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When it comes to basecoat paints, I've only purchased GW paint once, and that was for Mephiston Red for my Space Hulk sets. I knew I'd get a lot out of that can since I have 3 SH sets.

However, I am not a fan of spending that much on a can of spray paint. I like a lot of the Krylon and Rustoleum paints for plastics, however, most of them are only available in glossy or satin. I've always heard to steer clear of glossy paint as a basecoat as it can make added layers flake off, so I've always used a flat paint for a basecoat.

But what about satin? It's in between flat and glossy. I simply can't find any flat paints for plastic in any colors that would be useful to me. How does satin work for a basecoat since it's less glossy than glossy, but more glossy than flat? Will additional layers stay on satin fairly well? Especially if I use a hardcoat and clear matte as final layers?

Have you looked at the Army Painter spray primer colors. Quite a few to work with.

Re satins; I use them and they can work, but application is a bit trickier. Its very easy to put too heavy of a coat on a mini, which can result in a semi-gloss to glossy finish. Need to heat up the paint by soaking the can in hot water for 5-10 minutes. This helps the paint atomize into smaller droplets and go on thinner. Go with light coats as well. Experiment on something not critical...

Then spray or paint with clear flat before adding other paints.

T

timd wrote:
Have you looked at the Army Painter spray primer colors. Quite a few to work with.

Re satins; I use them and they can work, but application is a bit trickier. Its very easy to put too heavy of a coat on a mini, which can result in a semi-gloss to glossy finish. Need to heat up the paint by soaking the can in hot water for 5-10 minutes. This helps the paint atomize into smaller droplets and go on thinner. Go with light coats as well. Experiment on something not critical...

T

Thanks for the tip about putting the can in hot water. I take it then that if you use satin for a base coat, the top layers of paint will stay on OK?

Don't use satin, it will cause problems later on. Check out Army Painter if you must do a rattle can basecoat. The other solution is to buy an inexpensive airbrush to do your basecoats (after priming of course) and you can use any color you like!

It depends on the specific paint. Many satin paints turn out quite flat anyway, others are more on the glossy side. I use a lot of Tamiya sprays for basecoats and they're mostly what I'd describe as satin and they all work fine for me.

 alienux wrote:

timd wrote:
Have you looked at the Army Painter spray primer colors. Quite a few to work with.

Re satins; I use them and they can work, but application is a bit trickier. Its very easy to put too heavy of a coat on a mini, which can result in a semi-gloss to glossy finish. Need to heat up the paint by soaking the can in hot water for 5-10 minutes. This helps the paint atomize into smaller droplets and go on thinner. Go with light coats as well. Experiment on something not critical...

T

Thanks for the tip about putting the can in hot water. I take it then that if you use satin for a base coat, the top layers of paint will stay on OK?

Sorry, I skipped the "spray or paint with clear flat" part of the operation... will edit my post.