What Color Primer Should You Use?
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- čas přidán 5. 09. 2024
- There's a lot questions about what primer color is best for you to use. Uncle Atom helps you pick the right primer for your miniature painting project.
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"You can prime your models with any color you want so long as it's black." - Henry Ford
hmmm....I don't think henry ford said that 😂
@@memphis_sean8169 He said it in a panel at GenCon.
He said that about the Ford model T. Interestingly enough it was available in essentially any colour you wanted however due to it's increasingly high demand he made it so that it could only be purchased in black.
I see a grey sprue and I want it primed black.
No colors anymore I just want it black.
OH, I see you are a man of wealth and taste... Pleased to meet you.
The Metal is strong with you, Traveler.
@@rzbonilla I hope you guessed my name
@@Pao-wb4hp What is puzzling me is the nature of your game...
I see the Boyz march by built in a Warrior pose/I have to prime them all 'til none of their plastic shows!
Had a discussion like this not too long ago on a friend doing Tau, he wanted to hit them with a olive army/camo theme to them. Sent me updates of a drone being sprayed black and then covered in a olive color, and then having a few tans and lighter green splotches on them. I asked why he just didn't prime in Olive Drab of any kind and go from there, save himself a few steps and he went on saying that it would look bad and the panel lines would look wrong. Bet him a 100 bucks that if he just bought a shade and did a olive prime it, he wouldn't notice the final result at the end compared to his first drone, I even said I would reimburse him those supplies if it didn't work. I get a message like the next evening, "You know your not getting that 100 dollars right?" and a pic of the two drones side by side, I just told him your welcome. :P
Dude owes you 100 bucks hard
@@charlesgray6385 true. Go get em
If you'd been wrong he'd wanted his hundo. A bet is a bet
Did u end up getting that cash? If he didn't pay up, then declare him a welcher for life from this moment on.
@@TheGoldenDragon_ If it was purely digital I'm sure they didn't shake on it, so any bets are null and void.
Being a lazy painter, I always prime in the base colour. Krylon 'Satin' spray can paints are my go to.
Something to be aware of with automotive primers. Some auto primers are self etching. These contain a phosphorous acid and zinc combination which is meant to bond zinc to bare metal to help inhibit rust. There are also epoxy and filler primers which are designed to fill in small gaps in sheet metal. They are thick primers which will obscure model scaled details as that is what those kinds of primers are designed for.
Likewise, not all Krylon lines are the same. You don't want to spray down your plastic details with a hot all weather protectant enamel. You run the risk of melting the plastic and although great protection for patio furniture, your space marines may not appreciate sporting a protective crust.
I have several bottles of Stynylrez and a box full of the Krylon Camo rattle cans. Both are great, and I use each for different applications. Just be aware that some auto body primers are less than ideal for hobby work. :)
Definitely agree. Stick with the ones labeled "automotive wet sandable". I've tried three different brands and each performed very well with plastic, even that crazy Reaper "Bones" material.
The Krylon Camo spray seems to have a very fine solid so that it doesn't obscure detail once it's dry. The spray cans made by Rustoleum seem pretty good too.
The thing I hate about water-based acrylic primers like Stynelrez or Vallejo is that they are a polyurethane primer which makes it like a flexible latex paint that is not sandable. Personally I prefer a good lacquer-based surface primer such as Tamiya or Mr. Surfacer which are sandable and go on super smooth. Mr. Surfacer is hands down the best primer I have ever used. Forget automotive primers. You are going to waste so much paint in your coverage. Just get yourself a small jar of Mr. Surfacer and cut it with Mr. Leveling Thinner 50/50 and airbrush it on and it will last and save you TONS over wasteful automotive rattle can primers. Also better for the environment by not using disposeable rattle cans going in landfills.
Oh so this is how this photos of space marines with melting heads and faces of Jason Voorhes are born.
On topic of silver primer - GW sells cans of Leadbelcher. Necrons pretty much paint themselves :D
And a good # of space marine chapters (Silver Skulls, Steel Confessors, maybe Grey Knights, maybe Iron Snakes)... You could also probably do some great weathering on some nurgle-esque mostly metallic traitor legions or even a Tzeentch Thousand Sons offshoot where they spirit inside the armor had let the armor flake and lose it's color)...
Cant imagine dwarvrs without leadbelcher spray.
I prime spacemarines silver - then paint the color I wish. over time they weather themselves!
