What undercoat/primer are people using?

[TheCrux]

I made a bit of an error move recently as I'm new to the hobby/game. A friend of mine who has well painted models recommended I get a black primer and spray all my models. Which I have done, about 1000pts of them and begun to paint them all.

However, every tutorial I'm seeing online for Seraphon tends to use white or grey spray primer. I finished a warrior model, and I'm happy with the results, but I can't help think the colours would pop more with a white primer. Have I left it too late to re-spray all my models in white? or at least test it out on one warrior model then compare the results?

What are all you guys using?

 

[Aginor]

Since I am painting my Saurus and Skinks blue (like on the box art) I use Army Painter blue spray primer for those.
That basically means I don't have to basecoat their skin (which is most of their bodies!), I just shade and highlight.
Super fast.

For Skeletons I use bone color spray primer, for the same reason as above.

For everything else I use white primer, which helps immensely for bright colors and doesn't impact dark colors too much. A bit though.

If you just want to use one primer I'd suggest white or light grey. Making something darker (just slap black or dark grey on the parts you want to use darker colors on) is much easier than overpainting lighter colors over black.

Black has one great advantage though: if you don't fill all the holes with your basecoat, then the holes are dark and not white so you don't see them that easily.

 

[tom ndege]

I'm for grey white and black ... depends on the model and the way I plan to paint it.

 

[Crowsfoot]

If the majority of the model is going to be red, yellow, orange, white, cream use a white primer any other colour use grey or black, black hides more if you miss parts.

 

[Nefertem]

I use black and then add a zenithal white primer. Made excellent experience personally using Vallejo.

 

[Hojdar]

Well if you are happy with the result then the black primer isn't really a problem then right . It really depends on your paint style, and more importantly the colors you use. I usually paint using very bright colors and use a white primer for that reason. As Aginor also mentioned a colored primer as a base coat ready to be washed and whatnot is a good, fast and simple way to get some nice results and especially so if you're new to the hobby.

 

[Chicken Lips]

I use black almost exclusively. I have some white primer, but that's for models that I want really, really bright colors. The black will darken your model and the white will brighten them (every so slightly in both cases). That's what it boils down to. If you know that there will be a TON of painting one specific color, then a primer in that shade works well, but that's pretty much for batch painting (a whole lot all at once), like with Dwarfs, i.e. full metal.

The biggest difference I've found is that black will hide missed parts, bits that you can't really get a brush to and scratches that occur on the model later after handling them in games and such.

 

[Karnus]

Necro? Oh well!

I use the base colour of whatever my model is going to be. Sprays I have are:

Mephiston red (tyranids etc)
Mcragge blue (saurus/skinks)
Green (can’t remember the name) (cold ones)

I don’t bother with black/white/grey first. Waste of time. By the time you’ve layered it up and washed it and highlighted etc you won’t tell the difference.