Army Painter sprays

[Valkyrion]

I've always used GW products for everything - glue, paint, even tools - and I've realised that's fairly silly given their prices. I've quickly moved away from their glue and tools but still use their paints and have loads of them.

 

How do I know what colour a different companies spray paint is?

For example, if I buy army painter dragon red to use as a base coat, how do I know if it will highlight up using blood red to orange?

Or the blue, highlighting up to ultramarines blue.

 

I thought with the advent of the foundation range, that mechrite red would allow me to line highlight with blood red like mordian blue allows me to line highlight with ultramarines blue, but the difference in colour between mechrite and blood is vast.

 

I test painted an ultramarine with a mordian blue base and a simple, single highlight with ultramarines blue and it works.

The same principle with mechrite red and any other red doesn't seem to work.

 

In short, could I buy army painter dragon red and highlight it with blood red for a quick and easy base coat that doesn't involve mixing or washes?

 

I'm trying to move away from using washes, as good as they are, because whilst they can change the tone of a marine, it doesn't translate as well to vehicles.

Hopefully using a red spray and simple highlights will be just as effective on marines as well as tanks.

 

 

Oh, and do you use them directly on the plastic or should you prime white or black first?

 

Cheers!

[igotsmeakabob!!]

Dragon Red is significantly darker red than GW's Blood red. Army Painter actually sells Pure Red, that's equal to Blood Red.

Use them directly on the plastics, no need to prime... they're color primers after all.

[Red Fury]

I use Pure Red from army painter, as well as their matte varnish. I use Armory white and black primer (it's even cheaper) and have tried their varnish but like Army Painter's varnish better.

 

The Pure Red is 'nearly' GW Blood Red. I just do a light watered down blood red wash to cover the model and any missed spots. The spray is a bit too thick and difficult to accurately spray to cover every single little nook on a marine.

 

I haven't tried the dragon red, but I see what you are saying about washing vehicles after spraying. I have done this with 5 tanks and 2 pods and you are right, it looks a little funny. I was a bit upset with the outcome after the first one, but plowed through and with 7 vehicles all matching it looks better, but still not the quality level I would have liked.

 

It may work well to use a Dragon Red base coat and then use an airbrush to apply the first highlight with. This way you could cover more area smoothly and still keep the dragon red in the crevices as a shading effect. Then brush highlight the rest of the highlights.

 

Good luck, and if you try it post a pick so we can see the results.

 

-Fury

 

PS. Here is a pick of two Baals I did this way. You can see some streaky blothyness of being washed. Sorry for the poor pic, I just cropped an existing pic I had already taken for something else so... Oh, and I still prime white first, I think it lets you put down a much thinner layer of red to cover.

http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll275/RedFury77/40k/100_0861-1.jpghttp://i290.photobucket.com/albums/ll275/RedFury77/40k/100_0861-2.jpg

[Hemal]

you can't highlight mechrite with blood - you need intermediate shades by mixing the two together - painful but gives good results. Teh Army painter paints look quite good in that picture but I have no direct experience of them myself. I use GW paints mostly and use generic tools except for the razor saw which is GW. I have a few Coat d'Arms mainly for nostalgia as I like someo fteh older GW colours ut otherwise its GW all the way - though I am tempted to give vellejo model air metallics a go as I have been told they are much better for even painted metallics.

[Fire Lord Captain]

Like Red Fury, I have the pure red army painter spray, and like he said its quite thick to spray on marines. I only use it on tanks where it works a dream. I undercoated with GW black first then sprayed it red. It came out a pretty nice colour suitable for Blood Angels.

[Freakiq]

Like Red Fury, I have the pure red army painter spray, and like he said its quite thick to spray on marines. I only use it on tanks where it works a dream. I undercoated with GW black first then sprayed it red. It came out a pretty nice colour suitable for Blood Angels.

 

GW's Chaos Black is plain spraypaint while Pure Red is a primer.

 

By applying the Chaos Black first you are ruining the Pure Red's grip on the model making the paintjob easier to scratch.

[Fire Lord Captain]

Like Red Fury, I have the pure red army painter spray, and like he said its quite thick to spray on marines. I only use it on tanks where it works a dream. I undercoated with GW black first then sprayed it red. It came out a pretty nice colour suitable for Blood Angels.

 

GW's Chaos Black is plain spraypaint while Pure Red is a primer.

 

By applying the Chaos Black first you are ruining the Pure Red's grip on the model making the paintjob easier to scratch.

 

Chaos Black is a primer itself surely? I undercoat lots of mini's using it.

 

I have a landraider painted using this method and I assure you that the paint job is hard as ever (tested by attempting to scratch with thumbnail). It just makes the red that shade darker and looks a lot better imho.

[Brother Valerius]

I would venture to disagree about highlighting Mechrite Red with Blood Red. I recently finished painting a Blood Ravens veteran as part of a Christmas present, and the Blood Red highlights look quite nice on the Mechrite Red. The only thing I may yet do is highlight a very little bit with a brighter shade of red, or even orange, as the Blood Red doesn't pop all that much.

 

Will post a pic when I get home from work and have time to take one, so you can see what I mean.

[GLD]

In my personal experience, dragon red is only a tiny bit darker than blood red. I am painting blood ravens and anticipated being able to spray dragon red as a primer and base coat and highlight with blood red and blazing orange as you noted.

 

I ended up using a devlan mud wash to tone it down - you can see some pics of the bare dragon red spray here http://www.whmpg.com/?p=313