Olaf Olafson This is a bit of proper genius lol
Grzegorz Zych my friend is arguably the best mini painter in my D&d/ 40k group but he chose necrons due to how easy they are to paint, and I’m just thinking about all that wasted talent; the biggest of Oof’s
I was Art Director at Blue Table Painting for a few years and we often used Rustoleum Red Oxide Primer as a base, then followed up with an acrylic floral spray color when needed. I still use Red Oxide for most of my personal projects. I love the earthy undertone it gives the model.
How do you feel about the Rustoleom army camo for me priming up some Death Guards?
Atom your stuff is always so well done, I basically started my armies because I watched all your videos after stumbling on them by accident about a year ago. I really appreciate you and your vlogs and such, and just like hearing your stories if nothing else. Thank you so much for the hard work you put into your videos! We appreciate you!
Here in the Philippines, a lot of people use either Bosny Flat Black, Grey, or White, which are all industrial/non-hobby primers.
They're insanely cheap at around $2 or less, and they stick pretty well on models, without clogging the details.
Downside is, because hobbyists in the country use it to death, it's kinda hard to find them in hardware stores nowadays.
As someone who, in 2022, used some of Reaper models which said they don't need to be primed . . . Prime them anyway. Prime everything.
From what I have tried, I'm still with grey primer (black on heavy armored models)
Colored primers are good for huge models like tanks, aircrafts etc...
Gw prices are insanely high, got a grey primer for 4$ in a hardware store and it gave me the same results
I actually watched this after going over many forums for suggestions on primer. I have always done a white or black base as stated however i have noticed some really nice paint+ primer cans popping up. So after some adieu i settled on Krylon paint + primer Fire Engine Red for an army that has primarily black and red for its color. The results have been FANTASTIC!
The finish was also matte with mild gloss so metal LOOKED the part out of the can. my acrylics have stuck wonderfully too.
thanks for spreading the word on this though for everyone to bring their level up a notch and save us ALL some time.
This guy right here. This guy deserves support for his contribution to the community.
I appreciate it. Thanks for watching!
Good info as always. I don't use anything but the Krylon Fusion paints and have had continual success in all weather conditions. The trick in cold(or humid) weather is to heat the paint and the models. I put my models on a paint stir stick, turn up the furnace and close the door to one of the bathrooms, run the spray paint under hot water for 3-4 minutes...then grab my models and paint, go outside and spray 'em real quick, then back in the(now warm) bathroom to cure. 100% success...have painted 6 Infinity armies that way. I worked for a collision shop for a few years as an estimator and this is very similar to how your car gets painted. Think about it...the busiest time of year for auto body shops is during the worst weather. You don't have to wait six months to get your car fixed because its too cold to paint.
Finally got into wargamming, thanks largely in part to your videos, new and old. Love the content!
So you are incredibly confusing. Essentially if you want to save yourself a step just prime in the color you want your base color to be i.e. red base=red primer so you save yourself having to spray your base color on top of your primer. Always try to match your primer color to your base color unless you want to create a black basing panel shading effect then prime it in black.
I'm wanting to paint a fallout character, she has a lot of skin. So should I prime it her skin color or could I do white?
@@alishabiermann3618 white
Completely agree. I am currently building the War Mumak of Harad from Games Workshop and I got two primers. A grey for the Oliphaunt and black for the creatures tower. The grey allows me to apply a wash almost right away.
The Krylon Camo paints work because they're part of the Krylon Fusion line, which is specifically made to bond to plastic, as well as being an "ultra-flat". Any Krylon Fusion color would bond, but be careful of anything glossy.
For the traditional white/black/grey in the UK I have been using Halfords (vehicle store in the UK) Matt primers. Super cheap & the best results! Applies really smooth and even priming layers. For colours I love the GW colour sprays, I used to use Army Painter colour sprays but fell out of love with the coverage & thickness of the pigment when sprayed on the model.
I haven't been able to find the krylon at my local hardware store or walmart, but I picked up the rustoleum camouflage black and it is very matte. Phenomenal results.
Jut a heads up, if you're in the US, you can buy a can of stuff called Quick Color for 97 cents a can at a hardware store like Home Depot. It goes on thin, even, dries fast, and always etches well into both pewter and plastic. I've tried everything from Citadel to Armory (please don't use Armory it's god-awful) and this spray blows everything else out of the water.
The only downside is you can only get gloss black, flat black, and gloss white. But at 97 cents a pop you'll never need black primer again.
Happen to have a video of using that because it seems no one else can verify this? I'm new to this and I went straight to painting to save money sonI skipped the primer. Also a lot of people are talking about the whole "pick the right color to save time" point. Is there a clear colored primer?
