"1 / 3000 metal ships... prime white or black?" Topic

I am trying to decide to base coat white or black. Grey is a third intermediate choice.

I want the colors to be bright and true, and the models are only 1-2" long, so a bit small.

Think how to paint NavWar 1/3000, basically.

At the moment, I lean to white prime. However, I've seen a number of people who claim they get best true color to come thru with black prime in multiple coats.

Advice appreciated – much thanks first!

I get good results with white and gray primer. I just use inexpensive spray primmer from the hardware store.

I have not tried black primer. Maybe this summer I will finally get around to doing three ships or three men, each primed differently, but painted the same.

I prefer grey primer. White is too bright and black too dark. For me this disguises detail you may need to see. Colors tend to look darker on small models which would also make me shy away from black primer.

I always prime ships white (Airbrush) regardless of scale.

Black is too dark and you have to work too hard to avoid a heavy a contrast and then build up the light colors (hull, superstructure and deck).

Gray can be confusing unless your base color is much lighter or darker. It can be difficult to judge what is primer and where you have applied the basecoat leading to paint buildup.

With white you can apply the lightest basecoat possible – when the white disappears you know you have good coverage.

I prime with white, though gray would certainly be okay too. Black I would stay away from for the reasons already mentioned here.

White – it allows you complete versatility when painting. If you prime black everything you then do has to compensate for that. If you prime white there's nothing to stop you painting in some areas black or grey if those colours make better localised undercoats for your subsequent colours.

I am thinking maybe to get gray, ochre and white spreay, and use them where the upper works are those colors. I think the black hulls on many ships will not be too hard to do.

So spray painting a base coat according to upper works.

Gray undercoats works fine under gray and black vertical surfaces, but you really want white undercoat for the white and wood and buff and yellow surfaces. Most of the yellows and many of the whites in the world have poor coverage, and it often takes multiple coats to cover gray nicely. You really don't want to be doing multiple coats of wood tan on small scale decks or superstructures.

- Ix

I've never painted anything that small, but the ships that I have painted have all been primed in Krylon grey. Though, depending on the scheme, I would not be afraid to use white.