"You can prime your models with any color you want so long as it's black." - Henry Ford

I see a grey sprue and I want it primed black. No colors anymore I just want it black.

Had a discussion like this not too long ago on a friend doing Tau, he wanted to hit them with a olive army/camo theme to them. Sent me updates of a drone being sprayed black and then covered in a olive color, and then having a few tans and lighter green splotches on them. I asked why he just didn't prime in Olive Drab of any kind and go from there, save himself a few steps and he went on saying that it would look bad and the panel lines would look wrong. Bet him a 100 bucks that if he just bought a shade and did a olive prime it, he wouldn't notice the final result at the end compared to his first drone, I even said I would reimburse him those supplies if it didn't work. I get a message like the next evening, "You know your not getting that 100 dollars right?" and a pic of the two drones side by side, I just told him your welcome. :P

I was Art Director at Blue Table Painting for a few years and we often used Rustoleum Red Oxide Primer as a base, then followed up with an acrylic floral spray color when needed. I still use Red Oxide for most of my personal projects. I love the earthy undertone it gives the model.

Something to be aware of with automotive primers. Some auto primers are self etching. These contain a phosphorous acid and zinc combination which is meant to bond zinc to bare metal to help inhibit rust. There are also epoxy and filler primers which are designed to fill in small gaps in sheet metal. They are thick primers which will obscure model scaled details as that is what those kinds of primers are designed for. Likewise, not all Krylon lines are the same. You don't want to spray down your plastic details with a hot all weather protectant enamel. You run the risk of melting the plastic and although great protection for patio furniture, your space marines may not appreciate sporting a protective crust. I have several bottles of Stynylrez and a box full of the Krylon Camo rattle cans. Both are great, and I use each for different applications. Just be aware that some auto body primers are less than ideal for hobby work. :)

Being a lazy painter, I always prime in the base colour. Krylon 'Satin' spray can paints are my go to.

On topic of silver primer - GW sells cans of Leadbelcher. Necrons pretty much paint themselves :D

As someone who, in 2022, used some of Reaper models which said they don't need to be primed . . . Prime them anyway. Prime everything.

Atom your stuff is always so well done, I basically started my armies because I watched all your videos after stumbling on them by accident about a year ago. I really appreciate you and your vlogs and such, and just like hearing your stories if nothing else. Thank you so much for the hard work you put into your videos! We appreciate you!

From what I have tried, I'm still with grey primer (black on heavy armored models) Colored primers are good for huge models like tanks, aircrafts etc... Gw prices are insanely high, got a grey primer for 4$ in a hardware store and it gave me the same results

Here in the Philippines, a lot of people use either Bosny Flat Black, Grey, or White, which are all industrial/non-hobby primers. They're insanely cheap at around $2 or less, and they stick pretty well on models, without clogging the details. Downside is, because hobbyists in the country use it to death, it's kinda hard to find them in hardware stores nowadays.

This guy right here. This guy deserves support for his contribution to the community.

I actually watched this after going over many forums for suggestions on primer. I have always done a white or black base as stated however i have noticed some really nice paint+ primer cans popping up. So after some adieu i settled on Krylon paint + primer Fire Engine Red for an army that has primarily black and red for its color. The results have been FANTASTIC! The finish was also matte with mild gloss so metal LOOKED the part out of the can. my acrylics have stuck wonderfully too. thanks for spreading the word on this though for everyone to bring their level up a notch and save us ALL some time.

Good info as always. I don't use anything but the Krylon Fusion paints and have had continual success in all weather conditions. The trick in cold(or humid) weather is to heat the paint and the models. I put my models on a paint stir stick, turn up the furnace and close the door to one of the bathrooms, run the spray paint under hot water for 3-4 minutes...then grab my models and paint, go outside and spray 'em real quick, then back in the(now warm) bathroom to cure. 100% success...have painted 6 Infinity armies that way. I worked for a collision shop for a few years as an estimator and this is very similar to how your car gets painted. Think about it...the busiest time of year for auto body shops is during the worst weather. You don't have to wait six months to get your car fixed because its too cold to paint.

Finally got into wargamming, thanks largely in part to your videos, new and old. Love the content!

The Krylon Camo paints work because they're part of the Krylon Fusion line, which is specifically made to bond to plastic, as well as being an "ultra-flat". Any Krylon Fusion color would bond, but be careful of anything glossy.

Completely agree. I am currently building the War Mumak of Harad from Games Workshop and I got two primers. A grey for the Oliphaunt and black for the creatures tower. The grey allows me to apply a wash almost right away.

