way back in 2nd edition space marine, I didn't care if my stuff was painted or not, just that I could game with it, hence I just sprayed it white and, in true early 90's GW style, painted as much of the model red as possible without it looking like an explosion at the heinz factory....

now I'm a bit older and a bit more sensible, and I want my army to look as good as possible, I'm wondering what the best option for priming my models is? I'll be starting my eldar soon, and although I have't decided on a colour scheme for everything, I'll be going for the red/black falcons and classic aspect warriors colours..... I assume a white primer is required? after years of painting nothing but skaven, dark elves and chaos warriors, I've grown accustomed to a black undercoat..... I think it may muddy the colours and rob them of their vibrancy, but at epic scale, should every little detail pop and sparkle or should they be muted as I can imagine they would be if observed at a similar distance in real life....?

any helpful tips greatly appreciated!

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Just some guy

My hobby/painting threads

Army Forge List Co-ordinator

Hi,

I use halfords white car primer, much cheaper than gw spray cans You could always spray white with a very light coat to keep the detail, paint the black bits black and the red bits red, no need to go OTT with the paint brush just a qick fly over, then all the little gaps where the white shows up just finish the minatures with a good couple of layers of black GW ink. that way you will get grey contrast aswell

I always do test stands first, so try these and find a good compromise between finish and painting time anywhere in the middle is good

One thing i will say i have had excellent results with white undercoat and mixed with inks you can make a minature look a 1000 times better, I have only been using inks for about a year and would never go back now to not using them, they are awesome

Also on the primering, if you spray to far away you get two much propellent and less paint and can end up with bobbles/snow flaking, you fairly close and short fast bursts give a good thin coat and a better finish, dont spray when cold though


Regards danny

I tried Halfords car primer quite a few years ago and used it on Epic models. I did nt get on well with it at all- it obscured too much detail. Maybe their primers have improved or maybe my spray technique was poor.

I recommend Army Painter spray paints. You can get them on ebay for little more than GW primers, but they last a lot longer, and they have good choice of spray primer colours.

At the moment I am trying black undercoat and then GW Foundation paints for base coat. Have been painting Ork tanks and got on well with that. I am about to start on some Ork infantry.

Cheers

James

I have used army painter brown primer for my skaven and I love the stuff, is it worth priming models in the colour you intend to paint them?

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Just some guy

My hobby/painting threads

Army Forge List Co-ordinator

I use the Army Painter colored primers for my base coat/primer coat. It seems to me at least, Army Painter does a great job of covering the model with less paint and it evenly sprays on. They have a great variety of different colors now.

This really helps getting from start to finish in a decent amount of time when painting your army.

If the colour is dark enough then yes. I have seen armoured figures primed with their boltgun metal primer and they looked fine. Or if not do what epic suggested and after priming them with Army Painter then use inks/washes to shade.

Cheers

James

I'm very old-fashioned and use a brush. An Epic army is much less work than a 25 or 28mm army. I am saying this because I would never consider anything but spray for larger scales. Just make sure to keep both brush and paint slightly wet during the procedure.

/Fredmans

If you have large areas of metal (eg. the back of a Warlord Titan), you can get a simple, quick and extremely effective finish by priming in black (using either GW or matt car spray paint) covering the area in boltgun, pick out detail in bronze and then douse the whole thing in badab black. An amazing finish which is so easy it feels like cheating !

Late to the party but another vote for Army painter sprays. I've used desert yellow on both marines and nids.

Army Painter? Really!?

I have had nothing but bad experiences with the stuff!

It would not bind to the minis, it dryed up with a grainy finish. Came of in flakes. You name it..

I would not recomend it to anyone.

I prime all my models with black Gesso.

- F -

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Follow the adventures of Waaagh Nuglug

GW Black and White primer are the only ones I've ever had any success with. Everything else gums up and ruins the models, or flakes off. I've never had any luck with anything else. It may cost more, but it works.

I use either Krylon Primer or Vallejo Model Air to prime models. Never really had a hiccup, but you always need to be weather-conscious.

I have a hard time believing that paying twice as much or more, as in the case of Army Painter, is going to = better results for priming.

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WAAARGH!!
The Lost & the Dipped

I have had great success with GW primers but my current primer of choice is Simoniz acrylic car primer. Cheap at 4 GBP but you have to prime carefully and may need a touch of dullcote or army painter anti shine to achieve best results.

This discussion will run and run, as everybody has a preferred choice. Havnt tried army painter primers but I will do one day.

I too have found the GW primers to work quite well. The Halfords primers work equally as well and are cheaper. Plus Halfords grey primer is a match for Codex Grey so if done the right way can be used to prime and base coat all in one go. Another useful spray from Halfords is Ford Signal Yellow if you want to spray anything bad moons yellow.