I mostly use GWs primers (mainly because of ease of access), but I have found most of them to be very good if shaken good before starting. And the added bonus of them being a decent match to their other paints is good.
Their metalics seem to dry almost too smooth, and you can have some issues with washes pooling oddly straight on the primer, so I always do a quick once over with the corresponding paint (it also lets me touch up any places I might have gotten a thin coat etc)
I love Vallejo as well.
Btw They sell the auto primer at Walmart. It’s good stuff. The regular stuff works also especially the rustolium paint and primer in
One.
Sure they less forgiving than the fine mist GW/Tamiya primers. Army painter is not fine mist so for me they are too expensive since they are the same paint rustolium/krylon paint.
The regular big box store primers have gotten much better!
I say, as long as your 12in away and slowly sweeping and moving you’ll be fine. Now with fine mist I can’t mess it up even if I tried
Figures Of Perfection i have been striking out on getting this at my local store. They dont offer it via weborder. Made me sad due to the good results vs price.
Zacknafin really your local Walmart doesn’t have it ? How about Home Depot ?
Did my first priming job today on some old dinosaur toys my partner had lying around. Experimenting with B/W and Grey/White zenithal highlight for my Star Wars Legion core set.
How did the grey/white turn out?
My favorite primer is Testors Grey, but my favorite "Story" is that of the mother who thinks that "All Weather" enamel is acceptable.
Once when I did not have the room the spray figures, and I used a brush on primer. I haven't been able to find that kind of primer recently.
Agree with Testors Grey for small detail of color is not needed.
You can make a brush on primer using acrylic gesso. I don't have the old formula but I recall it being from a video off Cool Mini Or Not. Now I use straight gesso which works pretty well.
If I need to, I use Vallejo's airbrush primer as brush in and it works well enough for me. The first coat will be uneven, but that disappears when I apply my base coat on top of it
Vallejo Makes pretty decent brush on. though not many colors...
Grey: smile.amazon.com/Vallejo-Grey-Primer-Acrylic-Polyurethane/dp/B005HXHNPA
Black: smile.amazon.com/Vallejo-Black-Primer-Acrylic-Polyurethane/dp/B004BN5RUU/
White: smile.amazon.com/Vallejo-White-Primer-Acrylic-Polyurethane/dp/B004BMZVBQ/
They actually have more than that. I know I saw a red one on my LFGS once, and a quick search on Amazon found this: smile.amazon.com/Vallejo-RAL8012-German-Brown-Paint/dp/B005D85FH2/ among other results
i use white for brighter colors and greys for everything else maybe black
I always prime with Halfords Grey. Never found another rattlecan primer even remotely as consistent.
Not enough people know about Halfords spray paint. It's very well rated, even in the automotive market.
@@omarspost Bu that doesn’t mean anything in the mini world. Plenty of auto sprays use different chemicals to help stick or coat to the metals on automobiles better, that can ruin the plastic on minis.
Thanks very much for the tips on the vallejo primer colors. I was not aware for some reason. I hate spraying out side. It's windy half the time.
When talking primer it seems the conversation always centers around saving a step or how the primer color effects the base coat. Personally I would like to focus on achieving the highest quality result. You can get a awesome result with Rustoleum primer if you understand how it works with temperature, humidity, and have good can control. Im fortunate to live in TX where I can spray rattle can all year and prefer it to using Vallejo through the air brush. That being said I've never heard anyone address pigment size or how a $10 Tamiya primer compares to a $3 can of Rustoleum.
dude I love your videos. Brown is a go to background/base colour for classic oil painters. so yeah
I have been hunting for a can of gloss black primer, can only find paint+primer. Still terrified to try but you gave me the confidence to at least try it on a test model
Silver can be a good base for red. Fewer coats to get to full red than white and lifts the red giving it more depth
Until today I primed everything in grey, and honestly the difference is amazing when your using brighter main colours like red or yellow.
But yes primer is king, even if it’s not specifically plastic primer.
Another great video. And one that I wish was around 2 years ago when I started. I found out about the wait time for airbrush primer the hard way.
Something that has helped with priming and wait time is project planing. If I know that when I finish painting these X models I want to paint Y models. Then I better prime the Y models before I finish the X models. I have made that mistake and lost almost a day of painting. Still make it on occasion.
