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Hi,

Im about to airbrush some minuatures with zenithal priming (Vallejo Model Air Mettalic), is there any point in first adding a primer layer? I know that primer is used to stick the paint better to the metarial and that is a most on cars and so on, but in this case, is it really necassary?

Yes, it's absolutely necessary. Pick up some vallejo primer or badger primer and go to town.

Without primer, my tries have either been too thick or patchy.
Primer usually covers more evenly than normal paint (often the same thing?) and lets you use thinner layers. Arbrushes want thin layers.

If you have an airbrush, see if you can get either Badger Stynylrez or Vallejo Surface Primer.

Then use it to do two, maybe three light passes. You don't need to build up a solid color like most people do with rattlecans, just get enough texture on there for the paint to adhere.

If you want your paint to stick then yeah.

100% yes.

Conventional wisdom says yes...

Conventional wisdom is however not always correct...

I'll leave it at that so as not to ger crucified, lol

Try it and see what happens

Most people believe that without primer, paint won't stick to any model. This was true back when all the models were made of lead and non of us had heard of airbrushes. But nowadays, it's not necessarily true. Airbrushing paints to some plastics works fine without a primer. It preserves a bit more detail, and saves time.


So while most people will tell you to never, ever, paint without priming first... it might be worth experimenting. If nothing else, it's good to know when steps are necessary and when they're just being performed as part of the mini-painting ritual. (See also: thinning your paints).

 WaveyRaven wrote:
Most people believe that without primer, paint won't stick to any model. This was true back when all the models were made of lead and non of us had heard of airbrushes. But nowadays, it's not necessarily true. Airbrushing paints to some plastics works fine without a primer. It preserves a bit more detail, and saves time.


So while most people will tell you to never, ever, paint without priming first... it might be worth experimenting. If nothing else, it's good to know when steps are necessary and when they're just being performed as part of the mini-painting ritual. (See also: thinning your paints).

Priming is not a "ritual".

You can surely apply paint onto models without a primer. You can use a non-primer spray paint, airbrush, etc. The point of primer is to create a surface subsequent layers of paints can tack onto - some spraypaints just don't provide that surface primers do.

GW rattlecans are perfect example of non-primer spray that functions as a primer.

I've actually used krylon workable fixative as a primer and it worked wonderfully.

It's not uncommon to see scale modelers (as opposed to miniature modelers - folks doing tanks, ships, etc. purely for display with little to no expectation of handling them after completion, as one would a wargaming model) forgo primer and move straight to airbrush paints - Tamiya acrylics and the like, most often. Many of them use primers/surfacers more to even out the texture between bare plastic and sanded/filled areas, but don't particularly care about having a hard-wearing, strongly bonded substrate to paint on - if paint will stick, that's good enough. For wargaming minis that will see repeated storage, transport, and handling, the prime>paint>seal method is pretty much considered dogma. Not always strictly necessary, but invariably recommended... strongly.

Any number of products will do the job that people think needs doing when they talk about "primers." You don't need a catalyzed or self-etching primer, like you might for automotive/industrial work. A lot of people tout (or at least used to) aerosol automotive filler primers for minis, which I've never understood - large particulates and high build is the opposite of what you want for finely detailed models and the sandable feature is pointless (any paint can be sanded - as if anyone ever bothered - and the finish tends to be thick and somewhat grainy, by design). Plain old matte (not gloss) enamel spraypaint (I've used rattlecans from the Walmart house brand plenty of times) works just fine, in most cases. Air-/brush-on water-based primers like Vallejo or Badger's are available, among other brands. There are also plenty of lacquer options for spraying from the big scale model brands. Those tend to go on thinner and end up more resilient, but require dedicated thinners and are more hazardous to use, what with the caustic vapors.


TLDR: Necessary? Not by definition. Recommended? Highly and widely. You needn't go crazy, though, unless you're doing something very specific, e.g. prepping for high-sheen metallics, like an Alclad chrome lacquer.

 oadie wrote:
A lot of people tout (or at least used to) aerosol automotive filler primers for minis, which I've never understood - large particulates and high build is the opposite of what you want for finely detailed models and the sandable feature is pointless (any paint can be sanded - as if anyone ever bothered - and the finish tends to be thick and somewhat grainy, by design).

I use Duplicolor Sandable Primer after Ali McVey (of Studio McVey) gave it rave reviews on the old Privateer Press forums. This seems to be a different product than the Duplicolor Filler Primer as I never experienced a loss of detail in all of my years using the sandable primer.

Paints airbrush better on to a primed surface than an unprimed surface. They'll tend to slide more on bare plastic.

I recommend a good rattle can primer. You can prime through an airbrush but most of them seem crap compared to rattle can primers. It's just a case of chemicals, rattle cans can have some hideously violent chemicals in them that bite hard in to the plastic (like acetone or lacquers) that you wouldn't want to airbrush unless you have a very good painting booth that rapidly removes all vapours from the air before you have a chance to breath them in (i.e. not one of those cheap chinese ones).

I use automotive/hardware primers. Never had any issues. You only need a single light layer. You're only going to have issues if you over spray, which is the same wihh any spray paint. In my opinion primers are a good idea. I have accidentally painted an unprimed model before and had no issues, but it's good practice and takes seconds. Gives your paint something to grip onto.

How do you 'accidentally' paint an unprimed miniature? If it's because your usual primer is the color of the unprimed miniature then I want to know what brand primer you're using as I've been looking for one that's roughly the color of GW's plastic (i.e., Mechanicus Standard Grey).

That's what happened! Although it was a forge world resin miniature, not gw plastic. But I use rustoleum I think? Any grey primer you find in the hardware shop, usually matches the plastic pretty well. Allows you to get nice pre shades and highlights with black and white too.

I've never used anything other than generic / automotive primers. Never had any isues, never. I just use two, a lighter grey and a dark grey, that's it.
I find them great quality for a third of the price of GW sprays.

I mostly paint Infinity minis which have the tiniest details possible, no issues whatsoever.

Yep, Rustoleum is now my go-to and it's $4 at Walmart. Just bought some more bright aluminum primer today after I ran out spraying a bunch of black orcs and Stormcasts.

 queen_annes_revenge wrote:
That's what happened! Although it was a forge world resin miniature, not gw plastic. But I use rustoleum I think? Any grey primer you find in the hardware shop, usually matches the plastic pretty well. Allows you to get nice pre shades and highlights with black and white too.

The Rustoleum Touch N Tone Grey Primer is too light while the grey version of the Duplicolor Sandable Primer that I usually use is too dark.

You may be being more picky than me when deciding how close the tones need to be haha.