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So, my first 10 Chaos Marines look horrible, and I want to paint them again withouthaving to buy a new box. They're all basecoated with Abaddon Black (no primer, silly me), and I want to prime them white to fit my own warband. Is this possible? The Abaddon Black coat is very thin, but I'm afraid it might shine through a bit too much, and I don't have any supplies home to strip them.

id advise against priming white. i think it makes everything far too bright, which doesnt fit the games workshop worlds very well.. however, if youre going to insist on priming white, then you probably could cover them but it would take a few coats and youre going to start losing details due to the layers of paint.

You could, but you would lose a bit of the detail. If it were me I'd strip them.

Isopropyl alcohol would strip acrylic fairly well, if you don't have the usual people use (like Simple Green).

Take one and try it.

I could throw my vote in with the others and tell you to strip it, but you've already thought about that. Try it for yourself and see what happens, and if the resultant loss of detail is worth it to you. May end up saving yourself a lot of time and headache for something you find perfectly acceptable. I've got a necron warrior that has about 8 layers of paint on him...THAT really needs stripping. Drop a thin enough layer of a good primer, and you may end up with more of a grey, which is perfect for many situations.

Since there was no primer, this should strip very easily. Just go to the drug store and buy isopropyl alcohol, and a toothbrush from the dollar store.

 queen_annes_revenge wrote:
id advise against priming white. i think it makes everything far too bright, which doesnt fit the games workshop worlds very well.. however, if youre going to insist on priming white, then you probably could cover them but it would take a few coats and youre going to start losing details due to the layers of paint.

I almost always prime white, even for models I want to look dark, I just keep layering on washes and shades until it gets as dark as I want, I find it gives more depth. Whether you prime black or white mostly depends on the technique you intend to use. You can make a bright model from a black undercoat and you can make a dark model from a white undercoat, it's the steps in between that determine which one you should use.

As for losing details, meh, it just depends how well you intend to paint them and how thickly they are currently painted. If the paint that's currently on them is thick and/or you intend to spend a lot of time painting them up to look nice, then of course strip them. If the paint that's currently on them is relatively thin and/or you only intend to paint them to a basic table top standard with a reasonably rough 1 hour or less paint job, I'd probably just leave them and spray over the top.

There's plenty of models in my armies that were painted once and I just reprimed straight over the top and repainted them, when viewing the army as a whole (or even a regiment by itself that is partially made up of repainted models) I really doubt anyone could tell which models I repainted over the top of another paint job and which ones were new out of the box when I painted them.

Stripping is a time consuming task, unless the model is going to be a centrepiece I don't really bother. But then I also avoid repainting models that have very thick coats of paint on them already.

AllSeeingSkink wrote:

 queen_annes_revenge wrote:
id advise against priming white. i think it makes everything far too bright, which doesnt fit the games workshop worlds very well.. however, if youre going to insist on priming white, then you probably could cover them but it would take a few coats and youre going to start losing details due to the layers of paint.

I almost always prime white, even for models I want to look dark, I just keep layering on washes and shades until it gets as dark as I want, I find it gives more depth. Whether you prime black or white mostly depends on the technique you intend to use. You can make a bright model from a black undercoat and you can make a dark model from a white undercoat, it's the steps in between that determine which one you should use.

As for losing details, meh, it just depends how well you intend to paint them and how thickly they are currently painted. If the paint that's currently on them is thick and/or you intend to spend a lot of time painting them up to look nice, then of course strip them. If the paint that's currently on them is relatively thin and/or you only intend to paint them to a basic table top standard with a reasonably rough 1 hour or less paint job, I'd probably just leave them and spray over the top.

There's plenty of models in my armies that were painted once and I just reprimed straight over the top and repainted them, when viewing the army as a whole (or even a regiment by itself that is partially made up of repainted models) I really doubt anyone could tell which models I repainted over the top of another paint job and which ones were new out of the box when I painted them.

Stripping is a time consuming task, unless the model is going to be a centrepiece I don't really bother. But then I also avoid repainting models that have very thick coats of paint on them already.

I agree with this, good advice. Just be careful when spraying at any time. Even a good quality paint can ruin a mini if used too heavily. Just do a nice even coat and touch up any missed areas with a brush. You should not ever be trying to coat the whole model with a spray, always keep it thin. Really do keep the can 12cm away! Makes a world of difference!

darkcloak wrote:

AllSeeingSkink wrote:

 queen_annes_revenge wrote:
id advise against priming white. i think it makes everything far too bright, which doesnt fit the games workshop worlds very well.. however, if youre going to insist on priming white, then you probably could cover them but it would take a few coats and youre going to start losing details due to the layers of paint.

I almost always prime white, even for models I want to look dark, I just keep layering on washes and shades until it gets as dark as I want, I find it gives more depth. Whether you prime black or white mostly depends on the technique you intend to use. You can make a bright model from a black undercoat and you can make a dark model from a white undercoat, it's the steps in between that determine which one you should use.

As for losing details, meh, it just depends how well you intend to paint them and how thickly they are currently painted. If the paint that's currently on them is thick and/or you intend to spend a lot of time painting them up to look nice, then of course strip them. If the paint that's currently on them is relatively thin and/or you only intend to paint them to a basic table top standard with a reasonably rough 1 hour or less paint job, I'd probably just leave them and spray over the top.

There's plenty of models in my armies that were painted once and I just reprimed straight over the top and repainted them, when viewing the army as a whole (or even a regiment by itself that is partially made up of repainted models) I really doubt anyone could tell which models I repainted over the top of another paint job and which ones were new out of the box when I painted them.

Stripping is a time consuming task, unless the model is going to be a centrepiece I don't really bother. But then I also avoid repainting models that have very thick coats of paint on them already.

I agree with this, good advice. Just be careful when spraying at any time. Even a good quality paint can ruin a mini if used too heavily. Just do a nice even coat and touch up any missed areas with a brush. You should not ever be trying to coat the whole model with a spray, always keep it thin. Really do keep the can 12cm away! Makes a world of difference!

Yep that's a good point. If you're going from black models to a white primer over the top, do one pass, wait a minute or two, do another pass, repeat until you're satisfied, don't try and cover the black in 1 hit. I bought a bunch of 2nd hand tyranids that were primed black and I wanted them white, I think it took me 3 or 4 passes to get them to a level where I was happy, just 3 or 4 light coats to build up the colour. I left a bit of black (well it was grey by the time I was done) in the crevices which just gives a bit of preshading, if you want a solid white you might be aiming for 4-6 light passes separated by a minute or two each (depending on the spray paint, some do cover easier than others).

The distance you spray from is dependant on weather, I think 30cm (12 inches) is probably a good start, move closer in hot weather (and do quicker passes to avoid pooling), further away in cold weather.

You can try it. I've even had some good success with blending white primer and black paint for some shading, but if you really want to paint your army white, stripping it is your best option. Yes, you can try and go over it, but it may lose detail and stripping multiple layers of paint is more difficult than stripping one layer of acrylic. Also, primer is usually harder to strip than acrylic paint.