I've been able to prime all year round by creating a "priming room" near my 3d printing room - I have a cardboard box I spray inside that sits right next to an open window, and it's dry enough in that back room that even on rainy days my ratthe cans work fine. Unfortunately that's led to a bit of mold on the walls but it's nothing some vinegar and cleaning spray can't fix. Very thankful to not be locked out of a big part of this hobby half the year - I live in upstate NY and currently don't own an airbrush 😅
Getting back into miniature war gaming after a 10-year layoff, the world of good colored primers has really changed my painting, in a very good way. Great advice here, Uncle Atom!
I use grey as my primer. I always count my primer as the "layer 0", it's the base layer that's gonna decide the rest. But saving a step is always good too
Vallejo Hobby spray cans are a must for Bolt action players. I was able to get both my US Airborne in under a week as the primer painted the uniform for me.
Grey primer best primer, work up, work down. No problems my dudes.
I’ve been undercoating my orcs black and then heavy dry brushing them with brown as a base to build up from. Today I’ve bought khandri dust in a can, so let’s see how it does for them and for Gandalf!
If you’re in the UK, Halfords Grey plastic primer is good stuff, and a lot cheaper than the GW cans. It’s also a fairly light grey, which I prefer.
TamTheThird How much? I've been living off of Wilko for a while.
The Nerd Zone £6 for 300ml last can I bought. There’s a brownish red primer they do as well that looks like it might have potential, but haven’t tried it yet.
TamTheThird Thanks!
4 Warhammer 40k Armies done using those camo paints, found mine at Walmart under $4 a can. Great tip!
Can I say firstly, that I really like your channel/ videos. Very clear, easy to understand, great content and you defiantly have a great orator's voice! I'm a mid level painter. In that I've entered a local painting competition, with the Anniversary Primaris Captain in the colour scheme of the Crimson Sabre's 4th Company, of which I won! However I really struggle with some techniques (wet blending) that most good painters find a breeze. I decided to take a page out of Black Library's First Heretic with the 4th company of the Sabre's, (consisting of a start collecting Space Marines, Dark Imperium, Talons of the Emperor and Inquisitor Greyfax which I already had), being on probation, as ordered by Guilliman and overseen by Greyfax with a detachment of the not at all OP Custodies. I now have a 2k list for the Crimson Sabre's. My clearly quite over explained question is; is there a way to get a 'clean' drybrush of Space marines/ Primaris armour for highlighting? So far I have done, Ad Mec grey base, then blue-tac'ed the shoulders, backpack, kneepads and mephiston red spray, then done a quite lengthy brush mid and high, highlight. for both the red armour and the white pauldrons, knee pads etc. I find this, coupled with guns, melee weapons, leather pouches and the imperial crests and such extra banter, very time consuming. Worst still, as I have done a couple of squads really well, I'm less able (or willing) to cut corners and have a lack of consistency across my army. I'm planning to do a Deathwatch list/ kill team (probably both) and the new AOS Wraiths. What I want is to achieve good results with easy, or efficient to apply techniques that don't involve me going into a cave for the next year to complete! Can you give me some suggestions, please? P.s I don't own/ can afford an Airbrush.
Grey Vallejo Grey is the norm, white if using the 'light' colours e.g. yellow, black if you have a 'dark' painted figure use Chaos Black Citadel. Also I believe (not 100% sure) those Citadel 'base' spray cans have some element of primer within them (correct me if you know otherwise).
I did try A/B'ing Caliban Green from the can vs airbrushing on some spare sprue bits as an experiment(it's the base colour I use for my guard tanks), and either I was having a real off-day with the airbrush, or the spray isn't the same recipe as the pot; it doesn't stick quite the same.
Unless, like I say, I screwed up and over-thinned it or something.
GW say that chaos black and corax white are there only primers. I have used pretty much all the GW rattle can paints on GW models and none have had problems. That is not to say that there might be some, only that i havent seen them :D
@Derphimus Maximus and Medic6666 you mean that if one primes their ultramarines with a spray can of Citadel Macragge Blue then it won't stick too well ? that sounds bad.
i have used almost all the GW rattle cans as primers and not had a problem.
I can take that as luck or just a great product.
As GW say that only Corax and Chaos are primers there must be a difference between primers and base colours, i just havent seen it....yet ;0)
Dave, I mean the airbrushed paint didn't stick as well as the spray can. Again, that might be because I used too much flow improver, or didn't mix it right, but the spray can worked fine.
Can you do a side by side. One primed one straight to paint. And show us how important it is? This would be highly helpful to fully appreciate the need for primer.
