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It's quite difficult to see with with the naked eye, but it certainly seems to affect washes and makes it difficult to apply smooth highlights. I took an extreme close up of an infinity figure (it's supposed to be a woman's face) to show what I'm talking about. Is it supposed to be this grainy up close? Or is it something like a humidity problem?

Wow..
My best guess is old primer.
Strip and reprime with a new can.
Or better yet. Use brush on primer.. Or an airbrush.
This looks like the product was off.. Take it back for a refund if newly bought.

That must be salt ... but yeah if you have airbrush use it, or change primer.

Something went wrong there.
I use AP primer and the result is nice and soft.

Had that happen to me many a time with Army Painter primer, despite following the instructions on the can. It appears to be a common thing judging by other posts on forums.

I highly suggest using an alternative, I've never had that happen with anything else.

Wow that looks bad. When you primed this did you clean the model or spray in hot humid weather?

I've used all kinds of primers from army painter to p3 to krylon and more and I've never had a problem with army painter primer. Interesting that it did this...could just be a bad can? Not sure

 chiefbigredman wrote:
Wow that looks bad. When you primed this did you clean the model or spray in hot humid weather?

I've used all kinds of primers from army painter to p3 to krylon and more and I've never had a problem with army painter primer. Interesting that it did this...could just be a bad can? Not sure

Yeah I washed the models in washing up liquid. I don't know about humidity -- I live by the sea, so it's generally humid around here, but I sprayed these indoors. I remember it was quite a mild evening because I had the windows open for ages.

I just tried spraying a little piece of sprue from about 2 inches away as an experiment, and the paint does seem to go on smooth when it hits the surface wet -- but it's impossible to control at that distance. Perhaps it just wasn't humid enough when I sprayed? It seems like the paint must have hit the surface already dry.

Yes, Army Painter is a thicker primer -- the thickest of any of the popular brands of miniature primer.

I love the AP primer, because the colors are great for studio colors of GW models, and they have color matched brush-on acrylic paint. One thin coat is really enough to do the trick; the problem is, you can't usually catch all the areas with one pass.

One problem with spraying it very close is that you are almost guaranteed to blunt the ridges of fine details by filling in valleys.

Another unusual characteristic of AP primer is that it is much, much tougher than most primers (say, P3). Once it's had time to cure, it's extremely chip resistant. Mild cleaners like isopropyl can't get it completely off, even if you leave it sitting in a tub for weeks and scrub with a brush.

Facial features do look less sharp, with AP primer, although I think it's acceptable on most models -- I wouldn't use it on the $20+ solo miniatures though.

The spray came out grainy.

This is caused by old paint / bad batches of paint. Sometimes its a humidity temperature issue.

Sometimes it just happens-- good paints go bad. Army painter is a thicker primer, its necessary for it to be for it to have colors. But it should NOT have a texture like that.

Ive had previously good cans of primer do the same sort of thing, you just have to get another one. Which sucks, because AP primer is expensive!