"black primer in a can" Topic

When I was younger I would paint minis with primer in a bottle that I would brush on. Now I am only able to find spray-on black primer. I bought a can today. Is it usable on 28mm minis or no?

sure. But I'd just but Flat Black Spray paint from the Hardware store (the $0.99 USD a can brand). I paint mainly 15mm and prefer White or Gray.

What Saber6 said: "Cheap" primers form the hardware or dollar store work as well as the "botique" hobby brands for minis and are a TON cheaper. Mor money for minis, yay!

Yep, it will work just fine. And yes, the cheap stuff from Walmart (or wherever) works like a champ.

They actually work better because they are not actually good paints. Because they are thin they are pretty bad at painting chairs, tables or whatever but they are perfect for miniatures because they won't obscure the details like "better" spray paints would.

Wal Mart has a really good brand, it is one of the only things I ever buy there on a regular basis.

Oh damn. I bought a good brand from Hobby Lobby. Doesn't the spray paint bunch up in the cracks of the mini? Or do u spray lightly then brush it into all the cracks?

If you buy the cheap stuff it doesn't bunch up even with multiple sprayings. I give them a coat on one side, then the other, then put them on sticks and they usually get two or three coats more after that. No problems.

Of course you will still have some figures where the spray can't reach and you do end up going over them with a watered-down black right before painting.

Yeah, thats what i am worried about is the parts I am not able to get with the spray. I was hoping I could still find a black paint on primer. I guess I could always spray the paint down on something and dab my brush in it to paint ;)

What Pictors Studio said.
Avoid at all costs "hobby" primers. They will fail you, and end up spraying grit and messing up your figures.

Do not be fooled by something that calls itself a "primer". You do not need it for gaming miniatures. You only need something to cover the metal, resin or plastic that you can paint over. A Walmart Flat Black, White or Gray is all you need.

oh…I have been asking people and they said I cant just use an acrylic black that I have here. so you are saying that I can? I have craploads of acrylic flat black here…

I thought I needed a 'primer' paint?

Here are the dwarves I am painting. It's been a looong time since I have painted anything, so we'll see. ;) Ignore the ones in the back with greenstuff on them. The resin copies had a few bubbles I am fixing.

link

If you want a good brush on primer try using black artists gesso. You can find it at hobby Lobby and Michaels and other crafts stores. It works fantastic and is my primer of choice.

Chuck

You can't decant from a spray can to paint with a brush, at least I've never been able to. Spray paint seems to be formulated differently to brush on paint and dries much quicker. I ended up with a puddle of goopy mess.

I use automotive primer (Halfords Grey, White and Red Oxide, depending on what I'm painting) and they work just fine. Personally I'd avoid the very cheap brands of spray cans as they can spatter really badly, meaning you'll get gobs of paint instead of a fine mist, but as the previous posters have noted, no need to pay over the odds for "hobby" sprays either.

The best advice I can give you with regards to spraying is it can be a bit like Goldilocks. If it's too cold the paint won't dry quickly enough, if it's too hot the paint can dry in the air before it hits the figures (leaving a gritty finish). It stinks, so you'll probably want to do it outside, just pick your moment. Wash the figures first as well, especially resin, to remove any grease or chemicals from the surface that might stop the paint adhering.

Multiple, light coats are the key. Spraying puts much, much less paint on a figure than brushing on does. Your first coat may not seem to cover all that well, but resist the urge to blast more paint on there, that's how you get build-up and runs of paint. Let it dry and then re-spray, building up layers. Most spray paints will dry in around 15-30 minutes, so you can get 2 or 3 coats on in an hour. It's also not the end of the world if you haven't hit every nook and cranny.

If you do want to spring a few quid for a brand name, I can recommend the Army Painter range and I've never gone far wrong using Games Workshop Chaos Black and Skull White (or whatever they call them these days) either.

Now I must go and cleanse myself for recommending a GW product…

That's where I bought my can of black primer. No one there (3 people) knew about primer not in a can. I will check for that too. At this point I think I will return the spray on primer.

LOL! Cleanse!

Is the GW Chaos Black just a acrylic black? I have tons of it here in the house if so. If the acrylic blacks are good enough for primer then I am all set.

Yup. GW Chaos Black – for all it's GrimDark nomenclature – is just black acrylic spray paint.

I also use black, grey and white undercoat with my airbrush, Vallejo in this case. There is a slight difference in paint formulation for a spray can, but that is so it won't react with the propellant – butane, in most cases – and to speed drying, but the end result is still black acrylic on the figure.

"Personally I'd avoid the very cheap brands of spray cans as they can spatter really badly, meaning you'll get gobs of paint instead of a fine mist"

In 13 years of painting professionally, 10 of them full time, I've only ever really used the cheap wal mart stuff to prime my figures. I buy 24 cans of the stuff at a time typically. I must go through 100 cans of it a year.

I've never had it do that.

I only ever see that happen with expensive hobby primers.

Well, Pictors, you clearly have a better class of cheap spray cans in the US than we do here in the UK. I've had lots of cheap cans sputter and splatter and spit, getting more paint on me and the dropcloth than on the object to be painted. I ditched Plasticote – a not-cheap brand – completely because I found that all the sprays I had of theirs produced dreadfully coarse spray patterns.

The answer, of course, is to test a cheap can on something you won't miss if it gets ruined. If the paint flows well and there is no sign of sputter or spatter then full steam ahead!

I almost always use Floquil engine black as a base coat, brushed on. If doing a figure with mostly one color, like african natives, I will use the skin color as base, or arab in white, use the white as base. Paint the details and then dip with Minwax poly. The poly seals the figure so do not worry about rot or other decay.

See that is how I got with the hobby primers. You'd better spray it over something that doesn't matter and you'd better be prepared to wait. I had a can of Bleached Bone which was great for doing large numbers of skeletons.

Except that it sucked because every time you would spray it the can would leak, the stuff would come out all goopy sometimes. And you'd have paint all over your hands, all dripping on the ground and a pretty bad coat on the figures.

I still bought the hobby primers once in a while if I really needed something big primed a certain color, but almost never. Plus they were at least 10x as much as the cheaper stuff.

Walmart cheapo here too.

I run the can under hot tap water for a minute or so to "warm" the paint up. It seems to spray better when I do that.

Never, never, never spray on a humid day.

Sometimes I use a hair dryer to warm the figures up also. I think the paint adheres better to the warm metal.

I'm no scientist, but these are general observations in long years of painting. Make of it what you will.

I really appreciate all of the info here. I guess in the end it's all personal pref and what works for you. I am going to try a combo of spray and brush on flat black acrylic.

Thank you all for the help!

Let me put it this way. The more you spend on a can of spray paint, the more likely it is to be a waste.
I went back on my rule and bought 4 cans of paint for my Flames of War tanks. Only one gave me no trouble. Two leaked all over the place and one spat grit while half empty. Total waste. I spent at least $12 USD per can on them.

There is ONLY ONE brand of hobby spray that I trust and that is Testor's.
EVERY OTHER brand of hobby "primer" that I have tried has ended up failing me. Ral Partha, Floquil, Armoury, etcetera.
Cheap Walmart had never failed me.

GW brand primer worked well, but the cheap flat acrylics at Ace Hardware work just as well.