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A few years ago when the Contrast paints were released many of us balked at the idea of paying $15-18 for a can of Wraithbone or Grey Seer primer because they had been "specially formulated" to work best with Contrast paints. Since it's been a few years now, can anyone attest as to whether or not this is true? If not, have you found any cheaper spray primers that work as well as the aforementioned Wraithbone or Grey Seer primers? I've been airbrushing Stylin Rez white for a while now and I'm not too fond of it as a primer. I've tried Vallejo Surface Primer too, and again am not entirely sold on it. So I'd like to find a cheap alternative that can be purchased here in the US.

[edit - D'oh, just noticed the US tag. the below may be useful for UK base peeps]

I use Hycote sprays as primer, and the white one works just fine I think.

Below is a water elemental I used blue contrast over Hycote white.



And here are some dinos using various contrast paints over Hycote white. Some additional highlights added by me, and the ridging is due to the print lines, rather than dodgy pooling from the primer.

Das_Ubermike wrote:
A few years ago when the Contrast paints were released many of us balked at the idea of paying $15-18 for a can of Wraithbone or Grey Seer primer because they had been "specially formulated" to work best with Contrast paints. Since it's been a few years now, can anyone attest as to whether or not this is true? If not, have you found any cheaper spray primers that work as well as the aforementioned Wraithbone or Grey Seer primers? I've been airbrushing Stylin Rez white for a while now and I'm not too fond of it as a primer. I've tried Vallejo Surface Primer too, and again am not entirely sold on it. So I'd like to find a cheap alternative that can be purchased here in the US.

I've found stynylrez to be an excellent self-levelling airbrush primer generally personally. Admittedly, I mostly prime in black then grey, then airbrush white ink to do a nice smooth zenithal highlight which works well to enhance Contrast. Definitely better quality than vallejo.

The main downside of stynlyrez (and polyurethane airbrush primer generally) is they're not etching primers. This means they don't have the additional solvents which allow the primer to mechanically bond better to the plastic, so will not have as good a grip as much more toxic options, such as rattle can primers. And they don't have an equivalent of wraithbone.

For citadel can equivalents, there's the cheaper-and-better-than-GW colour forge, but is a UK company so don't know how accessible it is overseas. Alclad II primer has an excellent reputation, and is an airbrush primer. It is lacquer based, so an organic-vapour respirator is a must if spraying indoors, and you'll need something like cellulose thinners or their dedicated cleaner to clean your airbrush afterwards. I've also heard good things about mr surfacer 1000 or 1200 spray primer in rattle can form though it's definitely not cheap, and is another lacquer based primer.