Primers

 This year I have set myself the goal of painting up all my first born marines and this involves painting up half a dozen vehicles and about three dozen marines in orange. This is not a colour that is very easy to paint and in the past it has taken a few coats of paint to get the orange to a good level. Previously I had to paint on a couple of coats of Jokaero orange to get a nice base layer before painting several layers of Troll slayer orange. This was a time consuming process, although it did give a nice even colour to the model. However, with so many to paint and with a number of big vehicles I decided to see if there was a quicker way. With my son's Tau I purchased a Colour Forge Tempest Blue to use as it is a match for GW Kantor Blue. So with this in mind I decided to have a look for a colour match to Troll Slayer Orange and was surprised to fine Colour Forge Convict Orange. I was surprised as this is not a colour I had seen before and was not listed in a lot of places, it appears that it is quite new. So one purchase later and my primer collection has grown a little bit;

Black, grey, blue and orange

These are the two coloured primers, blue and orange. The blue is almost empty after priming various models for my son's Tau army. This primer has been really nice to use, has gone on nice and evenly with very little issue. The colour match is really good, there is the usual issue of finish, as there is a different finish between spray paints and brushes but this only shows in certain lights or angles. The orange however has not been quite as good. To be honest I think this might have been more to do with how and when I used this can than the actual paint itself. Now, in terms of colour, it looks to be a very good match again, however, one thing I have noticed is that it goes on a lot more opaque than the paint. I initially thought it might be a my old paint that I’ve added thinner to a couple of time to revive it but even with a brand new pot it is still fairly transparent out of the pot. This means that it is great for getting the orange doesn’t on a model quick but it has acted a little bit oddly in places. I suspect that some of it was due to the old paint that was one the models when I over sprayed them but I have also found that it  very consistently, even on the same spray \ pass with the can. The second thing that I notice was that the paint dried very quickly and covered the floor with an orange dust and when I say covered, I mean covered and which then got trapped through the house on the bottom of my slippers from the conservatory to the kitchen as I went back and forth to get different models. Now, I don’t think this was all the fault of the can, I think that the conditions that I was spraying in were ideal, probably a little bit to cold, the can probably wasn’t warmed properly and I hadn’t prepped the models at all. However, I’m not that worried as the models that I was spraying were the first born marines destined for the Eagle Knights space marines and I am really just painting these up so that I can say they are fully painted as its pretty clear that first born will be going to legends fairly soon. 

The other two cans that I use fro priming are just cheap car spray paints, one black, one grey. These are from the local car supplies shop and cost about half the amount of GW spray for a bigger tin. These have been great for just spraying up both metal, resin and plastic model equally. I usually use the grey over the black but that’s just as the colours I use work better over grey than black. 

I have to say that I don’t think that I will be using GW primers again, as these all work just as well and are colour matched which the GW sprays don’t seem to be. The only thing that I do buy from GW is the varnish, however I have a varnish spray from another company that I have yet to test out but when I do I will let you all know how it goes.

Primers

So, while we wait out these last few hours, I thought that I would put a post out that has been sitting in the draft folder for a few months. This all started about 18 months ago when I bought some new primers to use with my new airbrush compressor, and as yet I have actually yet to use them with the compressor. I have however used them several times with the good old brush and I have a few thoughts that I have decided to put down on to paper.

The primers in question are Vallejo surface primers, in both black and white.  I chose these primers after looking around on-line at various forums and the like, where lots of different primers were being discussed. These seemed to be a good choice between cost and effectiveness. 

Vallejo Surface Primer, in both black and white

The primers themselves are very different, the black works very well, the white less so. The black primer is very good, but it does require a bit of mixing first of all, otherwise it seems a little watery. The primer covers nicely but sometimes it still fails to "grip" on to the model and not coat properly. The white primer however, even with a good stir, doesn't really cover very well. It usually requires at least two coats of paint and even then it still doesn't seem to cover as effectively as the black. One thing I have found is that by mixing the two up, usually 2 to 1, white to black, that the primers covers quite nicely and evenly, giving a good base and also still showing up the details nicely, something that can be hard with the black primer.

GW Primer

Next up was the GW primer, or Citadel Technical Imperial Primer, this is the first primer I bought, mostly because it was in the GW shop. The primer works well, not quite as good as the Vallejo black primer but it does cover nicely and evenly. Its not quite as good and at the price, its not worth it. It was be a lot better if it was the same colour as the GW Abaddon/Chaos black, or whatever its called. This would be mean that it would fit in nicely with the rest of the range, namely the GW spray paints. 

On the spray paint front, I have used the GW ones in the past and found that they are pretty good. I have always had good experiences with them but I moved away from them as they are quite expensive. Hence the reason that I got the compressor in the first place.

The various subjects

You can see the various primer tones that the Vallejo mix created. As you can see the black makes it hard to see all the different details and layers, but the other shades of grey are better. It can make it hard however, to see what bits you've actually primed and which bits you haven't! I think given the choice I will continue using the mix, as it covers nicely and will make the various primers last longer. I would like to see what the primers look like through the air brush, hopefully I might get a chance one day soon.

Overall, I would recommend the Vallejo black primer to anyone. Its a good mix of cost and effectiveness and it does have the option of using the airbrush or the brush. The GW primer is also good but is a lot more expensive and doesn't match with the other GW range black paint and so the extra expense isn't really worth it.