Jut a heads up, if you're in the US, you can buy a can of stuff called Quick Color for 97 cents a can at a hardware store like Home Depot. It goes on thin, even, dries fast, and always etches well into both pewter and plastic. I've tried everything from Citadel to Armory (please don't use Armory it's god-awful) and this spray blows everything else out of the water. The only downside is you can only get gloss black, flat black, and gloss white. But at 97 cents a pop you'll never need black primer again.

For the traditional white/black/grey in the UK I have been using Halfords (vehicle store in the UK) Matt primers. Super cheap & the best results! Applies really smooth and even priming layers. For colours I love the GW colour sprays, I used to use Army Painter colour sprays but fell out of love with the coverage & thickness of the pigment when sprayed on the model.

I haven't been able to find the krylon at my local hardware store or walmart, but I picked up the rustoleum camouflage black and it is very matte. Phenomenal results.

I love Vallejo as well. Btw They sell the auto primer at Walmart. It’s good stuff. The regular stuff works also especially the rustolium paint and primer in One. Sure they less forgiving than the fine mist GW/Tamiya primers. Army painter is not fine mist so for me they are too expensive since they are the same paint rustolium/krylon paint. The regular big box store primers have gotten much better! I say, as long as your 12in away and slowly sweeping and moving you’ll be fine. Now with fine mist I can’t mess it up even if I tried

When talking primer it seems the conversation always centers around saving a step or how the primer color effects the base coat. Personally I would like to focus on achieving the highest quality result. You can get a awesome result with Rustoleum primer if you understand how it works with temperature, humidity, and have good can control. Im fortunate to live in TX where I can spray rattle can all year and prefer it to using Vallejo through the air brush. That being said I've never heard anyone address pigment size or how a $10 Tamiya primer compares to a $3 can of Rustoleum.

Until today I primed everything in grey, and honestly the difference is amazing when your using brighter main colours like red or yellow. But yes primer is king, even if it’s not specifically plastic primer.

Getting back into miniature war gaming after a 10-year layoff, the world of good colored primers has really changed my painting, in a very good way. Great advice here, Uncle Atom!

I mostly use GWs primers (mainly because of ease of access), but I have found most of them to be very good if shaken good before starting. And the added bonus of them being a decent match to their other paints is good. Their metalics seem to dry almost too smooth, and you can have some issues with washes pooling oddly straight on the primer, so I always do a quick once over with the corresponding paint (it also lets me touch up any places I might have gotten a thin coat etc)

I use grey as my primer. I always count my primer as the "layer 0", it's the base layer that's gonna decide the rest. But saving a step is always good too

i use white for brighter colors and greys for everything else maybe black

Did my first priming job today on some old dinosaur toys my partner had lying around. Experimenting with B/W and Grey/White zenithal highlight for my Star Wars Legion core set.

So you are incredibly confusing. Essentially if you want to save yourself a step just prime in the color you want your base color to be i.e. red base=red primer so you save yourself having to spray your base color on top of your primer. Always try to match your primer color to your base color unless you want to create a black basing panel shading effect then prime it in black.

My favorite primer is Testors Grey, but my favorite "Story" is that of the mother who thinks that "All Weather" enamel is acceptable. Once when I did not have the room the spray figures, and I used a brush on primer. I haven't been able to find that kind of primer recently.

I've been able to prime all year round by creating a "priming room" near my 3d printing room - I have a cardboard box I spray inside that sits right next to an open window, and it's dry enough in that back room that even on rainy days my ratthe cans work fine. Unfortunately that's led to a bit of mold on the walls but it's nothing some vinegar and cleaning spray can't fix. Very thankful to not be locked out of a big part of this hobby half the year - I live in upstate NY and currently don't own an airbrush 😅

Grey primer best primer, work up, work down. No problems my dudes.

I always prime with Halfords Grey. Never found another rattlecan primer even remotely as consistent.

dude I love your videos. Brown is a go to background/base colour for classic oil painters. so yeah

I have been hunting for a can of gloss black primer, can only find paint+primer. Still terrified to try but you gave me the confidence to at least try it on a test model

Vallejo Hobby spray cans are a must for Bolt action players. I was able to get both my US Airborne in under a week as the primer painted the uniform for me.

Silver can be a good base for red. Fewer coats to get to full red than white and lifts the red giving it more depth

Another great video. And one that I wish was around 2 years ago when I started. I found out about the wait time for airbrush primer the hard way. Something that has helped with priming and wait time is project planing. If I know that when I finish painting these X models I want to paint Y models. Then I better prime the Y models before I finish the X models. I have made that mistake and lost almost a day of painting. Still make it on occasion.

