Primer

 

Having built a few new things recently seemed a good time to address this question I’ve been asked a few times.

“What primer do you use?”

Well, I don’t use anything fancy, although in the past I’ve used Vallejo and citadel aerosols, Japanese smelly airbrush stuff, and Gesso.

Now I just use Halfords automotive primer, in Grey.

It has a good spray, behaves well in all conditions, sticks well due to its high solvent content and never goes powdery on me.

I make sure to hold the pieces I’m spraying with a glove, and to use a respirator, especially is doing multiple pieces.

 

I usually rack them up in an old tray and spray them in the garage.

Here’s a bunch ready for spraying. The primer dries very fast, finger dry in 15 mins, but I usually try to leave it 24hrs before paint to ensure the solvent is entirely gone.

 

And this is how it behaves, you can see it on (left to right) Pewter, Plastic and Resin. there's no loss of detail, the colour is a nice neutral grey and there's decent coverage.

I use grey as default now as I like the neutral, flat undertone. There are occasions I would either use white, or apply zenithal white, but I can’t think of a reason to use black anymore.

Anyway, that’s what I do, hope you found it worth your time to read.

Cheers!