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Specifically, the Plague Marines, the characters and the drone: a lot of the tutorials I've seen assume you are gonna use the DG green spray, but I can't afford right now to buy it right now, though I have the pot.
So, which color is best to undercoat them with, and then go over with DG green: white? black? grey???

I have to mention that this is my first time ever painting miniatures, and I really don't want to mess up.

I'd suggest black if you don't have the green spray. It's a lot more forgiving, because if you miss small areas with a coat of paint, such as crevices, they'll look shaded rather than missed.
And don't forget to thin your paints with water

With the pox walkers though, one technique to use on them is to spray them white and then use shade paints to colour them. Really fast and easy and actually looks really good

Ok then, thanks

I'd probably use white because death guard green is itself a pale colour. Just depends on your tastes. I might even prime white, throw a black wash over it and then go over with the death guard green.

When in doubt, prime grey. I've been dabbling with a technique that scale modeling guys use called pre-shading. Prime the model grey, then use black primer to line the areas you want a transition of dark to light on, spray/paint with your base paint and voila gradients. It works really great on tanks and monsters, haven't done it on infantry yet but I'm thinking of trying it with the DG.

to really confuse you, I'd go with grey.
I get mine from a car & cycle chain of stores called Halfords. They also do 3 camo colours including an olive green which might be an option.

My grey primer is the Tamiya one.
But priming grey or white, wouldn't the final product come out too bright, even with shades?

BlueBiscuit wrote:
My grey primer is the Tamiya one.
But priming grey or white, wouldn't the final product come out too bright, even with shades?

No. Most of my DG were primed grey:
https://www.dakkadakka.com/gallery/images-4179-1561_CSM%20Death%20Guard.html

I'd go with black, my personal preference is a much darker DG colour scheme.

Hmm, now I'm torn between black or grey: black because I'm a complete beginner, grey because those models look pretty nice.

Depends on how dark or light you want to do the DG scheme. GW's current version on the Dark Imperium models is quite light, so you'd be better off with grey if that's what you're trying to emulate.

Getting a light colour to be solid and consistent over black takes extra layers and work. Go white or grey.

 JohnnyHell wrote:
Getting a light colour to be solid and consistent over black takes extra layers and work. Go white or grey.

What light colours would OP be painting on a DG model?

 mrhappyface wrote:

 JohnnyHell wrote:
Getting a light colour to be solid and consistent over black takes extra layers and work. Go white or grey.

What light colours would OP be painting on a DG model?

Pretty light green for the armour, no?

 sockwithaticket wrote:

 mrhappyface wrote:

 JohnnyHell wrote:
Getting a light colour to be solid and consistent over black takes extra layers and work. Go white or grey.

What light colours would OP be painting on a DG model?

Pretty light green for the armour, no?

Wait, do people outside of GW studios actually use that paint scheme? It's god awful! I've seen some much better paint schemes on this website that are much darker and actually look like a rotting, rusting plague marine rather than these horny snot monsters.

Huge fan of Zenithal priming everything.
Prime black
Lightly dust with white from a 45 degree angle from above, spin the model on the base while spraying.
Straight blast of white from directly above.

Best of all world's in my opinion. Gives the strength of black (any missed spots will probably be in a crevice so shadowed anyway).
The strength of grey (nice neutral tone that can be lightened or darkened with little work).
And white (bright colors that pop and easy contrast with washes).

 mrhappyface wrote:

 sockwithaticket wrote:

 mrhappyface wrote:

 JohnnyHell wrote:
Getting a light colour to be solid and consistent over black takes extra layers and work. Go white or grey.

What light colours would OP be painting on a DG model?

*snip*

Pretty light green for the armour, no?

Wait, do people outside of GW studios actually use that paint scheme? It's god awful! I've seen some much better paint schemes on this website that are much darker and actually look like a rotting, rusting plague marine rather than these horny snot monsters.

A lot more people follow GW studio schemes than we'd assume, especially with the aid of one of Warhammer TV's 'How to' videos.

It's all down to personal preference; that scheme is far too bright and clean for how I'd envisage Death Guard, but each to their own.

 sockwithaticket wrote:

 mrhappyface wrote:

 JohnnyHell wrote:
Getting a light colour to be solid and consistent over black takes extra layers and work. Go white or grey.

What light colours would OP be painting on a DG model?

Pretty light green for the armour, no?

And the recent tutorials on other Vectorum schemes have a lot of bone white etc.

I also think that the camera may have something to do with how light that green looks, because in Duncan's video the Lord of Contagion came out a fair bit darker than that.

I primed army green from army painter for mine. It gives a nice olive tone to work from. The models I've used it on are in showcase if you want an idea where the color would land. I'm using bone white for the pox walkers and I find it shades well into flesh colors. If you want white or black it depends on if you want it to pop or look kind of dull.

BlueBiscuit wrote:
I also think that the camera may have something to do with how light that green looks, because in Duncan's video the Lord of Contagion came out a fair bit darker than that.

Duncan throws a pretty aggressive brown wash over the whole model. But DG green (the colour the OP plans to use as their basecoat) is quite a light pale colour before the brown wash.

If you were layering up from a dark brown/green to DG green, then sure I'd say prime black because you'll be starting from a dark colour, but if you're working the other way and base coating DG green and then washing down to get your shades, I reckon white or light grey primer works fine.