"Primer, Basecoat, Undercoat difference?" Topic

I'm a new person to painting miniatures and I keep hearing these terms about painting miniatures. I don't fully understand what they mean. what I do understand that a first layer is recommended before painting. I currently have a can of krylon black primer and a can of FOW dak sand. Should I spray black before, or can I just spray on the dak sand?

Best to prime first.

Decide how good of a painter you want to be then decide about base coats. Some folks will base coat black on top of black primer, I don't bother.

Primer is a coat that helps paint stick to the mini.

Base coat is the first layer of paint.

Undetcoat is *usually* another word for primer but not always.

Undercoat is what you put on the bottom side of cars to help resist road salt and other caustic substances.

There are several companies that make colored primers, Army Painter being one I use. If I am painting knights, or a figure wearing mostly armor, I will prime them with metallic silver primer, paint the details, give it a wash, and be done. If a figure has a lot of brown in it, I would use a brown primer, etc. The primer is a little pricey (around $15 USD per can), but the time it saves me in painting more than saves on the cost of the primer.

Primer is more important for metal figures than plastic figures. If you dont use a good primer you may find the paint rubs off with handling.

What extra crispy said.

a primer is also handy as a final check before painting. are all the mould lines gone? flash? have i puttied up gaps created by poor moulding or modifications ive done. Good where you might have multiple surfaces on the model ie you might have metal, resin, plastic and various glues that you're trying to get your paint to stick to evenly.

what are you painting? what is the brand of the dark sand?

I'm painting crusader tanks for flames of war. DAK sand(flames of war) is the color spray I have. I heard you could skip the priming if you spray your miniatures.

For tanks I would just spray the tan and skip the primer.

Then when you;re done give them two heavy coats of dull coat.

There is an additional consideration concerning using a primer on metal figures, which is prevention of corrosion. A proper metal primer is formulated to fully seal the surface of the metal. Lead alloy figures which have not been primed, under certain conditions, may develop "lead disease," a form of corrosion in which a white powder forms on the surface and begins falling off. This is not something that happens inevitably, but I have seen it develop on some lead alloy fittings on ship models, and it is quite pernicious once started. Plastic miniatures do not really require a primer, but a lot of people seem to confuse an overall base coat of paint with priming.

Thanks mates. Currently I have resin/with metal tracks tanks, full plastic tanks, and full metal infantry. I'll take your suggestion to priming my tanks, however I am aware darker primers are not really recommended for lighter colors considering i'm doing desert tanks. It shouldn't be too much a problem if i add more layers.

You can also overhead spray a light primer on top of a dark one. Search on "zenithal priming". I also use an overhead spray of a colored Army Painter primers on top of a black spray prime, followed by an Army Painter wash. Very little work for good results before you've even started painting!

Not all painters agree with the use of undercoat. An undercoat is a layer of paint or primer underneath the basecoat. Some will distinguish primer versus a paint used as an undercoat. As an example of a paint undercoat, I prime my orcs in black, then use brown as an undercoat before painting green. Green directly on black would take more layers than my patience would allow!

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As of right now, i'm a little stretched for buy more paints, so what I have is what I can use. It being krylon black primer and DAK Sand in sprays with the rest in droppers. What would be the best color to paint before sand? Luckily I do have some models with darkers colors, so I can wait a while for lighter primers.

Primer is a durable paint that has some tooth to it and will cling to the metal/plastic etc. Basecoat to me are all the base colors prior to hi-lights. Undercoat, I'm not sure about….

I prep my figures, rinse with soapy water and set all of my figures to dry (plastic, resin, metal…I treat all the same). I prime with an enamel flat primer and then start my base coats. Plastic figures tend to get somethig like Krylon fusion or something that bites to plastic figures. Sometimes, If I am lucky the primer is the same color as the base coat of whatever the figure's majority color is; after base coat(s), I begin hilights.

I always thought of primer as explained above.
The other terms, undercoat and basecoat, I think of like this:
Basecoat is the the primary color of the object and will still be visible after highlighting, layering, etc.
Undercoating I see more as a layer that is meant to influence the color put on top but not(necessarily)remaining visible when done. This would be like painting a helmet brown before painting the whole thing gold or painting a cuff white on a black-primed model in order to get a nice yellow.

It also depends on the scale of the miniatures. Smaller figures will have a smaller surface area than either larger scale figures or the real thing so they reflect less light. This means that a colour which may be an exact match for the real thing can look dull on a mini. To counteract this I often use a white undercoat to reflect more light back through the top coats. Use your eyes as long as you are happy with the results you are doing it right.