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Hey fellow Painters and Modelers (modellars? Modellers?), hope you are all having a good day.

Let's discuss primers. We all have our favorite, GW, Army Painter, Krylon, Rustoleum, etc but which is the most effective to use with models, be they resin, plastic, or pewter?

Personally I used GW when it was cheap but stopped when that cost kept going up so now I'm looking for an alternative. Rather than asking "Hey guys which is the best primer for me?!" I'd figure a better way would be to rank it based off of usage.


Thanks fellas.

I get good results on metal and plastic with this:

My Sisters of Battle army and Tau are both holding up well and I have used it on them. I like it more than GW stuff, but it might be because I am used to it. Does not hurt it is under $4 a can at Walmart or most hard ware stores.

http://www.duplicolor.com/product/sandable-primer. The king of primers. You can't go wrong with this stuff. Google it for mini painting and you'll see.

bbarrington2001 wrote:
http://www.duplicolor.com/product/sandable-primer. The king of primers. You can't go wrong with this stuff. Google it for mini painting and you'll see.

Agreed. I've used Duplicolor since Aly McVey (of Studio McVey) recommended it on the Privateer Press forums when she was painting for them. I've never had a problem with it on metal, plastic or resin.

Which kind of duplicolor do you guys use as there seems to be a ton.
Pretty sure i can get it here so is worth looking into.

As the link says 'sandable primer' (eight up from the bottom in the right column).

Thanks.

brush on, reaper or vallejo

 Guildenstern wrote:
brush on, reaper or vallejo

I like brush on too, I use it when I have only one mini to paint and don't want to waste spray paint or if the humidity is really high (Missouri)

I may have to try that duplo color next time I buy primer.

Wal-mart here has stopped carrying Krylon Primers (or anything by Krylon, evar) so I was looking into Rustoleum. I got some questions for people who've used it: Does it eat into the plastic and how badly if so? (I assume it has micropigmentation or whatever it's called)

Also how well does it take to metal and if I want to strip it off of plastic, how hard is it?

I have no idea what exactly we are comparing here.
Vallejo primers (both on brush and primer) are complete crap. It did not work for me and judging by some video reviews it is not working for a lot of other people in this forum - they both can be chipped of with easy and anything that can be stripped so easy is not a primer at all.
GW, judging by numerous commend is just typical undercoat paint on spray, so you can substitute this with any other car spray out there - it worked just fine for me.

So to be honest I dont prime at all. I just have one gray and one black car sprays from the local hard store and that's is.

The only brush on primers I've liked have been lacquer based ones, which is a bit annoying because I don't like inhaling lacquer fumes, but Vallejo's PU primers I didn't like at all.

I need to try some automotive primers and whatnot because I usually just default to using hobby primers, which are a bit on the expensive side. It seems like a lot of automotive primers aren't much cheaper than hobby primers out here in Australia. The auto primers I do own for car related stuff lay down way too thick for me to want to use them on miniatures, but there's probably others which are better.

GW spray isn't a primer. It's just expensive spray paint.
I use Hycote, and I very rarely manage to chip it. The cover is smooth and not dusty or textured.
Otherwise I use Vallejo airbrush primer. It takes an age to dry, but it also adheres well.

Having had figures arrive in the mail with great sheets of paint pulled off the bare metal, priming heavy figures with something is a must for stuff that's gonna be handled or transported.

GW spray isn't a primer in the sense they don't call it a primer, but I used Skull White spray as a primer for years and it's tough, it sticks to the model and paint in turn sticks well to it... so it is a primer in all but name as far as I'm concerned. I use Tamiya primer a bit these days and in many ways Skull White formed a better "primer" for water based acrylics, while Tamiya primer forms a better base for lacquers and alcohol based acrylics.

I haven't tried the newer GW sprays to compare though, the last one I bought was still labelled "Skull White".

I have started using Gunze's Metal Primer for metal figs, it seems to be pretty tough. Not tough enough to stop getting scratches when I accidentally dropped a metal model from ~1.5 metres on to a piece of tempered glass that was sitting on the floor But just from finger nail scratch tests it seems quite tough.

It's a strong solvent which actually aims to etch the metal rather than just sticking to the surface.

That said, I haven't tried comparing it to regular hardware store etch primers, they might be just as good.

Gunzee Stuff is amazing. Their mr. hobby paint cannot be chipped even if the undercoat is the not so good Vallejo primer. One drawback is that they are designed for airbrush and are absolutely hard to be worked with brush - also even if you thin them good with water or special thinner you can kiss hairbrush goodbay after a dosen of minis.

@Skink, I could prime with many things, it doesn't make them primers. My point is merely that it's a plain spray. As it doesn't have any particularly special property other than colour matching, it's very expensive.
I can get three to four cans of good quality primer for one can of GW colour. I could get probably more cans of plain white spray.
In an age where you can actually walk down the street and buy cans of acrylic, it's a little baffling.

I have to say their previous generation of black is a pain in the ass to strip on old (pre 2000) minis. Just turns to tar, I don't know what the difference is.

I like the Vallejo polyurethane primers, but they take a few days to completely cure (they're very very weak just after applying, but very durable after a few days). Also, I find that if I dilute them with water, they don't dry as strong (vallejo's website recommend not to dilute them at all).