Thanks very much for the tips on the vallejo primer colors. I was not aware for some reason. I hate spraying out side. It's windy half the time.

I’ve been undercoating my orcs black and then heavy dry brushing them with brown as a base to build up from. Today I’ve bought khandri dust in a can, so let’s see how it does for them and for Gandalf!

I've had this debate so many times, I find some 'experts' advise new folk the most difficult techniques, like priming a bright coloured model black, then you see the same 'experts' mocking the new guys for having really thick layers of paint. It's just daft these days. BTW Vallejo German army red brown primer is awesome for deeper reds xD

"In my airbursh room..." Uncle Atom, will you be my actual uncle?

4 Warhammer 40k Armies done using those camo paints, found mine at Walmart under $4 a can. Great tip!

Grey Vallejo Grey is the norm, white if using the 'light' colours e.g. yellow, black if you have a 'dark' painted figure use Chaos Black Citadel. Also I believe (not 100% sure) those Citadel 'base' spray cans have some element of primer within them (correct me if you know otherwise).

If you’re in the UK, Halfords Grey plastic primer is good stuff, and a lot cheaper than the GW cans. It’s also a fairly light grey, which I prefer.

I almost always use a white primer only. This is for two reasons: First, it means the undertone for all my armies is equal. Second, my painting method, false pastels, works best on white. For individual models anything goes. However for establishing consistency in collections using one baseing method only is est. It is not a hard rule, I do use coloured primers sometimes, but afterwards I reprime the base in white before I paid to ensure my whole collection has a uniform basing and undertone.

Here in the UK, for priming, I'll use Halfords matt black or grey sprays. Absolutely brilliant, good pressure in the cans and great coverage for 32mm scale down to 15mm scale that I game usually. I would suggest staying away from Plastic Soldier Company sprays, the seam on the cans are prone to leaking, and the pressure/paint content is so anaemic a butterfly several hundred metres away that beats its wings will blow the spray away before it reaches the model.

i don't do competition stuff so I use my artist quality gesso as a primer (never the "craft" standard which is student paints) and artist quality paints. I get more paint for my buck in volume. And I need the artist paints for my paintings anyway.

My preference is for Vallejo’s primers. Especially as I got a load of coloured ones in a Vallejo set that was given to me for Christmas a few years back. Still keep a can of Citadel Chaos Black for when I’m in a hurry & use Army Painter Necrotic Flesh for the masses of Zombicide minis. Quick coat of that, wash & drybush & the bulk of the work is done.

finally someone talking about primer! Jesus all the other channels just start painting! Feel like I wana pull my hair out!

I prime and base using whatever spray paint will match the colors I plan to paint, i find they all work as long as the finish is matte

Can I say firstly, that I really like your channel/ videos. Very clear, easy to understand, great content and you defiantly have a great orator's voice! I'm a mid level painter. In that I've entered a local painting competition, with the Anniversary Primaris Captain in the colour scheme of the Crimson Sabre's 4th Company, of which I won! However I really struggle with some techniques (wet blending) that most good painters find a breeze. I decided to take a page out of Black Library's First Heretic with the 4th company of the Sabre's, (consisting of a start collecting Space Marines, Dark Imperium, Talons of the Emperor and Inquisitor Greyfax which I already had), being on probation, as ordered by Guilliman and overseen by Greyfax with a detachment of the not at all OP Custodies. I now have a 2k list for the Crimson Sabre's. My clearly quite over explained question is; is there a way to get a 'clean' drybrush of Space marines/ Primaris armour for highlighting? So far I have done, Ad Mec grey base, then blue-tac'ed the shoulders, backpack, kneepads and mephiston red spray, then done a quite lengthy brush mid and high, highlight. for both the red armour and the white pauldrons, knee pads etc. I find this, coupled with guns, melee weapons, leather pouches and the imperial crests and such extra banter, very time consuming. Worst still, as I have done a couple of squads really well, I'm less able (or willing) to cut corners and have a lack of consistency across my army. I'm planning to do a Deathwatch list/ kill team (probably both) and the new AOS Wraiths. What I want is to achieve good results with easy, or efficient to apply techniques that don't involve me going into a cave for the next year to complete! Can you give me some suggestions, please? P.s I don't own/ can afford an Airbrush.

I've used black, red, grey, yellow, and white primer all from Hycote. It really depends what colour is going over it. Metallics are best used on black, the red is for my chaos 40k /AoS khorne stuff, yellow is for various tzeench guys/daemons, though it has been used on a couple of nurgle daemons as a test, throw some black/brown/purple/green washes over it and it works pretty well on blight drones ;) The metallics I use are Plastikote and work amazingly, no clogging of detail, and they take paint well.

