finite rover
Alright I’m having some issues here.. I’ve tried three different primers and;
Citadel: sticks and does not rub off at all, but is very thick and easy to overspray.
Vallejo: very nice texture but rubs off surprisingly easy even after extreme cure times. Very unfriendly to paint with because if it
Rustoleum; don’t like the texture. Seems weirdly rough.
Any other brands I should try ?:) thanks !
blazing grove
I'm not a fan of rattle cans, but creos has a good reputation
And Tamiya of course
naive pewter
Best rattlecan primer I tried is MiG titans ammo
Mig Titans Hobby: Black Matt Primer 400 ml Spray https://amzn.eu/d/7Uc9uXd
I tried army painter, citadel, Vallejo. Vallejo is on second place imo
shy whale
Tamiya or Mr Hobby. Best spray primers, kinda expensive cause they come in small cans.
Texture can also be caused by spraying from too far away or windy conditions fwiw
naive pewter
Priming metal minis is a pain with all primers it seems like, too
karmic relic
If you're interested on brush on primer, I can add some information. 🙂
naive pewter
If you're interested on brush on primer, I can add some information. 🙂
I will take recommendations for that
karmic relic
I found that a lot of people have their own taste for the texture of the primed surface; smooth (and somewhat reflective and gloss) surface, very rough, or fine rough (very matte).
I like very matte (enough tooth) surface which is better for applying oil paint on top of it.
I tried some hobby-specific primer on brush but not satisfied. most of them are designed for air-brush but allows brush on primer, like Vallejo's primer. They are too watery, not easy enough especially very smooth surface.
I heard old miniature painters used artist's gesso, so I bought Winsor&Newton's gesso but it seems to have some sand-like, very rough grain on it. It was useless unless you want to sand it after priming.
I tried Golden acrylic gesso (Golden was happily send some free material so I tried them initially), and it was good. It created enough matte/toothy surface for my taste.
I usually never dilute the primer. I applied Gesso like the way you brush your tooth with toothbrush, and very strongly rub the surface of the mini (I'm using completely ruined brush)
However, like Vallejo's primer, I'm not able to create even-colored surface. I don't mind brush mark on the primer, but it was too much. I mixed white with black to create grey primer, and it was okay. The more you put black primer (or any other black paint), you can reduce the brush mark dramatically. However, I don't want to create too-dark surface for the primer.
Then I learned that artists uses just regular paint to tint (change the color of the primer), so I start to add regular acrylic on my gesso. Depending on the additive paint, it can reduce the brush mark without making the overall color too dark. I found opaque earthy color like Burnt Sienna, any reddish brown, sometimes, Yellow Ochre are good choice for adding colors.
roughly, the ratio of White Golden Gesso, Black Golden Gesso (or any black acrylic), and any Brown is 16:1:3. Note that the mixing ratio is just for the overall color/brightness. As long as the amount fo Gesso is dominant, the texture is okay for my purpose.
As most of hobbist knew, brush on primer is slow compared to air-brush or rattle can. If you intent to work on large number of minis, that's not ideal.
But if you are working on one by one, that's not too bad. Also, you don't need to go outside, and you don't need to worry about temperature/humidity.
The only thing you can't do is. perhaps if you want to working on sport-car/motorcycle that requires perfect smoothness then probably brush on primer is not you want.
Also, I never experienced on rattle-can nor airbrush so I cannot say for the toughness of the primer. I mostly work for the display mini, gesso was fine for me. No idea whether gesso is strong enough or weak for frequent-handling gaming mini. I think it's still okay as long as you're going to varnish your mini.