I'm really glad I've seen this video. I'm getting back into 40k with Imperial Guard; they have a mostly blue uniform, so basing in blue is going to save me tons of time.
Thanks uncle Adam, always informative
I prime and base using whatever spray paint will match the colors I plan to paint, i find they all work as long as the finish is matte
Here in the UK, for priming, I'll use Halfords matt black or grey sprays. Absolutely brilliant, good pressure in the cans and great coverage for 32mm scale down to 15mm scale that I game usually.
I would suggest staying away from Plastic Soldier Company sprays, the seam on the cans are prone to leaking, and the pressure/paint content is so anaemic a butterfly several hundred metres away that beats its wings will blow the spray away before it reaches the model.
Yeah when I brush on Vallejo primer, I found it needs at least 24 hours to cure on metal. On plastic, it can be a litter earlier but I prefer to let it sit for a day before working on the next colour.
FYI people Wizkids "preprimed" minis are worth stripping cleaning and repriming. They are essentially dipped in primer which clogs a ton of detail that is there on the models and they're also hydrophobic when you try to just paint onto the "preprimed" surface.
Joshua Gifford You're hydrophobic.. lol
DIAZ52 no u.
Just trying to be informative here. Paint just beads up on these minis (which is what I meant by hydrophobic) if they haven't been stripped and primed or primed over the preprime. It's just exceedingly frustrating to paint on them if you keep them in the state they are right out of the box.
Joshua Gifford How do you strip the wizkids minis?
Jason Applegate if you put them in isopropyl alcohol for a couple hours and scrub them with a tooth brush it should take most of it off the rest can be removed by either soaking them longer and repeating or using an xacto or toothpick to get out the little bits of primer that are left.
Joshua Gifford thank you. I'll try it.
i don't do competition stuff so I use my artist quality gesso as a primer (never the "craft" standard which is student paints) and artist quality paints. I get more paint for my buck in volume. And I need the artist paints for my paintings anyway.
Brilliant, thank you for taking the time to make this! I've always done Black or White. Recently started getting into warhammer. Got the Khorne Demons start collecting set. Primed it all with "Mephiston Red" Saved me so much time compared to before. Used your Rattle can video for that one.
Thanks. I'd heard good stuff about Krylon but didn't know why. I'll look to see if you produced a clear coat video. I'm looking for a good coat for my SM's, IG, Necrons and Team Yankee.
I've used black, red, grey, yellow, and white primer all from Hycote. It really depends what colour is going over it. Metallics are best used on black, the red is for my chaos 40k /AoS khorne stuff, yellow is for various tzeench guys/daemons, though it has been used on a couple of nurgle daemons as a test, throw some black/brown/purple/green washes over it and it works pretty well on blight drones ;) The metallics I use are Plastikote and work amazingly, no clogging of detail, and they take paint well.
For white priming and for UK folks, Halfords white plastic primer works great. For any other colours though I use Vallejo myself.
Thanks for the primer on primers.
I always have the intention of doing things like fancy pre made bases and getting things like a decent primer to miss a step, but I always crumble and get more models been as my money is always short. I really just need to do it some time, especially if I use your shading tricks with a couple of colours.
I use a general purpose rattle can primer made by Colorgin. I think it's only available here in Brazil, but it's now been bought by Sherwin Williams.
My preference is for Vallejo’s primers. Especially as I got a load of coloured ones in a Vallejo set that was given to me for Christmas a few years back. Still keep a can of Citadel Chaos Black for when I’m in a hurry & use Army Painter Necrotic Flesh for the masses of Zombicide minis. Quick coat of that, wash & drybush & the bulk of the work is done.
I almost always use a white primer only. This is for two reasons:
First, it means the undertone for all my armies is equal.
Second, my painting method, false pastels, works best on white.
For individual models anything goes. However for establishing consistency in collections using one baseing method only is est. It is not a hard rule, I do use coloured primers sometimes, but afterwards I reprime the base in white before I paid to ensure my whole collection has a uniform basing and undertone.
finally someone talking about primer! Jesus all the other channels just start painting! Feel like I wana pull my hair out!
I bounce back and forth, from Grey, then do a Black Wash, to bring out the details. Then move on from there.
To Black, for the Metal Armored Mini's. Then i use the old method of Dry Brush metallic paint over that. ;)
I've had this debate so many times, I find some 'experts' advise new folk the most difficult techniques, like priming a bright coloured model black, then you see the same 'experts' mocking the new guys for having really thick layers of paint. It's just daft these days. BTW Vallejo German army red brown primer is awesome for deeper reds xD
Vellejoy has a silver primer Uncle Atom! Split on a suitcase from Vellejoy with a coworker.