Yeah when I brush on Vallejo primer, I found it needs at least 24 hours to cure on metal. On plastic, it can be a litter earlier but I prefer to let it sit for a day before working on the next colour.

Brilliant, thank you for taking the time to make this! I've always done Black or White. Recently started getting into warhammer. Got the Khorne Demons start collecting set. Primed it all with "Mephiston Red" Saved me so much time compared to before. Used your Rattle can video for that one.

I bounce back and forth, from Grey, then do a Black Wash, to bring out the details. Then move on from there. To Black, for the Metal Armored Mini's. Then i use the old method of Dry Brush metallic paint over that. ;)

I'm really glad I've seen this video. I'm getting back into 40k with Imperial Guard; they have a mostly blue uniform, so basing in blue is going to save me tons of time.

Thanks uncle Adam, always informative

So I’ve recently really got into all this…. I got some Warhammer for my little boys off eBay. I thought if we can make our own game, as I played Heroquest and Space Crusade when I was a kid in the 80s…. So I thought it would be fun for my boys to try painting these minis…. But found I was loving it too! I did Art at university so felt I would be good at this. And I’m not bad, but what’s tricky is the mini’s are SMALL!!! Makes it really finicky…..

Thanks. I'd heard good stuff about Krylon but didn't know why. I'll look to see if you produced a clear coat video. I'm looking for a good coat for my SM's, IG, Necrons and Team Yankee.

Would a grey primer be suitable for something like blood ravens space marines? Not sure whether the primer is black or grey would influence the base coat that much? (obviously white over black if you are painting something bright)

I did loads of stuff in black primer space marine wise with maccrage blue on top, if I change to grey will my color of miniatures change ?

Can you do a side by side. One primed one straight to paint. And show us how important it is? This would be highly helpful to fully appreciate the need for primer.

For white priming and for UK folks, Halfords white plastic primer works great. For any other colours though I use Vallejo myself.

Thanks for this video, definitely is going to help finish some projects as well as armies that I’m stripping and repainting, gives me some more motivation.

FYI people Wizkids "preprimed" minis are worth stripping cleaning and repriming. They are essentially dipped in primer which clogs a ton of detail that is there on the models and they're also hydrophobic when you try to just paint onto the "preprimed" surface.

Thanks for the primer on primers.

I stumbled on this trick years ago. I was looking for spray primers at a local hardware store. I found a grey "etching primer" that was a close match to the German Field Grey by Vallejo that I was using for infantry. It was such good match I haven't had to use the actual paint in a long time.

I used gray primer to fix a scratch on the front bumper of my Sterling Gray Metallic Fusion. It ended up turning darker than the OEM paint, even though I was using the same exact paint color. I should have gone with white primer. But trying it a second time with a better clear coat would amount to the same cost as getting it professionally painted at the shop down the road from my house. For about $40, I decided it was worth attempting the repair myself. Now I know what I did wrong, but can't afford to mess it up again.

I've heard Ultramarines aren't actually ultramarine.

Krylon Camo is the only primer I use now the stuff is amazing. The primer holds like mad and leaves a sand paper like coating that just sucks up paint.

I use a general purpose rattle can primer made by Colorgin. I think it's only available here in Brazil, but it's now been bought by Sherwin Williams.

Referring to your trick of spraying from above to build in a lighting effect, would it be dumb to prime black, then spray from above with red?

I have Rustoleum painters touch. Black, grey, white.and clear. Black, grey and white to prime depending on the model I'm using. (usually zenathal prime unless I use my airbrush for that.) then after I'm done painting I use the clear to varnish it. works well, it's 340g for just under $10 canadian from homedepot. they tend to have a lot of different colors as well.

I always have the intention of doing things like fancy pre made bases and getting things like a decent primer to miss a step, but I always crumble and get more models been as my money is always short. I really just need to do it some time, especially if I use your shading tricks with a couple of colours.

Vellejoy has a silver primer Uncle Atom! Split on a suitcase from Vellejoy with a coworker. Also, good to know about the 24h dry time. I've not been doing that... Will start to think/work ahead.

A newbie here. I've been looking for a substitute for the Citadel primer which is super expensive in my country. I found a local brand with a Primer Surfacer grey that gives my miniatures a smooth surface without the glossy part. It only cost me around 1.5 dollars.

