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I would like to post up a poll about the primers people have the best luck with.

So far, I have

GW Primers
Army Painter
Tamiya Fine Surface Primer
Rust-Oleum’s Painter’s Touch Ultra Cover 2x
P3 Primer
Duplicolor Sandable primer

If you have any more, post em and I will put up a poll if anyone is interested.



.

http://www.autozone.com/autozone/accessories/Rust-Oleum-Gray-primer/_/N-259g?itemIdentifier=550103_0_0_

My current favorite. Doesn't cover details, and a very light grey which is nice for lighter colors.

I have a question. I use Krylon and after a good coat, i let it dry for a day but i can still scratch the primer off.
i clean the model with soap and hot water and let dry then prime, and i do light sprays

Not tried the new GW coloured primers, but use the black and white ones quite a bit as they are a decent quality and dependable. Used to use the army painter system a lot, but found they sometimes clogged,, lost pressure when still pigment left, and coverage could vary depending on colour.

Ambek wrote:
I have a question. I use Krylon and after a good coat, i let it dry for a day but i can still scratch the primer off.
i clean the model with soap and hot water and let dry then prime, and i do light sprays

This is normal. Only specialized primers bond with their surfaces, and for what we do in miniature paiting, it's unnecessary and unwanted. A primer coat just gives the paint something to grab onto.

I use Krylon brand and it's both high-quality and low-priced. Primer snobs make me chuckle. You don't need a $15-20 hobby brand primer to paint your models, folks.

I have had pretty good results with the Tamiya Fine Surface.

P3 and Duplicolor (I think these are the same thing) spread out too much for it to work well for me. However, may be great for others.

Haven't tried GW high priced primers or Army Painters Primers.

I haven't heard great things about AP Primers though.

I use Vallejo polyurethane primers through an airbrush for all but large batches of stuff, but no option...

 azreal13 wrote:
I use Vallejo polyurethane primers through an airbrush for all but large batches of stuff, but no option...

Ditto.

I don't buy primer. Never seen a need for it. My older models are undercoated with Citadel Chaos Black straight out of the pot. Newer stuff is mostly done with a White Knight Flat Black spray.

 azreal13 wrote:
I use Vallejo polyurethane primers through an airbrush for all but large batches of stuff, but no option...

Trying to compare the different spray can options available.

What do you use for your large batches of stuff?

Vallejo!

Not that I really do batches large enough to not use the airbrush often, if I do more than 10 or 20 models every few weeks I've probably accidentally taken crystal meth or something!

I use both Krylon and cheap stuff from Home Depot called Quik Color.

These days I use Vallejo's range of airbrush primers. They work perfectly out of the bottle with no need for thinning. Brushing them on works fine too, and the quantity you get for the price is excellent when you consider how much less wastage there is compared with aerosol cans.

walmart flat black. 2 bucks a can.

Interestingly I have had the most luck with Hycote matte primer, its just a cheap acrylic auto primer. I tried army painter and GW but found them to be too sensitive to cold and prone to be granular.

UK only solution, but I've had good results from Halfords;

Grey Primer, White Primer, Matt Black Paint, Khaki Camo Paint (theres also ultra matt black, dark green and brown in camo colours - the 4 make up your average British army camouflage).

edit; Whatever brand of can being used, I find its good practise to heat up the can before use; Run it under the hot tap for a few minutes, shaking a little as you do. Once shaking it doesn't dissipate the heat straight away, go dry the can off and spray the job.
Doing this lowers the gap between the temperature of what comes out of the can and the environment its being sprayed in (the de pressurizing makes it go quite cold). Lowering that gap helps with humidity problems that often cause us defects.... this isn't a sure fire way to fix things, but can certainly help, If you spray in horrible conditions, nothings going to save you
Also it makes the paint slightly thinner and ups the pressure in the can a bit.

Another good tip is to heat up the surface being sprayed, to speed up the solvent dissipation of the paint. This is mostly for cold weather spraying, as it invites a defect known as solvent popping. Just blasting your model with a hairdryer on warm right before you spray should be enough here. but its been known to run heat lamps over car panels for a little while before getting to work. (maybe avoid this on finecast hahaha )

kb305 wrote:
walmart flat black. 2 bucks a can.

I have used this as well without any bad results. Here in the States, it's even cheaper at .97 cents a can. Even more proof that you don't need to waste money on hobby brands.

Army Painter spray primers, save so much time and effort and although slightly more expensive, they are really good quality in my opinion.

P3 primer is by far my choice of primer. Extremely consistent, sprays out in a laser like vertical line. Is quite thin dries fast with no texture at all (granted you know what you are doing) and enhances detail like no other. GW would be my last possible choice. its the most expensive and the worst product. Go figure.

GW primers and paints are the only two modelling products I like from GW. Actually, thats a lie: I like their little hand drill too. Their sculpting tools, greenstuff and glue especially leave a lot to be desired.

I only use Army Painter for black and GW for white.
I Love Army Painter, because of the matt finish. GW on the other hand is a little glossy.

I like the GW black primer, because it is really easy to use (specifically for a beginner). The Army Painter primer has a great matt finish, but it takes some practise, not to put too much on the models (especially with the white primer).

Other (option not present in the poll).

As a few others have mentioned above, I too use Walmart ColorPlace flat black or white (depending on the model) spray can primers.

Extremely cheap and easily obtained and they work perfectly well.

Where the option for hand/airbrush primers?

Though from the options there I would have to vote GW sprays.

None of the above. Plastics do fine with regular old spray paint, so I use ColorPlace (Walmart's cheap house brand - the white is satisfactory, the black is magic). For metals, I use Krylon Indoor/Outdoor Primer (in gray, which is relatively light but still nowhere near pure white). Did just pick up a bottle of Vallejo's PU gray primer for brush/airbrush use, but I haven't had a chance to try it, yet.

I use Vallejo polyurethane primer applied by brush (hand) and Army Painter spray.

The only thing that I find that doesn't take Vallejo polyurethane primer is FW resin for some strange reason so I use Army Painter spray for that.

I use GW primers, I'm not a big fan of the white one, but I love the black one. I don't mind the price as I don't use a can per model and if you use it right it lasts for a good time. There sure are cheaper options out there, but in the end the 20$ you spend on a primer ends up being split between you models, which makes it say 0.20$ depending on size of course.

I have tried the Vallejo surface primer and so many love it, but I feel like the primer and paint is too easily scratched off, and I can't have a model where I know I can scrape off a portion of the paint job with my fingernails. It's the inner OCD in me I guess.

Humbrol acrylic spray. Cheap and I can buy it locally.

I agree with oadie -- Wal Mart cheap Flat Iron Black.

Its a buck a can --- thats right, A DOLLAR!!

It works like a charm and at that cost, i can afford a few light coats for coverage!!

Its in a blue can with a bunch of colored dots in a circle..its usually on the very bottom shelf....BEST PRIMER EVER!!!

Vallejo primers especially the light grey goes down wonderfully out of the airbrush