Also, good to know about the 24h dry time. I've not been doing that... Will start to think/work ahead.
I always use Rust-Oleum auto primer light grey. You can easily go light or dark in one thin, sometimes two coats regardless of the color. I've had far more problems trying to cut corners by trying to prime in the base color of the model. That usually requires me to do two or more coats for all the colors that aren't the base color, which are always the details which require more attention and care to hit. I would rather do a quick sloppy base coat in the beginning, than have to do extra detail work in the end. And sometimes the colors don't look right even after four or more coats.
Thanks for this video, definitely is going to help finish some projects as well as armies that I’m stripping and repainting, gives me some more motivation.
Krylon Camo is the only primer I use now the stuff is amazing. The primer holds like mad and leaves a sand paper like coating that just sucks up paint.
"In my airbursh room..." Uncle Atom, will you be my actual uncle?
I have Rustoleum painters touch. Black, grey, white.and clear. Black, grey and white to prime depending on the model I'm using. (usually zenathal prime unless I use my airbrush for that.)
then after I'm done painting I use the clear to varnish it. works well, it's 340g for just under $10 canadian from homedepot.
they tend to have a lot of different colors as well.
One Type i have found alot of Luck with are the Rustoleum Ultra-Cover. They are meant to be a paint and primer in one, but i have not had an issue. THey also bond to plastic, or resin very well, like the Krylon Fusion.
Light Green primer works well for Gretchen and Ork Boys with a lot of skin and Catachan Jungle fighter camouflage. A dark green wash or ink over the light green primer creates a decent skin tone or camo look.
So I’ve recently really got into all this….
I got some Warhammer for my little boys off eBay. I thought if we can make our own game, as I played Heroquest and Space Crusade when I was a kid in the 80s….
So I thought it would be fun for my boys to try painting these minis…. But found I was loving it too!
I did Art at university so felt I would be good at this. And I’m not bad, but what’s tricky is the mini’s are SMALL!!! Makes it really finicky…..
I've heard Ultramarines aren't actually ultramarine.
I’m often concerned that auto primers might be more likely to fill in details, but could be there’s nothing to worry about there! Also I actually start painting minutes after airbrushing my primers and haven’t ever had a problem. But maybe I am not rough enough with my minis to see an issue :)
My Nids are based with Rustoleum's Red Oxide auto primer. I just paint chitin grey, wash the whole thing, pick out details, done. I've not had an issue with that particular paint clog details.
Great!
I used gray primer to fix a scratch on the front bumper of my Sterling Gray Metallic Fusion. It ended up turning darker than the OEM paint, even though I was using the same exact paint color. I should have gone with white primer. But trying it a second time with a better clear coat would amount to the same cost as getting it professionally painted at the shop down the road from my house. For about $40, I decided it was worth attempting the repair myself. Now I know what I did wrong, but can't afford to mess it up again.
Vallejo's airbrush primer is great for a thin base coat which leaves a lot of the detail showing. That is the major problem with rattle can primers it can obscure the details sometimes...but Uncle Atom is correct you have to let it sit for at least 24 hours..I learned that the hard way when I was painting and the primer started coming off D:
the primer im using is the krylon colormaster covermax Ultra flat black primer for my homebrew chapter.
I am kind of surprised you didn't mention the old trick of 'under coating' with black and then hitting the top down with white to give you the best of both worlds. You are dark where you need to be dark and light where you need to be light. Then there is the technique that Andy from Andy's Hobby Lobby uses on bigger models of using black primer (with a airbrush) and then using his airbrush to paint large panels and surface areas white to create a built in shadow effect. In theory it is using the same concept as the 'top down' highlight, but with way more control.
A newbie here.
I've been looking for a substitute for the Citadel primer which is super expensive in my country. I found a local brand with a Primer Surfacer grey that gives my miniatures a smooth surface without the glossy part. It only cost me around 1.5 dollars.
I stumbled on this trick years ago. I was looking for spray primers at a local hardware store. I found a grey "etching primer" that was a close match to the German Field Grey by Vallejo that I was using for infantry. It was such good match I haven't had to use the actual paint in a long time.
I mostly use Grey or Black. Though for the Necromunda Escher & Goliaths I found white to work best for me.
Favorite uncle of uncles.
