How many of you use primer on your white metal parts and figures vs. just putting paint on them “raw”? I’m concerned about losing too much detailing if I prime AND paint them. To ask it another way: Will paint still adhere adequately to white metal without priming it first? Thanks
Tom
Tom,
I am having absolutely no problems directly painting tiny details onto my scale structures limited “machine shop equipment”. These really have really really tiny parts (handles and small wheels) I painted them stainless steel, machine shop medium green, gun metal, light gray, and black. I used Polyscale paints.
~Don
Depends on what paint you’re using. If acrylics definitly use primer. A light white spray is best. If your’e using Model Master you may get away with it in the darker colors. White ,yellow ,red, will probably require a couple coats so why not prime. White for lighter colors gray for the darker. For special effects I’ve seen some really nice work from the wargamers using black primer.
I do a base coat, but it depends on the figure which color. If it has a lot of high relief, I use black, and then when I paint I lightly brush the color on to add shaddow in the relief. However, sometimes the base coat will be skin tone, the clothes then getting two coats, a base and a highlight.
I use a similar formula. For most items, i give it a black primer, ESPECIALLY if it is to be painted with a metalic color. Gold, silver, brass, etc. almost require a black basecoat to give a proper metal coloring. However, for warmer stuff like copper and some reddish brass, and occasionally gold and bronze, I’ve used either a dark red or a reddish-brown primer coat.
For people, I almost always give one or two very light (read thinned paint) coats of flat white. The white primer coat not only helps with adhesion, but also helps brighten the final finish, especially less opaque colors like yellow and light blue, flesh, etc. In fact, one very good technique for flesh is to prime it white, then use a thinned flesh tone and wash the exposed skin areas. That provides some excellent relief tones with the white primer showing up somewhat on the high/raised areas. It’s also an excellent technique for horses. Just keep building up layers of color till you get the look you like.
The only time I don’t use white base coat for flesh is when I’m painting asiatic or negroid features. In those cases, I start with a mid-brown or ochre and then build up to the final shade with washes of the darker skin tones. It’s similar for bronzed-skin or sun-weathered features.
Lastly, you can get an excellent 5 0’clock shadow effect by applying a thin wash of a grey-green over the cheeks and chin. yeah, i know… sounds weird, but when it dries it looks excellent, and much more realistic than a black or brown stippling, especially in a smaller scale.
Respects,
I like this guys method. I think his figures look great.
Musket Minatures has thorough instructions for painting their figures. I thank SpaceMouse for turning me on to that.
Sue
Back when I painted my BattleTech miniatures, everything got primed. I found that priming the miniatures made details so much easier to see, in turn making the details easier to highlight as I saw fit.
It wasn’t so much to make the paint stick better, but to make detailing easier.
As long as you keep the primer coat light, I don’t see how you could lose much detail.
I still have 3 large WH40K armies, and another half done. It’s a small world, you know? Seems like the Emperor’s reach extends even to model railroading… [:O]
Regardless, yeah… the primer coat these days has nothing much to do with sealing the miniatures, and most everything to do with helping the paint adhere a tad better, but mostly to expose the details so you can see them better.
Back in the day when metal figures really were made of lead, or had a substantial lead content, a primer coat was needed to prevent the “white rot” from infecting the figure and spoiling the paint job. Basically, and small hole in the surface that wasn’t covered and/or sealed by paint could potentially allow enough air to get through and cause oxidation of the lead. this would bubble through as a white, flakey crud and ruin a paint job. the only recourse a painter had was to strip the mini and start over, or toss it and buy another.
These days the lead conten is either extremely low or absent altogether, so thre “white rot” isn’t a problem. However, assisting the paint to gain a good grip on the surface and also to highlight details is a good thing, so a primer coat is still handy, though not required.
Respects,
I havn’t painted figures lately - eyes aint what they used to be - but I did use Floquil primer - in an aerosol can if I only need a few quick figs. Even the aerosol can applied so thin & even that details were not obliterated. Prime - as long as you don’t use latex house paint![:D]
The best is to use a primer on lead/cast/aluminum/diecast anything . I use what we used in the aircraft industry ZINC CHROMATE primer . It can be bought at most body shop supply dealers or parts dealers in a spray can and goes on very thin not eliminating any detail and keeps paint where it belongs . Make sure you clean your parts very good first . It has a pee green color so make sure they give you the right thing and don’t let anyone tell you " this is just like it " … it’s not !