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Hi everyone,

I am a beginner at painting, I will start a vostroyan army, all metal models.

I have been watching some tutorials on youtube and a lot of them advise to do a "primer" before starting the paint job. I understand why but I am confused as to which product I can use for that purpose.

Can the Mechanicus standard grey spray be used as a primer on my metal miniature? Or if not what are my options for a good grey primer?

Thanks in advance for the help

Ideally, the mechanicus standard grey shouldn't be used as a primer, but instead used as a way of basecoating over the chaos black/corax white primers!

Afraid I don't have an alternate grey primer to offer you, however!

Duncan does it over a grey plastic cultist in the GSC videos. I think it's fine over plastic but on metal I would worry as paint comes off much easier.

I use a grey primer from an automotive shop (called Halfords) with good results:

Thank you all for your replies!

So the chaos black spray from GW is a primer? I get confused because on GW website it just says that it is designed for "basecoating", basecoating=priming?

I'd prefer to only use GW products for now so I am happy to go with the chaos black spray if that's a good primer for metal miniatures!

no, the Chaos Black is a spray paint, like it says on the can...
it does the job, though...
you just have to be careful not to handle the minis too much while you are painting, so you don't rub the paint off of the edges...

like bubber said, cheap auto primer works fine, and comes in grey...
Chaos Black spray has done the job for decades, but it costs a lot more...

personally, i am not a big fan of painting over grey, because i like to start really dark...
a good grey primer, and a coat of black paint are my go-to approach when i don't have any black primer on hand (i use P3 Black)...
at the end of the day, the brand of undercoat doesn't matter as much as the color...

cheers
jah