Your video on the Krylon Camouflage sold me on it and I've been using the black, brown, light tan, and olive colours ever since. Unfortunately, my local Canadian Tire doesn't stock it anymore, so I'm going to have to find a new supplier.
I agree with most of what you said except I always prime skeletons black not the tan/bone colour you suggest. Skeletons generally have very deep crevasses compared to most other miniatures figures you will paint and always want the depths to be very dark if not totally black. You can then paint them up in layers (usually dry brushing starting ta drying to very dry) to either a tan bone colour of murky still rotting looking or a total white bleached out look but in both cases still black in the deepest shadows.
When thinking and looking at your mins . Paint scheme base coat with a color that be a shadow of your color scheme or should I say 180 degrees darker or lighter. Sit on the idea for as long as you need to and your minds eye will go through your supply of paint and take you to the solution. It works. Try it.
I actually like using Death Guard Green for priming, I tried Krylon fusion italian olive which is cheaper then GW rattle cans and pretty good for painting Death Guard but I didn't like how it covered. I digress so far I have used DGG for death guard units and for gryph-chargers from the stormcast and I found that it doesn't really negatively effect the colours I put over it as it is very middle of the road like Standard Grey is but it is warmer then Grey. It is really nice for reds, browns, and greens.
As always, love your stuff! Quick Q: I noticed the screen (or reflection) on the right hand side of the video - are these images you use to remember what to say? If so that's really smart! Here I am writing scripts and heavy editing like a chump.
As for priming, I prime in grey 100% of the time. It's nice and in between and I always know how the color will look over it because I'm so used to it. As a software engineer there's a lot of temptation to use 30 different languages and tools to accomplish something, when really working with what you are most familiar is quicker and has more consistently good results.
I really suggest taking some presentation classes and/or public speaking classes if you want to do videos like what Atom is doing. Atom is more or less giving a presentation. I will assume as a IT guy (or former IT guy... not sure on his current job) he has had to stand before the suits and explain tech to them, going through each bullet point on what changes are made and how they will effect things. So his RL job or at least past job experience really helps his videos. I am sure Atom doesn't commit to memory his dialog like most presenters, but having bullet points and a timer to give you a ending point to keep you from rambling really helps. Also if you know how long each bullet point will last, you can then control the pace of your video as well as the over all length.
As you can see, he has done some editing of the video even after that. So I feel that Atom's post production value is greatly undervalued just because most folks just don't realize it due to how smooth it is and how well the person doing it (either Atom or someone else) does it.To me, Atom's production value is one of the things that set him above a lot of other CZcamsrs.
Oh for sure, love his videos, been a subscriber for quite some time :D He doesn't do so much "reporting" as "talking points" which I think helps smooth it out a bit for no need of a script as there isn't a whole lot of details he *must* hit (prices, dates, counts, new rules, etc). Regardless, I dig the idea of imagery use here. Unlike work, I'm not stuck in PowerPoint here. The hard part I worry about is pacing and judging time. I can easily block out sections with images, but I don't think I'd guess the timing down close enough to make it practical. Will certainly keep practicing though :D
For timing, I seriously recommend a digital timer that is placed where you can see it, either on a wall behind your camera or near it. If you really want to splurge, you can have a laptop or second monitor set up like a teleprompter that is set up with a time display big enough where you can read it easily (or just go split screen). I suggest under your camera or next to it, so you are not breaking eye contact with the camera very much. You can find programs for teleprompters online for free, or spend a little coin, up to you. It all depends on how far down that rabbit hole you want to go. Good luck either way!
Thanks a lot! :)
Referring to your trick of spraying from above to build in a lighting effect, would it be dumb to prime black, then spray from above with red?
Not at all. It’s a great way to start your Blood Angels, Adeptus Mechanicus, or any other predominantly red army. Thanks for watching!
@@tabletopminions awesome. thanks for the reply, good sir
Working on my relaunch of my 1980"s dwarven space miners so grey spray was the way of the day.
I don't personally like the army painter sprays, often had issues with it going on too thick.
I have found that it "melds with the plastic" too, because it's hard to get the color of when paint stripping.
If you live in the UK, Halfords spray paints are a cut above. Not enough people know about their cans.
One thing that wasn't mentioned in the video and I haven't found in the comments, is the "finish" a certain primer leaves when dry.
Is it smooth??? Is it grainy??? Depending on what you're painting, one will be better than the other. If you're doing SPESH MAWEENS, you want a smooth coat because you're painting armor. But if you're doing undead or skeletons, grainy is fine because they're dirty and such.
