Primer

Recently someone asked me my opinion on Primers. So I figured I’d go ahead and put my thoughts to paper and actually update the Blogs as well. So here are my thoughts on Primer.

I won’t say that any Primer is superior to any other; I can only tell you what I’ve experienced and what I’ve seen. I used to love GW’s Primer; I had a can of white that lasted eons.

Eventually I ran out, so thinking I would get the same results I went and bought more GW Primer. Granted I was a little sticker shocked at the price that the Primer had risen to, but I was willing to pay it for the quality I got.

So I took my purchase home, walked out into the garage and got ready to spray a Rhino. Boy was I in for a surprise. The spray came out hard and fast which is not a good thing as it tends to push light plastic all over the place. Another thing is it tended to be chalky and grainy. Some people say “Oh you got a bad can”, I thought so as well and returned it for another. Same thing happened with the new can. Sure it could have been a bad batch of cans, but for the price I was paying quality control should be better.

What I needed now was an alternative. I went and tried various sand able Primers from the automotive section in Wal-Mart and such. While the price was right, the primer was too thick and tended to diminish the detail on the minis. Also the fumes of that primer got really bad at times, I continued my search.

That’s when someone told me about Armory’s Primer. I knew about their Primer, it was one of the first one’s I got way back when. When I first used it I wasn’t impressed with it. I didn’t think it was a bad Primer, just not a great Primer. I saw the new can and thought to myself, “Hey cool, they got Kovalic to do their can wrappers.” (For those of you who don’t know Kovalic… shame on you…go here at once www.dorktower.com)

I can say their Primer is better than it used to be and in my opinion better then the new GW Primers. They also have Grey which works well for medium shades of color and to me a little bit easier to get a darker red to work. They also have the traditional White and Black Primers.

I used Armory Primer up to about a year ago. I stumbled across a Primer that I never would of thought would be very good. Rust-oleum’s Painter’s Touch Primer. So far I’ve used the White and Black, but they also have Red and Grey (although I haven’t seen these at the store yet). You can get them at any Lowe’s or Home Depot and it’s about a fifth of the cost from GW’s Primer.

It goes on even and dries quickly. It is a little thicker then GW and Armory Primer so you have to be a little more aware of how much you’re spraying, but not nearly as thick as the automotive Primers. It was a nice middle ground, and since it’s thicker than normal you use less of it overall per mini. So now that can of Primer will go a long way.

I’ve used it on plastic, on metal and even on Resin. It sticks to them all. Leaves a nice even coat when it dries and I haven’t had a grainy can or one that starts spraying like silly string. It’s very resilient as well, I haven’t had it rub off or chip with normal moving of the mini. I feel that it’s well worth the cost and time to learn how to use this primer.

If I had to point out a “bad” thing with it is that sometimes it tends to dry shiny. Not really a big deal since it doesn’t “shine” through the base coats, but if you wanted to base coat a large structure and leave it black it might be dull and shiny in places. So just a heads up.

So there you have it, my thoughts on different Primers that I’ve used. Of course this is all relative as I’m sure others have used the Painter’s Touch Primer and thought it was horrendous, or others that love Armory Primer. To each their own, and it’s why I say there is no absolute perfect primer. A lot of it hinges on personal choice and also personal style.