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Hey,

I recently purchased the Storm of Sigmar starter set after a long hiatus from miniatures. Last night I assembled all of the figures and they are ready for painting.

When I last painted minis I used gesso as a brush on primer. I bought white Liquitex gesso from the craft store, thinned it with water, and mixed in black paint to make it grey. I was happy with the results, although I only used it on metal minis.

I was going to use gesso on my Sigmar minis but I have never had miniatures with so much fine detail on them. Has anyone used gesso on Age of Sigmar minis? I would prefer to not use a spray primer due to the climate and general dislike of spray paint.

If people absolutely recommend spray priming, I would like a cheap alternative to GW paint.

Thanks in advance.

If your gesso is of good quality you shouldn't obscure any detail. I've had some cheaper store brand gesso that did build up in details though.

I don't understand your aversion to spray primer? I use grocery store bought krylon primer on all my minis. It works great even when sprayed on at 0 degrees outside and drying inside. Can get white, black, gray, or dark red too.

You might be able to do a dip and flick with watered down gesso like you can do with shade.

Lots of people don't like spray primers. Depending on the time of the year, they perform very badly where I am due to the weather.

That said, my preferred primer is a spray can from Canadian Tire or walmart. I have gesso for when the weather is extreme enough to make those not work well.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Also, have you tried not watering down the gesso? With good quality gesso (I use Liquitex, not their student stuff but their more expensive one) and it goes on thick and looks like its going to fill in detail but then it shrinks down and perfectly conforms.

 frozenwastes wrote:
Lots of people don't like spray primers. Depending on the time of the year, they perform very badly where I am due to the weather.

That said, my preferred primer is a spray can from Canadian Tire or walmart. I have gesso for when the weather is extreme enough to make those not work well.

Dang, you must be in some extreme weather. What in particular messes it up so I know what to look out for. I'm in Alaska and haven't had an issue with just running outside, spraying, and coming back inside. I've sprayed in snow, in negative temps (Fahrenheit), etc. Krylon is a beast.

Groo_The_Wanderer wrote:

Dang, you must be in some extreme weather. What in particular messes it up so I know what to look out for. I'm in Alaska and haven't had an issue with just running outside, spraying, and coming back inside. I've sprayed in snow, in negative temps (Fahrenheit), etc. Krylon is a beast.

I get super high humidity for about a month and a half to two months centred on august. Clear spray can go foggy and primer can go chalky/flakey. Proper primers like Krylon or an automotive primer are less likely to go wonky, but it has happened to me.

 frozenwastes wrote:

Groo_The_Wanderer wrote:

Dang, you must be in some extreme weather. What in particular messes it up so I know what to look out for. I'm in Alaska and haven't had an issue with just running outside, spraying, and coming back inside. I've sprayed in snow, in negative temps (Fahrenheit), etc. Krylon is a beast.

I get super high humidity for about a month and a half to two months centred on august. Clear spray can go foggy and primer can go chalky/flakey. Proper primers like Krylon or an automotive primer are less likely to go wonky, but it has happened to me.

That makes sense. Guess I am just lucky so far. Thanks.

I can't stand spray can primer myself. I use the Vallejo Surface primers (Panzer Grey) and I can get it decently priced on Amazon.

 doomdreamer wrote:
I can't stand spray can primer myself. I use the Vallejo Surface primers (Panzer Grey) and I can get it decently priced on Amazon.

Is that a brush on primer or is it for airbrushes?

It brushes on great.