Primer Before Airbrushing?

[MPJ]

I've never used an airbrush on a mini before but now I'm thinking I should give it a try at least when painting units. Question is should I bother priming the minis first or just airbrush away then paint from there?

 

[Zab]

yep, prime first if you will be handling them for gaming. Paint will rub off way easy, especially the thin coats you get from and AB

 

[Webmonkey]

yes,.. and if you prime white, then you should hold the piece under a bright light and rotate it around,.. side to side and top to bottom. Any mould lines or other imperfections will cast shadows and really stand out against the white primer, then you can file/sand/smooth or otherwise repair the piece before you start painting and find it all later, or in the middle of your pretty new paintjob.

 

[Splurch]

If the mini is anything but a show piece priming is always the right way to go. As to specific primers, Badger's Stynylrez and Vallejo Acrylic-Polyurethane are two great brands. Vallejo is probably a bit more forgiving if you put on too much.

 

[MPJ]

Thank you all, priming it is. While I don't actually game with any of my minis I always keep that in the back of my mind. I probably would have primed without advice as I'm a firm believer in "primer isn't paint and paint isn't primer" however I then started thinking of models, when building a model car I do prime first but when painting a tank I do not.

Sadly the only paints I can get around here are Citadel. I really want to try Vallejo, especially for the metallic Air line. The best primer I can get is Tamiya which is pretty good.

 

[eyeayen]

Tamiya primer is possibly the best I've ever used. More expensive than normal car aerosol primer and for a smaller tin but never the less it's the best I've used. However if you're doing units the car aerosol one might be good enough, twice as much for probably the same money. It depends how much they're going to get handled and how bothered you are about them.