Undercoating/priming with the GW sprays?

[Adeptus]

I've always undercoated with the black GW spray, I know it's expensive but I've tried other sprays and never liked them as much. The GW one preserves all the detail, lasts well and lets me paint over it easily.

 

I've got a red Space Marine project coming up and think that it would be easier to just prime them in red, rather than start with a black primer and then try and apply red over it.

 

Has anyone used the coloured GW sprays (red in particular I guess) as a primer/undercoat? Did it work out ok?

[Paradigm]

They aren't bad. Just make sure to test it on some sprue ahead of time to make sure your spray distance works out. They aren't all exactly like the black. Sometimes I have to hold the colored sprays closer, and sometimes a little further to prevent fuzzing. I do think the Army Painter primers are a bit better quality than the GW ones, but if you weren't happy with them in black, you probably won't be thrilled with them in red either.

[Ciler]

Been using the Fang grey blue spray to prime and undercoat my wife's SW without any issues. Hell, in the Warhammer TV tutorial videos, DUncan often recommends priming/basing with the coloured sprays.

[sockwithaticket]

I was under the impression that the GW coloured sprays are just that, not actual primers. So you can use them on bare plastic in the same way that you can slap paint on bare plastic if you really want to and you'll probably be alright, but using an actual primer would be better.

Auto-primers are always a good bet if you don't want to use some of the wargaming ones. If you're UK based Hycote or Halfords have a wide range and are very good value, Hycote in particular are my go to. Very good, smooth finish every time.

[Isolia]

I usually use black or white from GW but lately I've been toying around with Zandri Dust.

My current project of death guard guys requires a base of screaming skull so black is too dark.

 

Over white it can be subtly sprayed thin to give it some tone before the screaming skull layer, nicely pre-shading it of sorts.

 

Over black it is nice as a kind of zenital spray to start differentiating the shady/light parts before thin layers of screaming skull.

 

On its own, as a primer and base, it requires more care. Indeed, I want full coverage but given the high pigment concentration it can lead to clogging up detail. About 30cm should do (ça.1 ft in archaic units ;) ) , I'd rather waste some paint than a mini.

 

Overall zandri dust spray is nice for my particular project but I find it not to be that much of a neutral tone to fit all purposes.

 

If I had screaming skull spray I'd order a truckload :)

 

For a more thought-through project I'd use a spray that would do the trims of my plague marines : so much bronze trims to paint in, I'm losing my mind.. but I have yet to find a reliable bronze spray.

Edited August 1, 2017 by Isolia

[Grim Dog Studios]

I use the Macragge Blue spray to basecoat all of my Ultramarines, however I spray GW black primer on beforehand. The coloured spray cans themselves are thin enough so as to not obscure any detail on the miniatures over a primer I find.

[Guiltysparc]

All of my armies i have painted using the GW sprays as a basecoat.  I put down black first and then the color (unless i'm doing white, in which case i just use corax white spray).

 

As far as the colored sprays go, I've used khorne red, mephiston red, macragge blue, leadbelcher, and retributor armor, and they have all worked perfectly.  

[Corswain]

The only one I've had a little trouble with is the leadbelcher, which seems to come out a little matte when sprayed directly on plastic.

Over the Chaos Black, it's great.

The rest seem to do a pretty decent job though.