Hi, I could really use some help with what colors to buy and what to use for spray-primer. I think I have a rough idea in my head about how I want my Seraphon army to look, but it's been 15 years since I last painted anything so all the how-to's and what not have faded from memory. What I'm thinking is to make the skin something like Bleached Bone with a darker wash maybe, and then different shades of green and/or brown for the scales. So what spray should I use for basecoat then? I'll try and add photo of the last dino I painted some 14-15 years ago. I'm not going with that color scheme but it's an opportunity to showcase what kind of level I was at and will hopefully surpass this time around. Sorry about the potato-photos...
I always use straight up black spraypaint for my undercoats, but I hear that if you want to start with a lighter color (like bleached bone) then start with a white spray paint undercoat.
I would probably prime grey. On the lighter end of grey to be exact. Something close to Ulthuan or Celestra grey. I am lazy and prefer to do my shadow lining by not doing it at all and just leave a bit of undercoat untouched. That is why I pretty well avoid straight white primers.
I like to use a white primer, but go for artists' acrylic gesso as I have buckets of that stuff I use for canvas or panels. Grey gives you great control over values (dark vs light) and temperature (warm vs cool). And looks like a solid choice for what you intend to do.
Gesso also has some shrinking properties. Which means you maintain all your model details and have a pretty chip resistant undercoating.