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Ok this may seem like a silly question however I have been unable to find any information online in the matter.

So GW have quite a few kits that are coloured plastic such as green plastic blood bowl orks. Do you need to use primer with these minatures? As I don't see the point to this coloured plastic if you need to prime over them anyway. Seems pretty pointless in having coloured then you just spray black or white over the top. Why don't they just use grey plastic?

I wish to paint some of the coloured plastic kits but would like to get advice first.

Thank you all in advance

dualrevolver89 wrote:
Ok this may seem like a silly question however I have been unable to find any information online in the matter.

So GW have quite a few kits that are coloured plastic such as green plastic blood bowl orks. Do you need to use primer with these minatures? As I don't see the point to this coloured plastic if you need to prime over them anyway. Seems pretty pointless in having coloured then you just spray black or white over the top. Why don't they just use grey plastic?

I wish to paint some of the coloured plastic kits but would like to get advice first.

Thank you all in advance

Well not all paint their models so for that in BB case gives easy to distinquish by colour teams for starters.

For second guess that makes it easy for very beginners to paint when basic colour is done. Not everybody prime models after all.

Return question: Why not use coloured plastic? Is it radically more expensive for them and you are worried they transfer that price to us?

You do need to prime it if you want the paint to stay on when you play with models.

The idea behind colouring plastic is so that 'out of the box' you can differentiate teams.

dualrevolver89 wrote:
Ok this may seem like a silly question however I have been unable to find any information online in the matter.

So GW have quite a few kits that are coloured plastic such as green plastic blood bowl orks. Do you need to use primer with these minatures? As I don't see the point to this coloured plastic if you need to prime over them anyway. Seems pretty pointless in having coloured then you just spray black or white over the top. Why don't they just use grey plastic?

I wish to paint some of the coloured plastic kits but would like to get advice first.

Thank you all in advance

To answer your main question, you need to spray them.
As for why the colored plastic, its to make it easier for beginners and with stand alone games.

Not got a problem with them using coloured plastic, price point never entered my mind. I just couldn't understand why they would use it over grey plastic and am I ok to spray over it as normal or would you lose detail?

For example the new primaris models they are releasing have been stated as quick fit and coloured plastic. Using it in blood bowl makes sense for teams I suppose though not in the primaris case.

My main question was mainly do I need to take any extra steps in using it. Everyone says to prime to get the paint to stick better but with coloured plastic if you don't prime will it adhere well etc?


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Thank you for all your replies!

You must prime all models, regardless of material. Use that as a rule of thumb and you won't be steered wrong.

Prime as any other model, nothing to worry about.

The cvoloured plastic is just that - coloured. The dye doesn't affect any of the other properties, so it behaves uner paint exactly like the "ordinary"* grey plastic. If you prime that, prime the red, blue, green stuff too.

* actually, the "raw" plastic feedstock is white; a dye is added to make it grey. I'm told there's a specific shade of grey that all GW's sprues should be, but the different colours of spare heads in my bits box suggests they don't always adhere to that rule.

Thank you for the information. Least now I know, I'll prime over the top then.

 AndrewGPaul wrote:
The cvoloured plastic is just that - coloured. The dye doesn't affect any of the other properties, so it behaves uner paint exactly like the "ordinary"* grey plastic. If you prime that, prime the red, blue, green stuff too.

* actually, the "raw" plastic feedstock is white; a dye is added to make it grey. I'm told there's a specific shade of grey that all GW's sprues should be, but the different colours of spare heads in my bits box suggests they don't always adhere to that rule.

Yup, the original RTB001 space marines in plastic were available in: Dark Green, Dark Blue, grey and beige at various times of the production run. Given they didn't own the machines nor the factory, the assumption is that they went with whatever plastic colour was set up to go in the machines (it's faster to swap out the dies and run with the existing feed setup, than swap out the dies AND clean it out and run a different colour plastic feed).

Their fantasy plastic regiments back in 1987 were white styrene. The dwarfs and dark elves at least.

Even moving into the 1997+ days with the 3rd ed modular plastic space marines - they came in different shades of grey over time, also.

None of which had much of an effect on how you painted them.