Prime directive

Thursday Theories

Set phasers to PUN

'Allo all, welcome back. Today I wanted to talk about a couple products I use... specifically Primer Spray.
Now I'm sure many of you have used primer sprays before (if not... You should, hand priming is miserable.) and have your favorite brands. I, of course, am one of those who has a few favorites, and I wanted to explain why I prefer them.

To preface this pseudo-review I'd like to point out that I have tried many many different types of primers, from Auto primers available at the local DIY store to very expensive, high end model-specific, $30/can primer sprays. I'd also like to say I havn't tried everything out there, so if anyone out there has any specific brand or type they use, please comment below and let me know. I'd love to try something new and see how it works for me. I'm a huge fan of experimentation (Insert dirty comment here).
Personally I work on a best of 3 system.
To explain that term, I generally buy a product 2-3 times in a row and note if it proves to be consistent in quality over multiple purchases (which can spread over years or days depending on what I'm doing). This is pretty much standard for me. If a product is absolutely TERRIBLE the first use... and I'm talking model ruining, repainting my model all over again, pants shittingly awful. I'll still try it again. Because sometimes you just get a bad batch. Every company messes up once in a while.
If it's just as bad the second time... Then the product is ass, I'll tell my friends, I'll complain to the hobby store I bought it at, and I'll generally let everyone I come across know how ass the product is. Let's face it, much of these products are expensive, and no-one likes to waste their hard earned cash.

ON TO THE THE NITTY GRITTY:
What sprays I'm a fan of.


Simple answer:
I favor two specific brands of primer. Games Workshop and Army Painter.

Here is why:

The Games Workshop black and white primer sprays have been my go-to spray, despite their cost, for at least 10 years. Until only recently I have not had consistently good coverage from any other brand over a best of 3 can period.

Games Workshops Primer Sprays (NOT their varnish sprays... those are all kinds of awful), have proven to be a consistently good product. The newest batches are my favorite so far. They have an interesting chalky quality to them that, despite being easier to rub off immediately after application, has proven to be much more difficult to take off after it has dried. This chalkiness has also proven a boon in the post-priming paint application phase as the various paint brands I use tend to stay better on this powdery surface ( I work with very watered down paint for the most part). In particular I adore the GW white primer spray. It's sublime to work with, has a VERY matte finish, and I have yet to have a bad can... Which is saying something since I've gone through almost THIRTY cans in the last few years of painting.
 As an aside: for a few of those years I was still working at GW, but nothing said I had to use their primers for my own personal use at home. On top of that, despite employee discount, other brands were about the same price so that means little to me, and I was painting A LOT. Lastly, I have a dislike of GW as a company, so they do not have my loyalty as a consumer (quite the opposite in fact), but I won't suffer an inferior product because I don't like the company that produces it.
The black spray primer has a different consistency oddly enough, with a much more elastic and shiny post-spray result (satin finish). I am less of a fan of their black spray, but it is still a decent product, and I personally feel it is worth the asking price.

Army Painter is relatively new on the Canadian market, but has been causing quite a stir with it's high quality, consistent service and competitive pricing. I have become something of a fan boy of their products recently and heartily endorse them, having recently purchased a goodly amount of their products to use (I plan on doing a product review of their Dark Shade dip mixture soon, as well as go into more depth about their battlefield series of basing supplies).
Army painter colored primer sprays are fantastic. They provide excellent coverage, a matte finish and a highly paintable, slightly chalky finished surface to apply paint to that makes their primers a joy to paint over. In addition they provide more than just black and white and have gone so far as to create close-approximation color matches to many of GWs basecoat line of paints, allowing less skilled painters to quickly basecoat their entire army in one go.  One last quality to note is that the colors act the same across all mediums, whether it's black, white, plate mail silver, wolf grey (My favorite), Blood red or Yellow. There is no discrepancy in quality or final result between the colors like there is in the GW range of primers. I am a fan of consistency so this is a huge deal to me.

I just like this image.... Carry on...

So that, my friends, is a quick review of the two types of primers I greatly enjoy. One of these day's i'll do a short review of a few types of Primers I suggest you stay away from *cough cough Armory cough cough*.

Until next time,
Prime your models in a well ventilated area, and shake the can upside down for 2 minutes before use.
Bean out~