Spray Primer Brands?

What spray primers does everyone use? I've always typically used GW stuff, but it's so ridiculously expensive. I see that the Privateer Press Formula P3 Primer is about half the cost. I'd imagine it works just as well. I'm also seeing "Armory" brand spray primer and "Army Painter" brand spray primer.

Any suggestions?

The Army Painter Primer $9 - http://www.thewarstore.com/product39106.html
Armory Primer $5.25 - http://miniaturemarket.com/inc/sdetail/182145
Formula P3 Primer $8 - http://www.thewarstore.com/product47731.html

I'm leaning towards P3 as I trust Privateer Press and I know nothing about the other 2. I used some generic non-miniature specific stuff from Home Depot and it was a little bit too thick I think (it obscured a little bit of detail), so I'm hesitant to buy stuff without knowing that it works well.

GW changed suppliers a few years ago and lost me with their very expensive crap. I think they have changed again, but that little hiccup was enough for me. Sort of like New Coke.

I used some Armory primer yesterday and it reminded me of why I quit using it 15 yrs ago. It sometimes gets a powdery finish.

I usually use something I picked up at a Lowes for $3-4. DAP Black Primer #1698.

Miniature companies will dispute this but my belief is they just re-label the stuff you buy at Lowes and charge more.

Von Kurst wrote:

Miniature companies will dispute this but my belief is they just re-label the stuff you buy at Lowes and charge more.

That's what I thought, but after using some of the hardware store stuff I changed my mind. The primer I had washed out some details on a few metal figures and when I tried to use it on plastic it pooled up.

I recently starting using Tamiya light grey surface primer and it's the dog's doodads.

Excellent coverage . Ain't cheap though.

Svenn wrote:

The primer I had washed out some details on a few metal figures and when I tried to use it on plastic it pooled up.

Kind of like that Chaos Black crap that GW sold a few years ago? Hmm wonder where they found that?

I've hit or missed with the hardware store stuff but at least it only costs me a third of the price a bad can of the Miniature Brand Name does. Like everything else its a matter of personal taste and pocket books.

If you're determined to use a spray prime, Krylon is probably the best bet. Personally I find doing a spray prime to be inefficient & expensive.

The Krylon Matte are unsurpassed for price, availability and most importantly, actual quality.

The GW is just horrid, and the armory stuff still powders and clumps (I tried it recently, and realized why I stopped using it. It used to be the Ral Partha stuff, which I last used in 1989).

DeafNala wrote:

IPersonally I find doing a spray prime to be inefficient & expensive.

And quick.

So far, I've found Tamiya primer to be efficient. One coat coverage and, so far, I've not had to do any touching up after spray priming. Mind you, I have been doing old figures with not very dynamic poses.

Grey undercoat followed by a black wash to pick out the details. Works for me, at least.

@Citizen Sade: whatever method works best for you is THE ABSOLUTE BEST way of handling the beasty.

So Deaf,
What do you use for primer?

Von Kurst wrote:

So Deaf,
What do you use for primer?

Presently, I paint the piece in a thinned out black; then, when dry, I do a white dry brush over the piece...I use the same method on minis & terrain. It gives me the shading of the black, the brightness of the white, AND it picks out the details for my weary old eyes to focus on.

Until recently, I have been using GW and making not too bad experiences with it, but some weeks ago, I tried the Army Painter Colour Primer - my experiences were mixed so far, but that might very well be improper-usage related.

It is a bit thicker than a normal primer, but since it is no normal primer (rather a combined primer / layer-of-colour kind of thing, thinner than normal paint, thicker than normal primer), that somehow strikes me as logical.
It certainly is convenient that with the right choice of colour (and since the range encompasses nearly every colour you could possibly want as a basecoat - black, white, grey, green, blue, red, bone, flesh, yellow, armour, military olive etc., with the tones corresponding to the popular Citadel paints), after spraying, you have your first proper coat of colour and can wash / ink / highlight to your heart's content.

The usage, however, can be tricky. From what I have read on the Interwebz and from what I have experienced with plastic and metal and different spray distances:
- Shaking is about the same as Citadel. 1-2 minutes, and you have no problems.
- Spray behaviour favours "long, even bursts", as it says on the can, but really, who listens to a can?
Since I seldom spray whole regiments, but rather single or at most a handful of miniatures, I seldom use long, even bursts (I just cannot bring myself to waste so much paint by keeping on spraying while I rotate the miniature on its tray, just for the sake of long, even bursts), and so far, it has made no negative difference for me.
- Distance, however, is most unforgiving. For me, the 15-20cm maximum that is mentions on the can, is extreme close (with GW sprays, I most often stay at double that distance...), and the first time I used it (30-40cm away), the paint cluttered up details like Hell. Since the figures were mostly plastic zombies, and since zombies are generally not the tidiest or most wholesome of people, that was still tolerable, but a distance of about 15cm works wonders in comparison.
- Drying properties are quite... idiosyncratic. The paint "shrinks" or "condenses", so to speak, considerably.
The aforementioned working at high distance and cluttering up details seemed to repeat itself when I tried a lower distance - the face of the figure was one even lake of paint, without any details but a bit of nose sticking out, but over the course of fifteen to twenty minutes, the paint dried up so efficiently that when I continued painting, every last detail, even tiny scars on the cheeks, were crisp and visible. Of course, that can also be connected to temperature (I usually spray outdoors) issues, but with Citadel paints, I never noticed such a reduction.
That may also explain why longer distances of spraying are so extremely different.

In nuce, great product with a wide range of colours, really time saving, a bit cheaper than Citadel sprays, but for the love of Old Roger, obey the tin!

I have used everything from the GW, car primer, The one with the Chez Geek characters on it.

I have to say that the model brands seem to work better, they seem to go on thinner, and the spray nosels usually seem to have a tighter spray band, so you get less spill over on to the next model.

That being said if you are careful, you can use the cheap primer rather effectively. You just have to have more space to prime, and you have to do it more quickly and carefully. The dangers to watch-out for are spraying on too thick losing detail, and getting blow over on to near by models.

DeafNala wrote:

Von Kurst wrote:

So Deaf,
What do you use for primer?

Presently, I paint the piece in a thinned out black; then, when dry, I do a white dry brush over the piece...I use the same method on minis & terrain. It gives me the shading of the black, the brightness of the white, AND it picks out the details for my weary old eyes to focus on.

This is a technique that I have been employing recently, too.

My eyes don't work as well as they used to, so a spray prime black and light dry brush of deep grey do wonders to help me pick out the details!

Yeah a slight dry brush can help details pop so you can better paint them. Usually I do the same thing, but I dry brush the color I want to use for most of the model or a good color for that area, so like Orc Skin, black primer then a lighter green, for their clothes and boots a brown. I try not to use a color that would conflict or would be hard to cover. Sometimes I flat paint an area then dry brush it with a color to make it pop. So back to Orcs I would cover all the skin with the Dark green then dry brush normal green over it to make the details pop, then a tiny pit of snog green to make it pop a little more.