Spray-on vs Brush-on Primer

[Drake Farstrider]

Spray-on vs Brush-on Primer

I am courious which do you perfer?

I have seen talk in the past of people that use only brush-on primer. I tried it out the other night and I gotta say that I perfer the spray-on primer. It just takes way too long. Maybe I\'m impatient.

Now I know that brush-on primer serves it\'s purpose, ie: for fixing those chips or rub offs. But I could not fathom doing every mini with a brush-on primer.

PS I hope that this has not been done before.

 

[Levdir]

Spray-on, all the way. The first Crisis Battlesuit I ever painted was basecoated by hand by a well-meaning friend. I had no end of trouble getting the damned paint to cover evenly.

 

[QuietiManes]

Spray on for sure. It\'s so easy! Might be a little more control, little thinner layer with brush on but with a good spray primer it\'s hardly noticeable. At least to me and I\'ve looked...wonder who voted for the brush on? Is someone playin jokes?lol

 

[EricJ]

Well I brush on every mini, I\'ve found it gives me better control of keeping it very thin, also it gives me a chance to sort of explore the miniature with my brush before I start adding color, and get an overall feel for the piece and pick up on details I may not have noticed.

I use reaper brush on white, it\'s a few extra minutes, but I figure what\'s 3-5 minutes when I\'m about to take 5-10 hours painting the thing.

 

[Beelzebrush]

Like Eric, I\'m firmly planted in the brush-on camp. You get lots more control and no risk of clogging the detail.

 

[green stuff]

I used to be a brush-on fan because I would see those clogged up minis in the second-hand display cases of my local shop. But when I decided to get serious about painting up an army I changed to the spray-on version. And ever since I\'ve never changed because it only takes secondes to get a nice clean coat. Now if I could only find a way to quickly get those blasted mold marks off quickly, I would be the happiest of the painters .

 

[Equus]

I voted in between.

I usually do spray-on, mostly because I\'ve had problems with brushing in the past. I\'d love to find some good brush-on primer to use though, since using rattlecans in Seattle is just not really all that feasible for a good portion of the year (either too cold or too much humidity)and I don\'t have a spray booth or anything. Though I\'ve considered making one.

 

[marineboy]

Brush-on.

I live in an apartment, no place outside to spray. Like with Equus, the weather is generally nonconducive to outside spraying, anyways.

I\'ve clogged a couple of figures way back, that kinda puts me off spray, too. Brushing ensures that the coverage is thin enough not to lose detail.

 

[Levdir]

Originally posted by Equus
Using rattlecans in Seattle is just not really all that feasible for a good portion of the year (either too cold or too much humidity)and I don\'t have a spray booth or anything. Though I\'ve considered making one.

I spraycoat inside with no problem any day of the year. As for building a spray-booth: I just use a U-Haul shipping box turned on it\'s end. It\'s cheap-to-free and big enough for even the largest Daemon Prince.

 

[Margo]

Defenitely spray-on. Easier, faster, and for me -- better. Although I do add some primer with a brush where the spray didn\'t cover the surface.

As for colors, I opt for black. Tried white just once, hated it.

 

[Drake Farstrider]

@ Eric, Beelzebrush, marineboy, this may be a dumb question but do you thin down the brush-on primer?

I tried the Reaper Pro-series brush on and it was so bad, it clumped up so fast, I had to throw it away. So I have the Vallejo Game Color brush-on now, but it seems to dry really fast as well.

 

[Equus]

@ Levdir - Heh...problem with spraying indoors where I live is that I also live with two cats and a sister who has a degree in chemical engineering, so she knows the toxicity of the stuff that I tend to use from the can (mostly automotive primers). Nowadays, I almost never spray without a respirator because of a bad bout of dizziness while priming a 1/6 scale resin model a year or so back.

Oh...and color! Mostly white, but some really dark gray (practically black), depending on the miniature/resin statue/model.

Edit - And I do some brush on priming for touch up, since I\'ve never been able to get EVERYWHERE on a mini primed right. Resin hasn\'t been so much of a problem since I don\'t usually assemble most of it until after priming.

