primmer colours.

[Guest]

in the past i have always used grey as a primer since it was not too light or too dark and could see and errors in filling or flashings. but found it was ok for darker coatings of colours ontop but lighter colour would be take layers to get the right colour as the primmer came through.

For example i grey primed my model then wanted a light yellow on top i gave it three coats of vallejo model air paint straight from the bottle and its slowly changing to yellow rather than a greeny yellow .

So is it safe to say

white primmer for lighter colors

grey primmer for medium colors

black primmer for darker colors.

[eddiesolo]

I tend to use grey primer for most of my builds but where a light colour is the top coat then a lighter primer is needed. So yes, I would follow your logic there Gary, best thing to do is to try various primers and then the colour you are wanting to try, use old pop bottles etc to get the right balance.

Si

[Guest]

Another consideration is the need to have some contrast between the colours of the primer and the bare plastic. My present model has grey plastic. I added a few drops of red primer (I can't remember why I bought red!) to my grey primer to let me see more clearly how the primer was going on. It was very effective.

[stona]

I wouldn't use a black primer for darker colours when grey will do. Darker colours cover well.

Definitely use white under yellow or, obviously, white and any other colour which will not cover so well.

Cheers

Steve

[Guest]

Primer can have dramatic or is it chromatic differences when used with certain colours for instance a yellow or gold is used as a undercoat for red and enhances the result especially for car bodies.

[BarryW]

I dont think it is a clear as this and it depends on what finish you want to achieve.

If you are doing colour modulation I would use a black primer first then blow grey primer to the insides of the panels and allow overspray to lighten (a little) what is left of the black. I would then do a very thinned grey misted on filter overall before I apply the base coat if it is yellow or white. I do this even when I am spraying yellow as the base coat because I want to have a variation and depth of colour as part of my weathering process. I used this method on my Dragon Bf110. I find it easier than using a light primer then blowing the dark into the panel lines.

[Guest]

Barry: I have a cloth canopy to my 1/16 drop-head coupe car. It will be painted dark beige which is quite dark. The bars that hold it up show on the upper side (that is, the plastic is slightly raised in three lines each about 3 mm wide). I would like to fade these lines as it would be in the original, using a lighter version of the colour. (I think dirt would accumulate more in the non-raised parts.) I am thinking of experimenting by putting a piece of card over the canopy with three slots, the card being fixed so that it is raised a few mm above, to give a fuzzy border to the fading paint. Would that be a good idea, do you think? Any better idea?

[BarryW]

Steve in that situation I would use strips of Tammy tape in the fabric dips and overspray with a very thinned base colour mixed with a drop of white. I would experiment first on scrap plastic experimenting with mixes and paint consistency. Dont worry too much if when the tape is removed there is more contrast than you like as then you just get a very thinned drop of paint misted over as a filter. Take it slowly narrowing the colour definition over coat after coat until you get the effects you want and it looks right to you.