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My FLGS has recently been told that Vietnamese customs will no longer allow the import of aerosol paints, leaving the local hobby scene without access to spray on primer. The only available alternative for those of us without an airbrush is the brush on stuff. What's everyone's experience with this? Is it any good? Are there any major pitfalls to consider?

For a while I just used GW Chaos Black brush-on paint as a primer. It worked fairly well.

Any chance you could grab an airbrush? You can spray on primer then without the need of Aerosol cans.

same. if I dont have a rattle can to hand, I will just mix a grey for an undercoat.

I would highly recommend investing in an airbrush, if even just to prime with.

You can get a cheap Master brand airbrush + compressor combo off eBay for the price of a handful of rattle cans, and it opens up a world of possibilities (like never having to basecoat models/tanks by hand again).

Even with aerosol cans available, the weather in Canada (with winter 6 months of the year) makes rattle-cans difficult to use, so I've been using Vallejo Surface Primer with my airbrush to allow me to hobby year round without worrying about the weather.

I have used Vallejo primer in a bottle with a brush for a few months now. The dark gray works pretty well and it sorta flattens itself out as you apply it but you need to be careful not to glob it on too thick. The red/brown color is nice for painting Blood Angels too.

Now to tougher part: I have not had any luck with the lighter colors. The white and bone color don’t go on smooth for me at all and I get tons of tiny bubbles on the surface whether I add water to thin it or not. I primed some treants and there’s lots of little bubble holes here and there so I’m glad I didn’t use this on marines. At least on wood elf treants it looks organic.

I put the yellow on the servohauler terrain crane, I’ll get you a pick tomrrow. It didn’t go on really opaque but Averland sunset appears to go on alright over it. Painting yellow is hard stuff.

I have no idea how durable it is over the long run when you brush it on but if you can get spray varnish you should end up okay. If not you’re either you’ll have to use brush on varnish or get an airbrush like I should have. It really does seem to be all the rage now.