"Terrible Prime Jobs" Topic

So, I ran out of primed miniatures to paint. What to do? I've been busy prepping another 80 samurai for the brush. I am rushing to get them primed last night so I can have an entire evening at home (alone as my lovely wife is away) to paint the next day. So, at 1:00a.m. I prime them all black. It looks like my coating is a bit thick so I pull away a bit. I spray on all four sides.

I wake up this morning and check my prime job. Unfortunately huge amounts of the underside are not primed. I must not have seen it in the dim light of my apartment stairwell. So, my night will be spent either re-priming by can or touching them up by brush.

Crap.

I hit mine from 3 angles and expect to have to go over at least some of them to get the undersides and odd cut-ins. It's not just you.

I spray prime and then sometimes finish with a light coat of black gesso.

I usually spray prime one side, wait for it to dry, then prime the other side. As you said, undersides and cut-ins usually get missed. So I do a 3rd coat by donning a latex glove and spray priming while holding the miniature by the base and rotating it around so I can get the spots that were missed.

Yup, happens to me all the time too. I usually figure that i will have to spray them first from all four sides, and then when they dry, tip them on their sides to get all of the undercuts. I always paint a layer of black acrylic over the primer before I start painting the figures.

Years and years (and years) of the same sort of frustration, and I finally gave up on spray primers altogether. Now it's just brushed gesso. Just as fast, too, if you organize the job.

Allen

Do it right the first time, brush prime

Dave

I do what Dave does, but without the glove (black fingers instead).

I don't worry so much about 100% coverage. As long as most of it is covered, a missed spot under a skirt or overhang usually has no appreciable effect on the ability of paint to bond to the figure. What has more of a factor (IMHO) is whether the primer has thoroughly dried or not. For that, I leave my figures for approx a week before touching brush to them…

Damon.

I've also given up on spray primers. I spent too much time touching up the parts I missed with the can so I elminated the spray step and just use brush-on.

Before priming I mount all my figures on to wooden dowels using a hot glue gun, they then sit in a block of wood drilled to accept the dowels. If I'm feeling really good I then wash them to remove any traces of finger grease (mostly I don't!) the advantage of this set up is that when spraying you can angle the can to spray upwards front back and side before finishing with a drift or primer from above. I rarely get misses and in any case I wash over with thinned and flowed brown ink (I prime white) to bring out detail but which also fills any missed bits. The other thing is I don't touch the figures until they are fully painted, varnished and have dried for at least 24 hours when I peel them off the dowel and base them.

It sounds like a lot of trouble but I find it has so many advantages I wouldn't change it unless someone could come up with a quicker system with the same handling advantages.

At least spraying the primer didn't add a weird texture. The last time I used spray primer a sandy like appearance developed – perhaps from humidity in the air. For some reason I went a ahead and painted the figures. Now I'm thinking I should strip them and start over. These days I only brush on Humbrol's matt black.

Andy – I've had that happen to me as well. I think it was a bad can. I guess mine was less sandy and more grainy.

If it's the can's fault, then I guess I can sue GW, right?! Let's see, they owe me for the cost of the paint can, the cost of the wasted acrylic paint, my time, lawyer fees and emotional damages:)

Too bad your primer coating didn't go as planned. Of course, you can still paint tonight if you spray them again and then use your wife's hair dryer to cure the primer quick – low heat, high air setting works best – takes about 10 minutes! Of course – be careful not to heat up the figures too much – keep the heat moving across the figures!

I only allow about 30mins for my figures to dry after priming. Good light is a must though. I prime my figures outside in good sunlight.

What are you using to hold your figures while you prime them?

"What are you using to hold your figures while you prime them?"

I use cardboard. It's a 2 foot square piece with a small lip on the edges. I've used it so many times, it now has a black and white sheen to it. I think the paint is nearly as thick as the cardboard in some places!

Ahh your painting on a 2 dimensional plane trying to paint 3d objects with a media designed for 3d. Go with a dowel rod and hot glue or like me dowel with alligator clips for my 15mm. A turn of the wristand you can cover all sides. I depress the spray nozzle and turn the figure now.

I use a strip of plexi glass that's about an inch and a half wide and 2 feet long. I used double sided tape to affix the figures then I can get at them from virtually all angles.

I'm afraid I can't spray in the open as it's in a Manhattan apartment stairwell, which I'm already not supposed to spray in. It has to be directed towards a box. I usually don't have much of a problem with it and have done it for nearly 25 years. However, this time I missed a whole angle and the undersides weren't painted. Spent a good hour last night touching up all those miniatures.

I prime my figures the same way I prime a room when I paint it (and the way professional painters recommend you prime a room) and that's with the same colour you're going to paint most of the uniform.

But I usually just go with a single coat of the main uniform colour and don't bother to recoat it.

I just "half primed" an AB metal figure and a Milicast resin figure with white. That is, the upper torso and left the waist and legs unprimed. I then got my airbrush out, mixed the uniform colour I wanted with my paints and airbrushed the two figures (and about 45 others).

I can't see any difference in the intensity of the colour between the tops and bottoms of the AB and Milicast figures.

I will probably touch up missed spots, of course, but the airbrushing, where I make sure the surface is painted, is pretty through.
--
Tim