Lets talk about Primer

[II Deagle II]

let’s talk primer. I started miniature painting about 7 years ago, and most of that time was using GW’s primer. At first GW’s line of primer and paints were varied and reasonably priced, but somewhere along the line they got this wild notion that they could charge whatever they wanted. So over the years I’ve watched their primer creep from $5 to $15.75 a can. What the hell is in it? Magic? My favorite part is how they claim their primer has been engineered to work with their line of paints. WTF?

I was brought to the light from a friend in a local Hobby Shop of the existence of an alternative and I’ve never looked back. Enter Krylon spray paints.

This stuff is amazing. Not only does it bind to both plastic and metal, but also it goes on flat. This is the most matte paint I have ever used, and it works perfectly for all my projects. It’s also $4 a can.

Here we have a spray paint that is both reasonably priced, durable as hell, and can be found almost EVERYWHERE. Did I mention it comes in 6 colors? Did I mention it comes in 6 colors? And this is just scratching the surface of the products that Krylon produces.

 

[Liberi Glacialis]

You sound like a thrice-damned advertisement.

...but damnit, I might just hunt this stuff down. I'm gonna need it for these Tau...  

[Hoxtalicious]

Personally I prefer GW's chaos black for priming and the Army Painter range of coloured primers for the quick work. Sadly not as cheap as Krylon, but more readily available around here.  

[Orkronos]

I use P3 prime, works just fine but I have yet to use it on vehicles.  

[notmuch_23]

I use the cheap flat-black dollar spray paint: it works just fine for me...  

[DarkElf27]

I actually started using Krylon primer just before deploying, and I like it a lot. It doesn't chip, it doesn't leave the "dusty" layers that some cheaper primers do, and the spray heads are designed for sweeping across, they spray in a line instead of a cloud.

I've also moved away from using flat primer and sealing coat. Krylon has a category called "satin" finishes and primers that are somewhere between flat and gloss, more closely resembling what bare GW paint looks like after application. It's a little shinier than I'm used to, but I like the end result quite a lot.