Vallejo's airbrush primer is great for a thin base coat which leaves a lot of the detail showing. That is the major problem with rattle can primers it can obscure the details sometimes...but Uncle Atom is correct you have to let it sit for at least 24 hours..I learned that the hard way when I was painting and the primer started coming off D:

One thing that wasn't mentioned in the video and I haven't found in the comments, is the "finish" a certain primer leaves when dry. Is it smooth??? Is it grainy??? Depending on what you're painting, one will be better than the other. If you're doing SPESH MAWEENS, you want a smooth coat because you're painting armor. But if you're doing undead or skeletons, grainy is fine because they're dirty and such.

I always use Rust-Oleum auto primer light grey. You can easily go light or dark in one thin, sometimes two coats regardless of the color. I've had far more problems trying to cut corners by trying to prime in the base color of the model. That usually requires me to do two or more coats for all the colors that aren't the base color, which are always the details which require more attention and care to hit. I would rather do a quick sloppy base coat in the beginning, than have to do extra detail work in the end. And sometimes the colors don't look right even after four or more coats.

I am kind of surprised you didn't mention the old trick of 'under coating' with black and then hitting the top down with white to give you the best of both worlds. You are dark where you need to be dark and light where you need to be light. Then there is the technique that Andy from Andy's Hobby Lobby uses on bigger models of using black primer (with a airbrush) and then using his airbrush to paint large panels and surface areas white to create a built in shadow effect. In theory it is using the same concept as the 'top down' highlight, but with way more control.

Favorite uncle of uncles.

One Type i have found alot of Luck with are the Rustoleum Ultra-Cover. They are meant to be a paint and primer in one, but i have not had an issue. THey also bond to plastic, or resin very well, like the Krylon Fusion.

Light Green primer works well for Gretchen and Ork Boys with a lot of skin and Catachan Jungle fighter camouflage. A dark green wash or ink over the light green primer creates a decent skin tone or camo look.

When thinking and looking at your mins . Paint scheme base coat with a color that be a shadow of your color scheme or should I say 180 degrees darker or lighter. Sit on the idea for as long as you need to and your minds eye will go through your supply of paint and take you to the solution. It works. Try it.

the primer im using is the krylon colormaster covermax Ultra flat black primer for my homebrew chapter.

I mostly use Grey or Black. Though for the Necromunda Escher & Goliaths I found white to work best for me.

If you live in the UK, Halfords spray paints are a cut above. Not enough people know about their cans.

I agree with most of what you said except I always prime skeletons black not the tan/bone colour you suggest. Skeletons generally have very deep crevasses compared to most other miniatures figures you will paint and always want the depths to be very dark if not totally black. You can then paint them up in layers (usually dry brushing starting ta drying to very dry) to either a tan bone colour of murky still rotting looking or a total white bleached out look but in both cases still black in the deepest shadows.

I really like the wolf grey from army painter for my space wolves.

One thing to remember is AVOID satin or gloss sprays or primers... the only issues I've had (other than with some Reaper Bones models) was when I accidentally bought a red satin spray color for some Gates of Antares models instead of a flat red... brush on paints don't want to stick and rattle can seemed to put down a heavier coat than the flat paints I'm used to working with. Also, as others and Atom have said.. you don't need to spend a LOT on basic primers... some people love certain primers (Privateer Press, for example) but a lot of the time I find the $3 and $4 rattle cans just as good and sometimes IMHO with better coverage than the expensive stuff.

I have problem.. I'm paintin Black templars and I couldn't find a black color that is same as Abaddon Black. GW primer (Chaos black) is bit different so I still have to base coat it after.

Good stuff, Atom (?) - your vids are always useful and informative!

Grey prime. Zenith white light from top, zenith shade black (umbral? nadir?) from the bottom

What type of mic are you using? The pick up and quality is really good.

I use Bob Ross Black Gesso! It works!

What is the difference between a primer and a paint anyways?

I’m often concerned that auto primers might be more likely to fill in details, but could be there’s nothing to worry about there! Also I actually start painting minutes after airbrushing my primers and haven’t ever had a problem. But maybe I am not rough enough with my minis to see an issue :)

Your video on the Krylon Camouflage sold me on it and I've been using the black, brown, light tan, and olive colours ever since. Unfortunately, my local Canadian Tire doesn't stock it anymore, so I'm going to have to find a new supplier.

I actually like using Death Guard Green for priming, I tried Krylon fusion italian olive which is cheaper then GW rattle cans and pretty good for painting Death Guard but I didn't like how it covered. I digress so far I have used DGG for death guard units and for gryph-chargers from the stormcast and I found that it doesn't really negatively effect the colours I put over it as it is very middle of the road like Standard Grey is but it is warmer then Grey. It is really nice for reds, browns, and greens.