Paint Coverage Question

[RuneBrush]

Hi all,

I\'ve finally started to get back into the old painting again in an effort to cut back on the amount of time I spend on a computer. Now after watching the first miniature mentor video I decided to have another go at using a white undercoat and in the same way as the video shows I used a very light coat of GW white spray. I\'m also watering my paints down quite a bit more than I used to, and am achieving much smoother blends and layers. Now comes the big but... Because I only used a light smattering of undercoat I\'m finding that I have areas where my paint just isn\'t covering and I can still see the metal through it long after an adjacent piece has reached where I want to be. I\'m also finding that on these areas as there is very little primer that I\'m having to make doubly sure the paint has fully dried or the next layer pulls it off.

Now what am I doing wrong? Should I just carry on putting even more thin layers of paint onto these areas? Should I have washed my mini\'s first (something that I normally reserve for resin)? Should I have primed them solid grey and then white undercoat like I do for resin? Any suggestions would be useful.
ta

Pete

 

[mattsterbenz]

No matter what color you prime, you\'ll still miss areas. When priming black it\'s the most obvious, and that should give you an idea of how much you\'re missing when you prime white.

There\'s a few ways around this. You could thin down some white paint and go paint in the crevices or do a black wash over the whole figure.

Just paint a few more layers where it needs to go to ensure an even basecoat. Make sure to let each layer of paint dry before applying the next, otherwise you\'ll just pull back the paint that hasn\'t dried yet.

Some colors I find cover a lot better over a black undercoat (metallics, dark greens and dark blues in particular), so for those you might want to consider hand-painting that area black first.

-Matt

 

[generulpoleaxe]

hi rune brush
i undercoat white in the same manner, i find that base coating with a 2-1 (water to paint) mix makes it a lot easier to get good coverage whilst keeping a smooth surface for gaming minis.

for display pieces where i will be juicing the hell out of it, i\'ll use a quick primer and then airbrush the model with ivory from vallejo.
this gives a super smooth off white to work from then.

hope that helps.

 

[Einion]

Originally posted by RuneBrush
Now after watching the first miniature mentor video I decided to have another go at using a white undercoat and in the same way as the video shows I used a very light coat of GW white spray.

I don\'t think this is enough primer personally (no matter who does this and how good their painting is). You don\'t have to aim for a solid white/grey/black necessarily but a light dusting is not really sufficient to prime something thoroughly.

My recommendation would be to switch to automotive primer anyway - cheaper, easier to get, might be better as well. And with a well-shaken warmed can you get no loss of detail with complete primer coverage.

Originally posted by RuneBrush
I\'m also finding that on these areas as there is very little primer that I\'m having to make doubly sure the paint has fully dried or the next layer pulls it off.

This is the reason that that amount of primer isn\'t a good idea.

Regardless of this, for basic undercoats I would thin just enought to get to a lovely smooth coverage - sort of aim for the consistency of light cream, so however much water that takes.

And remember, some colours aren\'t as opaque as others so they simply require more coats to get to the same coverage.

Originally posted by RuneBrush
Should I have washed my mini\'s first (something that I normally reserve for resin)?

I think it\'s worth doing. Not everyone does this but it takes almost no time so why not?

Einion

 

[airhead]

Instead of priming gray and basecoating white, why not just prime white? (if I\'ve understood your posts).

Primer test:
click here

 

[Aliengod3]

What I do in this situation is use a paint that is the same color as the primer, chaos black or skull white depending on the primer, and fill in the gaps with the paint using a 1:1 wateraint ratio.

 

[RuneBrush]

Cool, thanks for all the comments. As I said, this is the first time I\'ve done priming in this manner, as I\'ve always done solid coverage before and in recent years have used black for ease. You\'re all confirming that a light spray isn\'t good enough - which is what I thought, but felt it was worth trying it out - after all part of the hobby is trying new things On the next mini I think I\'ll try airbrushing it ivory as that sounds like a good thing to try - I\'ve got a model ready

Thanks for the link to the primer test - very interesting. Thankfully the local toy shop sells GW spray so I can get it fairly easily, not sure what the diy shop sells in way of automotive paints, though I have got Plaskote grey at home for any resin stuff I do (I\'ve found it to be awesome if you leave it 3 or 4 days to dry before undercoating).
ta

Pete

 

[Dragonsreach]

Originally posted by RuneBrush
I have got Plaskote grey at home for any resin stuff I do (I\'ve found it to be awesome if you leave it 3 or 4 days to dry before undercoating).
ta

Pete

Yes I\'ve found that on Non-porus items it does take a while to dry usualy 24 hours for me.
I\'ve given items primed grey a Blast with the hairdryer and that has helped as well.