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So it might seem like a silly question, but I have always just assembled my models with the base and everything prior to painting, and just brushed on an undercoat with paint rather than use a spray or anything, because I really like the look of the black plastic left bare on the sides of tne base. What's the difference between using primer and brushing on with paint? Is it stronger? Is the paint that goes over top less likely to come off? If so, do you get as good results brushing on something lke Vallejo Surface Primer?

Primers are designed to stick to the plastic and be a bridge between the paint and the plastic, ensuring a longer lasting, harder wearing paint job. That said, just get some brush on primer. I hate spray cans because I live in an extremely humid area. Brush on primer works great as you can make sure you're not obscuring details by thinning it to your liking.

"Primer" is a very broad term that can mean a lot of things.

Ideally a primer should be more suited to being your first coat of paint, sticking to the model better being tougher and allowing subsequent layers of paint to stick better.

BUT, just because it's labelled a primer doesn't mean it will achieve that task better than a paint that isn't labelled a primer. You have to evaluate it on a case by case basis.

Personally I didn't like Vallejo's PU primer because I don't find it tough enough for my liking. It takes ages to cure to full strength and even at full strength it's weaker than other options.

I usually find sprays tend to give me the best results and when I'm not trying to save money, I tend to just use spray cans for priming. Using a bottled primer and brushing or airbrushing it on is a lot cheaper though.

It's not the cheapest option, but if I want something black and don't care about burning a bit of money, I find Tamiya Surface Primer (which is grey) followed by a coat of Tamiya Flat Black (lacquer spray) gives a really tough finish that isn't easily scratched. But the Tamiya cans are relatively small and expensive, so definitely not the cheapest option in the world.

I actually *don't* like hairy brush painting over Tamiya Surface Primer though, I find the surface is too slick. It's a great primer if the paint you intend to apply over it can bite in to it (like alcohol based acrylics or lacquers) but I don't like it if I'm going to be painting regular acrylics over it. A few times I've sprayed Tamiya Surface Primer and then followed it by spraying a coloured spray in the base colour I want and have gotten results I've been pretty happy with and they end up quite tough as well.

I have an airbrush, so my choice if I'm not going to be spray-canning it is Gunze's surface primer thinned with Gunze's self levelling lacquer thinner. Tougher than Vallejo's offering, dries very fast and lays down smoothly. But not everyone likes spraying lacquers. I haven't found a regular acrylic primer I like though.

Munga wrote:
Primers are designed to stick to the plastic and be a bridge between the paint and the plastic, ensuring a longer lasting, harder wearing paint job. That said, just get some brush on primer. I hate spray cans because I live in an extremely humid area. Brush on primer works great as you can make sure you're not obscuring details by thinning it to your liking.

The advantage of sprays is they usually have harsher solvents which mean they can really bite in to the plastic. I say "usually" because there are some brush on options that are very strong solvents, Gunze's metal primer is brush on and designed to etch metals, it's a strong solvent that will also bite in to plastic (to the point where you don't want to leave a puddle of it because it might damage the model, but it ends up being a very tough base, unfortunately it's clear and a lacquer which makes application tricky).

AllSeeingSkink wrote:
"Primer" is a very broad term that can mean a lot of things.

Ideally a primer should be more suited to being your first coat of paint, sticking to the model better being tougher and allowing subsequent layers of paint to stick better.

BUT, just because it's labelled a primer doesn't mean it will achieve that task better than a paint that isn't labelled a primer. You have to evaluate it on a case by case basis.

Personally I didn't like Vallejo's PU primer because I don't find it tough enough for my liking. It takes ages to cure to full strength and even at full strength it's weaker than other options.

I usually find sprays tend to give me the best results and when I'm not trying to save money, I tend to just use spray cans for priming. Using a bottled primer and brushing or airbrushing it on is a lot cheaper though.

It's not the cheapest option, but if I want something black and don't care about burning a bit of money, I find Tamiya Surface Primer (which is grey) followed by a coat of Tamiya Flat Black (lacquer spray) gives a really tough finish that isn't easily scratched. But the Tamiya cans are relatively small and expensive, so definitely not the cheapest option in the world.

I actually *don't* like hairy brush painting over Tamiya Surface Primer though, I find the surface is too slick. It's a great primer if the paint you intend to apply over it can bite in to it (like alcohol based acrylics or lacquers) but I don't like it if I'm going to be painting regular acrylics over it. A few times I've sprayed Tamiya Surface Primer and then followed it by spraying a coloured spray in the base colour I want and have gotten results I've been pretty happy with and they end up quite tough as well.

I have an airbrush, so my choice if I'm not going to be spray-canning it is Gunze's surface primer thinned with Gunze's self levelling lacquer thinner. Tougher than Vallejo's offering, dries very fast and lays down smoothly. But not everyone likes spraying lacquers. I haven't found a regular acrylic primer I like though.

Munga wrote:
Primers are designed to stick to the plastic and be a bridge between the paint and the plastic, ensuring a longer lasting, harder wearing paint job. That said, just get some brush on primer. I hate spray cans because I live in an extremely humid area. Brush on primer works great as you can make sure you're not obscuring details by thinning it to your liking.

The advantage of sprays is they usually have harsher solvents which mean they can really bite in to the plastic. I say "usually" because there are some brush on options that are very strong solvents, Gunze's metal primer is brush on and designed to etch metals, it's a strong solvent that will also bite in to plastic (to the point where you don't want to leave a puddle of it because it might damage the model, but it ends up being a very tough base, unfortunately it's clear and a lacquer which makes application tricky).

Ok cool. That's gret info, thanks. How long does the Vallejo take to dry? What's the best brush-on primer for brushing on your base coat afterwards?