Good stuff, Atom (?) - your vids are always useful and informative!
I tend to do the rattle-can thing where you start with black and do a top-down second pass with white. That way my crappy "FolkArt" paints get a bit of a natural highlight to them =)
Don't forget Apple Barrel and Americana too!
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Love your work.
Chitinous etc are prounounced with hard k sound like kitinous plating or kitin instead of chitin!!
Personally I always go for white primer, and I'm painting Skaven right now.
One thing to remember is AVOID satin or gloss sprays or primers... the only issues I've had (other than with some Reaper Bones models) was when I accidentally bought a red satin spray color for some Gates of Antares models instead of a flat red... brush on paints don't want to stick and rattle can seemed to put down a heavier coat than the flat paints I'm used to working with.
Also, as others and Atom have said.. you don't need to spend a LOT on basic primers... some people love certain primers (Privateer Press, for example) but a lot of the time I find the $3 and $4 rattle cans just as good and sometimes IMHO with better coverage than the expensive stuff.
Man, I just love sing the the GW/Citadel spray primers. Spray it on and in like...10-15 minutes, you're off to the races. Now, I'm not sure, at the time of this video coming out, that GW/Citadel had released their spray primers, yet. I know they had them by august that year cause that's when I started 40k and they had them.
Well, since I've been starting out preshading and tinting white primed miniatures with washes and glazes etc., I'm totally fine with my all purpose graffiti primer by Montana that comes just in that one color. It's a third of the GW price though and made to create durable paintings on the outside walls, so if it stands weather, it should be ok for gaming. Of course I understand army painters who want to save a step, but in that case I'd probably take another regular graffiti color, cause those are even cheaper. Like a quarter or fifth of GW, I think, for the same size of can. The plus side also is, you can chose from a wide variety of caps, so you have full control over the results of your low pressure cans, that go a very long way. Montana and Molotow have very good colors, even half transparent ones and effects if you wanted. Well, I must add, I paint with these on MDF anyway, so I've got quite a selection at home.
For when I can't spray, I also tried the Vallejo surface primers and didn't like them at all, though I was using them through a pump spray bottle for test and by brush, because I don't own any airbrush yet. The biggest problem is that it will peal of often, almost any time from flat surfaces although I did rinse and sand them first. What I found out after testing several brands (like 13 or so) of regular acrylics and model acrylics, is that Game Air actually sticks to models the best without primer. I think they even sell it intended to be used without one. So I brush prime with these and get the most durable results I can imagine
How much water did you add to the Vallejo primer as I've found it to be a bit hydrophobic, plus it needs time to cure.
I tried neat and thinned with water or isopropyl, didn't make much of a difference. If one thing did it was shooting it thinned with isopropyl through a small pump spray bottle and that maybe had to do with the fact it could rather dry in small sprinkles, since I did two thin coats. That said, it might work ok with airbrushes rather than with brushes, though I've seen videos with the same problem then, the primer forming a skin that is easilly pealed off. I suspect the primer is behaving a little like Gouache, so you put it on in a coat, that will shrink and that makes it lose grip on flat surfaces.
I'm very meticulous on cleaning, prepping and curing, gave it 24 hours, so it should have worked. There's just one factor I can't confirm, I only have the 200ml sized bottles (since I bought it for also priming my large model kits). Now, if it doesn't mix up well enough in the bottle, even with the agitators I put in (tempered steel by a paint supply company, cleaned with isopropyl before use), that could be the cause of the problem. Maybe smaller bottles don't have this, I don't know.
I use a lot of Vallejo paints, so I'm usually satisfied with their products. If you look for reviews on youtube though, you see a lot of similar problems. There was a handling suggestion by the german distributor about cleaning and sanding the surface, caused by the plenty reported issues, but as I already did this, it wasn't much help either, so I've given up.
In theory, I could probably use my rattle cans under any weather, as the graffiti brands have the selling point they are supposed to work under any condition. Well, drying and curing takes longer, I found out, but at least they work better for me. And as long as I can brush on the Game Air to best results, I don't see a reason to look back yet, even if the Surface Primer would work under a complicated ritual. Usually, I'm all in for trying nerdy things with paint and stuff, but out of anything, a primer should be working fine instantly on a well prepped surface, shouldn't it?
You might be right with the bottle size, as I've got Vallejo primer in the standard dropper & the 60ml bottle and the primer in 60ml can get a bit that way. I only have issues with the dropper size when I use too much water.
But that's plausible, since you don't want to break up the binder in your primer. That's something I can compute. :D