But I only use airbrush primers because it can be done indoors. If my weather was more spray-can friendly, I would definitely use spray primers a lot more, because it's way quicker (much larger spray, and less cleaning).

 Buttery Commissar wrote:
@Skink, I could prime with many things, it doesn't make them primers. My point is merely that it's a plain spray. As it doesn't have any particularly special property other than colour matching, it's very expensive.
I can get three to four cans of good quality primer for one can of GW colour. I could get probably more cans of plain white spray.
In an age where you can actually walk down the street and buy cans of acrylic, it's a little baffling.

I have to say their previous generation of black is a pain in the ass to strip on old (pre 2000) minis. Just turns to tar, I don't know what the difference is.

Yeah I just like to point out that whether something is called a primer or not is not necessarily the important factor. I'm sure many things labelled primers don't have any magic juice in them.

Not all sprays are created equal, some are more delicate than others, some stick to plastic better, some provide a better surface for paint sticking to it. GW Skull White ticked all the boxes for me so whether or not it was called a primer doesn't really matter.

I think people in general (not specifically saying you) make too big of a deal as to whether something is called a primer or not. There are times when the "primer" label is important, for example etch primers for metal, putty primers for smoothing out rough surfaces, latex primers for filling porous surfaces, etc. But when it comes to plastic model, the primer moniker really isn't all that important.

Tamiya primer for example I think is great, but to me it's clear it's specifically a primer for military models and model cars rather than miniatures and also it's specifically designed to be a base for their own sprays and paints which utilise stronger solvents than your average miniature paint; because it self levels like a dream, but at the expense that regular acrylic paint doesn't actually stick well to it. The self levelling is #1 important when painting a model car because any graininess or waviness in the primer will look like crap under a gloss finish.

I'm not too fussed with plastics, but for metals it's gotta be explicitly stated.
It's my learned response... In the UK you can still get a lot of old minis that contain the metals that degrade. I am not about to lick them and see what the contents are, so I always prime with a complete sealant primer.
I've had one or two cases where the metals on my stored, unpainted minis were becoming severely affected by something like lead rot. In other cases, oxidisation. I can flip one of my dragons some time and show the weird cavity I had to clean out.

For plastics the only worry is paint adhesion. For damp countries where we have minis made from mixed metals, a seal is something you drill into yourself mentally.

Well that's a very specific case. Primers in general are often porous in order to get subsequent layers to stick well. You want to see a car rust before your eyes, spray it in a primer and leave it in the weather

For metals I have been using etch primer followed by a spray can of Tamiya primer followed by a spray can of lacquer in the colour I want. I have no idea if they continue to degrade after that. I can't say I've ever noticed a model with a corroded surface after I've painted it, but then I don't strip my own models either.

I guess it's important to specify what we're talking about, these days I rarely buy a model that is metal so when I think of primer I'm thinking of getting paint to stick to plastic the best it possibly can, and unless you like ebaying OOP stuff I'd suggest most people would care more about plastic or resin.

Surprised nobody has mentioned Testor's? It takes a bit to dry but lasts forever.

I use Vallejo model air spray primer - works great with an airbrush for a nice, even coat that doesn't take up a ton of time or expense. The large bottles last for quite some time

These days I use Vallejo through an airbrush. I haven't had any problem with it, but then I apply it in 2 to 3 thin layers, and allow it plenty of time to dry.

 nintura wrote:
Surprised nobody has mentioned Testor's? It takes a bit to dry but lasts forever.

Which one? I think Testors make an enamel primer (that comes in sprays and bottles), an acrylic primer (only comes in bottles) and lacquer (I think only comes in sprays).

I have some of Humbrol's brush on enamel primer, I haven't tested it yet, it's on my to do list. I don't really want to test it on my aircraft that I'm currently working on because I am thinking that the primer might stick to the model well but acrylic paint might not stick well to it, which for an aircraft is equally if not more annoying than the primer itself not sticking.

In the UK, go to Halfords and get some of their basic black, white and grey acrylic primers (they do plastic specific ones also). they go on far better coverage wise than the GW rattle-cans....

K.

fresus wrote:
I like the Vallejo polyurethane primers, but they take a few days to completely cure (they're very very weak just after applying, but very durable after a few days). Also, I find that if I dilute them with water, they don't dry as strong (vallejo's website recommend not to dilute them at all).

But I only use airbrush primers because it can be done indoors. If my weather was more spray-can friendly, I would definitely use spray primers a lot more, because it's way quicker (much larger spray, and less cleaning).

I have used both, though I reserve the polyurethane for character models. Otherwise http://www.duplicolor.com/product/sandable-primer. It has been the most forgiving primer, especially for the high heat/humidity of Houston. It also doesn't hurt that it is relatively inexpensive at about $6 / can. It also dries fast, and I have painted on models in about 15 minutes, though I typically let them sit 24 hours.

I also use brush on gesso for spot touch ups if I missing something with the can.

I typically go Krylon, or Rustoleum if my kry isn't available for some odd reason.

I keep 1 of each color in stock: Black, White, Grey, and Rust.

Gotta keep up those good undertones!

+1 for Army Painter...though I find their white primer to be inconsistent on occasion.

Their colour primers are actually better than their black/white primers. The colour primers are simply superb. I use them to cheat with almost all of my Eldar projects.