"What color do you prime Napoleonic minis?" Topic

First foray into Napoleonics. Do you find it better to prime in black, white or grey? Figures will be French and British (lights and rifles).

I primer everything a neutral grey.

I prefer in white. It's better for my eyes when painting facings, strips and all the kind. Resulting colours are brighter, and white colour is easier to accomplish (for me at least). Grey is a second choice.

Mid-brown; I usually find that best for priming.

Prime white then wash with black wask. Details are well defined and bright colours are easily applied and stay bright.

I used to prime black and drybrush white, but not as successful as above.

John

Scale? Usually white prime with a burnt umber wash in 28mm and 54mm, but black prime in 15mm and lower. Rifles might still be black-primed even in the larger scale.

white and then a heavy wash with either a deep violet or raw umber, which gives me the shades and shows a good definition of the figure.

Russians and Prussians black, everyone else white.

I prime them all black. Even Austrians.

I usually prime with grey for waterloo british infantry – save painting the trousers. I'm not averse to using a colour primer though. Just working on Nassau infantry and have primed them in green as uniform is pre dominately this colour and makes painting easier & faster.

Hi saltflats, offtopic but where is your gaming group?

always white , makes the colours more brighter imho

Many years ago i did black. Tried white. Didn't like it. Everything I do now both the miniatures and buildings i prime gray.

White. Makes it easier

15mm – black

Black. Then if you miss a tiny spot you never notice.

White (mostly)

White, though I have used Army Painter's colored spray primers.

Brits- Grey with dark wash
French/Prussian/Russian- Black
White Uniform- primer white with light/thinned black wash.

I have not been successful painting dark uniforms on white primer so have stopped. The white does brighten and may save from having to do light highlights.

Home Depot or Lowes spray can white.

White, of course.
Black is for tanks or knights.

Black for everything but Austrians, which are grey.

I prime most things dark brown. White only if the uniform is predominantly white

Black

28mm black, 6mm grey

I use flat black, and occassionally gray

Prime white then wash with black wash. Details are well defined and bright colours are easily applied and stay bright.

That's a great idea. I'm going to try that.

- Ix

White. I tried grey and the colours just weren't as vivid.

The primary uniform colour for the unit in question — saves a lot of brush time!

White, except French infantry which get dark blue primed right off to save me time.

Rustoleum flat white. It's been working great for almost 30 years!

Thsnks for all the advice. I may try both methods. Scale is 40mm and I might do some 28mm.
Mike- we already know each other! I'll send you an email.

White gesso, but wish I used grey so as soon as I run out in 10 years I'll change.

Well I've just started to paint Naps, but I've been painting figures for many years. I started black then went gray, but am going back to black. While gray is easier to paint the base color isn't dark enough causing further layers to not have enough contrast so I decided to switch back to black. Also black "cools" and gives a richer effect to to the colors. The off side is it's harder to see detail when painting and lighter colors sometimes need extra layers, but it's worth it for the effect I want.

Christopher

Black, unless Austrian but only in 28mm, – then its white
15mm white uniformed troops are still undercoated black
link

On metal, Rustoleum 769 red-brown for all but white uniforms. Rustoleum 780 light gray for white.
On plastic or resin, Mr. Hobby Mr. Primer Surfacer 1000 (light gray in color).

Used on 40 mm and larger.
Good primers, but they don't fix my horrible painting.

White acid etch primer.

Paint it black

White. I want the colours to pop.

Black

White, aussi.

Always white for 10mm and up. For 6 mm, black and then white dry brush

28mm
British infantry and artillery: Black
British Light Dragoons: Grey
Portuguese infantry: Black
Started doing horses Brown recently (except greys)

I used to prime black, but for 28s I now prime white and wash black.

15s I usually color prime whatever the primary color on the uniform is. I'd prime British troops Gray, then paint the red coats.

Can of worms opened…….

I used to prime white but you have to spend time making sure the paint covers every little millimetre of the model and it takes FOREVER

So now I prime Black – you can miss large parts of the model painting quickly and no one ever notices

Regards

J

Been priming with black since the mid 80's….

Ferg. Or J

White primer does indeed se m that way. But I finish with the dip (brush applied) so that sorts out any gaps.

I find white just helps me with facing colours.

What I have done before is white then an ink wash – dark brown. That helps show the detail, provides a degree of shading and helps avoid he "white spots".

Haven't black undercoated for years. Don't think my eyes would cope these days