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Hi there,

Any recommendations for alternative chaos black spray cans? I know halfords do black sprays but has anyone actually tried them on their units?

I have had a look around and have found on eBay a spray called 151 spray, has anyone got an experience with different sprays?

Many thanks for any replies.

I'm not sure what Halfords have on offer but from what I remember their paints tend to be for more "rugged" uses (painting cars/bikes/hardware etc) so they might not be the best thing to use for miniatures.
I've used humbrol's spray varnishes before and they were great. You can pick up a can of their black paint in loads of places (here's an amazon link https://www.amazon.co.uk/Humbrol-Number-Acrylic-Spray-Paint/dp/B001JJRDFQ ) it should work just as well as GW sprays.
There are also some hobby shops online that offer alternatives. I'm pretty sure I've bought some vallejo airbrush paint from element games and they offer some spray paints too ( http://goo.gl/VnhUd9 )

Auto-primers are absolutely fine to use on miniatures, plenty of people use Halford's.

Personally I use Hycote's Matt Black (also an auto-primer).I did try Army Painter briefly, but, while I like their paints generally, I prefer the Hycote as a primer and it's cheaper than any primers from wargaming brands. Can't lose.

Thank you both for your replies.

I think I will give the Hycotes primer a try, I'll order some off Amazon as I don't think they have them in our local stores, where do you buy your spray from? I was considering building a necron army, do Hycotes have any other colours? I'm looking for a dark silver colour to go over the black.

Thanks again .

I've been using some stuff from whsmith recently. Not the worst in the world, if you apply is in thin layers.

Price point only makes sense to me because getting to smiths is easier than getting to a GW supplier to buy it.

Yeah, I buy on amazon. Not really a fan of shopping in town.

I presume they do a silver or two, to be honest I haven't looked as all I ever wanted from them was black.

If you're doing Necrons that might be the time to consider Army Painter. They do a range of coloured primers (including a couple of silvers) that are colour matched to some of their bottle paints. This is handy when doing touch ups during the painting process. Say you're painting a gun and you slip and get that coour all over the metallic body, you then have the colour on hand, to go over it with, whereas if you rely on another metallic spray you might not have an exact match to fix any accidents with.

Great advice, appreciate that!

I will use the Hycote for the black base, then may consider using a silver from the Army Painter before going into detailing, so like you said I'll have my paints to match if/when I make mistakes! That's brilliant thank/ again!

PS. Don't suppose you have any alternatives for glue? I purchased the thin glue from GW but it just doesn't work for miniatures.... And the thick glue is what £9? For a small bottle.

No worries.

What do you want, plastic glue or super glue (use ot on resin and metal)?

Plastic I use this, although I have the 12.5g rather than 25g as in the link. The needle applicator is really useful and the glue itself is top notch quality. Revell know what they're doing:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Revell-Contacta-Liquid-Professional-Applicator/dp/B000RMJ2H8/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1471688239&sr=8-3&keywords=revell+plastic+glue

Super glue I use Loctute.

As a general rule, when it comes to auxiliary hobby stuff like tools and glue, you can get anything GW offers elsewhere at equivalent quality or better for less money .

I'm just after glue for the infantry and any tanks I decide to buy. A friend recommended Loctite super glue, but if the glue you are using has a needle applicator for better accuracy then I will try that. I don't use metal models so it will only be plastic glue that I need.

Again, very grateful for the advice you have given .

i use Halford's grey, red oxide & yellow ochre primers & they're great imo. But IIRC their black isn't a primer.


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i also use Revell glue. if (or when) the needle gets blocked, hold a lighter under the tip until it flares. the needle will be hot after so be careful. I also use Humbrol liquid poly cement. For this, I cut off the brush that comes with it & just use an old painting brush for more accurate application. You don't need to clean the brush after either.
Search on Amazon for wax carvers for sculpting tools. & colour shapers for smoothing down the green stuff. You can get these from Heresy Miniatures too.

I just used halford's matt black spray as a primer and to be honest there is no real difference between it and GW's stuff.Maybe a slightly stronger smell but that's about it. A 500ml can cost me £7.99 , which when you consider how much GW charge for 400 is a damn good deal.
The only glue you'll need for plastics is Revell contacta professional.

I like Privateer Press' Formula P3 Black or White primer. It looks like it goes on pretty thick, but it dries like a lot of the automotive primer's I've used before.

Recently, I've been using my airbrush and Vallejo Air Brush Primer Black (or White as the case may be) to great effect. Dries almost instantly, and by the time I've got my airbrush cleaned and ready for a base coat, the airbrush primer is dry and ready for painting. I can pretty much shoot an entire model in one pass, and get complete coverage and not worry about a "base primer coat" because of a hard to reach or missed spray area.

Rattle cans of primer will still be my go-to choice for overly large models (like a Riptide or Knight), or models with large, broad surface areas (tanks), but for everything else, I think I'm going to go the airbrush primer route.

Thank you all for the great advice