primer colour

[Guest]

Hi all,

If you are painting a model black what would be the best colour primer to use?

Any suggestions and help would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers

Si

[Guest]

To be honest, as black's a shade that covers well, i would just use what colour primer you have the most of ...

[Guest]

Yes my experience is the same as Colin.

The Lancaster I built & which has a black underside was just covered in mid grey primer. The first coat obliterated everything.

This is a difficulty I have had. What colour primer when you have multi. coloured top coats. The Catalina I am building at present has white underside mid blue top sides with a good percentage of wing at the ends yellow.

I use Vallejo Acrylic Model Air. Not sure how other paints cover.

Laurie

[Guest]

What colour primer when you have multi. coloured top coats. The Catalina I am building at present has white underside mid blue top sides with a good percentage of wing at the ends yellow.

You'd technically need white primer for this so the colours "pop"

Can't remember the last time i used primer on a model to be honest, i just clean the surface and brush acrylic paint on

[Guest]

Thats a great help thanks. im doing the 1/24 mossie in black. ive got loads of modelair grey primer so ill be using that.

cheers

Si

[Guest]

You'd technically need white primer for this so the colours "pop" Can't remember the last time i used primer on a model to be honest, i just clean the surface and brush acrylic paint on

That is interesting Colin as you use hand brushing. First I would like to know what paint you use & also what sort of finish you achieve ? Imagine with hand brushing you get a thicker finish & primer is not necessary.

I air brush & have found a great necessity to prime at least on the major parts. Little detail pieces would looked clogged with primer & ruin their features so I finish direct with the finishing coat.

On the present model I part finished around windows in the final colour without primer then glued in the windows. Gives a nice crips finish. Last night when I was wet & drying the fuselage with an 1500 paper I noticed how quickly the prepainted paint film disappeared. That would certainly not have happened with a primer.

May say that my experiment to finish the paint film in & around the windows before sticking in the windows is only a partially success. I should have primed these areas prior to applying the finish. Kicked myself as I think that with primer on the rest of the fuselage there will be a difference even though overlapped between the pre window finished & overall finish. It is only recently with the yellow element that I have realised the transparency aspect of model paints. Used I see with enthusiasm by the weathering experts.

The above is my experience with Vallejo Model Air which is quite a thin paint.

Laurie

[Guest]

I use a combination of Citadel colours (1990's stock still going strong from my old shop) and artists acrylic/water colour paints.

I use them in varying thicknesses. i.e. thin to apply as a wash, through to thick to be used so i may texture the surface a little before it cures fully.

All the models i have posted on here have been painted with the same ingredients

Sometimes the camera flash gives the surface a dull sheen (as Patrick pointed out in an earlier thread) but in natural daylight it's ok ( i think i posted a "natural light shot" in the same thread)

I've used an arbrush plenty in the past, mainly for car/bike graphics and portraits, but dislike using one for modeling ... i have more control personally with the hairy stick

[Ian M]

Bit late but any way, I agree with the any colour you like for primer under black. Except black primer. Its a pig to see where you have and have not painted!!!

Ian M

[Guest]

Hey Ian not thought of that.

Does this go for white as well ?

In the old days (gets out bow & violin) house painters would put another colour with an undercoat too slightly tint the second undercoat. Think it was mainly to ensure the architect could see they were not pulling the wool.

Laurie

[Ian M]

Oddly enough White goes down well over white but still a bugger to see where you have been. lol

I normally use a very light grey primer, Vallejo's is quite pale. This also gives the chance to call it pre-shaded should the grey show through in places.... :-)

Ian M

[Guest]

Gonna throw a spanner in works here , not so much the primer issue but the use of black top coat , when building military stuff at the scale we build 1/72 1/48 1/35 black looks to black in my opinion if that makes sense , i never use a solid black i always add a touch of grey to dull it down a bit and it also gives a little room for pre-shading if airbrushing bigger areas , when building cars or bikes I tend to stick to the solid blacks as it does not make much difference at 1/24 1/20 1/12 scale.

again only my opinion

Richy

[Guest]

Agree with you Richy.

After my last post here I thought I have not mentioned about off black.

On the Wellington Bomber I used Vallejo 71056 Black Grey which gives what appears to be a good black. That is until you put black against it. But it works well. The Lancaster I used black & it does look stark & a little unreal.

Laurie

[Ian M]

Some one will come along with the exact recipe but I believe that the "black" RAF used was a mix of Carbon Black and Ultramarine Blue.

Now it starts to get fun. The early NF Mossies where painted BLACK. Lamp black. Very black and Very matt this was often referred to as Special Night. It was applied over an existing black base. Apart from being a very fragile surface that could be rubbed of with a hand, it also came with a speed penalty. A speed loss of upto 25mph was reported. The later Aircraft were painted with Standard night or Smooth night, (night type S ??). Special night was out of use by 1942.

Ian M