

 Excommunicatus wrote:
It's just not the case for me, I'm afraid. I've used Army Painter and Rustoleum and I much prefer Rustoleum.

I can never, ever, ever get a smooth coat with Army Painter, except for their Pure Red. That one was alright.

Everything else comes out like this, and nothing I do seemingly matters.

You could argue that I just suck at using spray-cans, but that has never happened to me with a Rustoleum spray.

The only real advantage of not using Rustoleum, in my experience, is that it takes about twelve hours to dry properly. Until it does, it will be tacky.

That powder can happen for a number of reasons.

1) it's too hot and the particulate is drying in the air.

2) your too far away and the particulate is drying in the air.

3) Your not shaking it enough.

4) others.

 Excommunicatus wrote:
I could never get away with running an airbrush in this apartment. I'd have six noise complaints within an hour.

Don't run an airbrush off a pancake compressor, then. My cheapo Harbor Freight special sounds like a refrigerator compressor.

Oh? I've little experience and presumed they all sounded like a 2K put-put Genny.

 Excommunicatus wrote:
Oh? I've little experience and presumed they all sounded like a 2K put-put Genny.

Yeah, you're not the first person I've heard say that- I'm not sure where the misconception comes from, maybe audio distortion in Youtube videos. The loudest airbrush compressors are around 60dB (normal conversation volume), and I know Paasche makes one around 45dB (light rainfall volume). I use my crappy (relatively loud) compressor while my wife is taking a nap on the other side of the wall and it's not an issue.

I do hook my airbrush up to the pancake compressor from time to time, and that thing is on the level of a loud vacuum cleaner, like a shop vac- but it fills its reservoir to 150PSI in a couple of minutes, then I can shut it off and airbrush in silence for several hours. Lots of choices.

All that said, ventilation is the greater concern. If you can't airbrush outdoors, you need a spray booth with particulate filter, and preferably with a powered extraction fan. This can be DIY'd out of a cardboard box and computer fans, or commercial solutions exist. And either way you need proper PPE (respirator w/ particulate filter) since some amount of acrylic particles are bound to become airborne.

OK primer "101" as best I know it:

I do not endorse or condone using a "paint" as a primer: all your hard work may end in tears if it peels off due to abrasion, impact or temperature change.

I have given as much detail as anyone can stand for the below topics. It has been spoiler-ed to save you all from the wall of text.

"Primer"Good practice for any conditions:Weather:Safety

Yah as others have said, definitely invest in some sort of respirator whatever priming you do.

I ssed gray seer contrast undercoat/primer/basecoat spray today today. It applies much smoother, seamless than the automotive stuff. It carries a hefty pricetag though..

In terms of mechanics of spraying, I used tables, cardboard boxes pavement etc and everything in between. However, Today I think I hit the jackpot. I found sticking pennies on the bottom of bases (UK poennies..) and using a decent magnet to stick models on used upspray can or some sort of long metal implement makes a great priming handle. To me by far the quickest and most efficient. Also you get nicely weighted minis in the process and can use for magnetic storage/carrying. Cant believe I only thought of this today lol.

The DIY one I made is much superior to the one GW sells which you cant get an underneath spray easily which is annoying.(Yeah I bought it because thought it might be useful to spray in tight conditions... and also wanted to see if its any good.. Mistakes were made!) DIY all the way.

Having said that, airbrush is probably the best if you can have a dedicated space for it. You can get nice precision zenithal highlighting and gradients.