 

[Valander]

As yet another Seattlite (hi Drake and Equus!), I find myself having to use brush-on at least half the year. I generally prefer spray on, but I\'m starting to like Vallejo Model Color (haven\'t tried the Game Color) Foundation White. I use a big brush, so priming doesn\'t take too long, and it does give a nice surface. It also helps make sure that I get into the nooks and crannies a little better.

So, I\'m pretty much in the middle. What I should probably do is get myself an air tank for my airbrush (my current compressor doesn\'t have a resivoir, and is loud as all hell), and start using that puppy for priming--get the best of both worlds!

 

[Equus]

@ Valander - Hi! Isn\'t the weather amazing right now? Hard to believe we\'re in Seattle!

What kind of compressor are you using? I honestly haven\'t used my airbrush for priming yet. Mostly because I\'m too lazy and the rattle cans work ok when the weather is behaving.

 

[No Such Agency]

Originally posted by EricJ
Well I brush on every mini, I\'ve found it gives me better control of keeping it very thin, also it gives me a chance to sort of explore the miniature with my brush before I start adding color, and get an overall feel for the piece and pick up on details I may not have noticed.

I use reaper brush on white, it\'s a few extra minutes, but I figure what\'s 3-5 minutes when I\'m about to take 5-10 hours painting the thing.

EXACTLY what he said, though I use Vallejo white primer.

 

[Equus]

Haven\'t tried the Vallejo white primer. I have a bottle of the old Citadel white brush on, and it\'s pretty much junk. I only use it for touch up and such. I\'m curious as well, do you thin the primer? If so, do you use the same stuff you use for paints?

I have some Gunze Mr. Surfacer White and the normal gray, which probably would work really well for brush on primer (it\'s supposed to be amazing airbrush primer). Think I need a retarder for it though. The stuff dries on my brush.

 

[Legacy Account]

Usually sprays, but occasionally by hand if I want a different colour undrcoat (usually dark brown!)

As for colour, mostly black, occasionally white and currently grey \'cos I ran out of black!

 

[Wren]

I use brush on most of the time. I started with sprays, but I had a lot of problems with bumpy, fuzzy yuckiness, which Lurch suggested might be due to primer. I started trying brush on, and my results were much smoother. There\'s a fair amount of humidity where I live, and it\'s cool enough to be not primer-friendly during the winter, so it just seems easier to go with brush on.

My husband and I want to paint small Warlord companies, and I\'ve been using spray on the first few of those, as I want to prime his company black and I can\'t find any black brush on, plus it seemed faster. Though after waiting for a day with the right temperature, wind condition and humidity, I\'m wondering if brush on really ends up being a lot faster in the end.

Originally posted by Drake Farstrider
@ Eric, Beelzebrush, marineboy, this may be a dumb question but do you thin down the brush-on primer?

I tried the Reaper Pro-series brush on and it was so bad, it clumped up so fast, I had to throw it away. So I have the Vallejo Game Color brush-on now, but it seems to dry really fast as well.

I use the Reaper brush on, and usually do thin it very slightly. I haven\'t had any problems with it clumping on the palette in the time it takes me to prime a mini. (If I\'m doing multiple minis, I might pour out a fresh batch for the second coat.) It _does_ massively clump up around the rim of the screw top bottle and where the bottle is empty, and those clumps fall into the primer. My last pre-painting step used to be to carefully eyeball the mini and rub or scrape off any clumps that got on it. The last bottle I bought I transfered to a dropper bottle, and I have had far fewer clumping problems.

 

[Orb]

I\'m a spray primer fan myself. Usually a grey automotive primer, but have just discovered something new:
Mr Metal Primer, by Mr Gunze. Bought it \'cos it sounded good (ie Mr METAL PRIMER - does what it says on the tin, right?), but as all the instructions were in japanese, it turns out to be clear! Yes Clear! So I then tried my grey primer over top. The Mr Metal Primer seemed to fill in all those slight pittings you sometimes get on metal castings, and the grey primer went on soooo smoothly! I was impressed!

 

[Equus]

Gunze Sangyo (sp?) does make some amazing stuff. I\'ve heard really good things about their Mr. Resin Primer. Most of it is pretty prohibitively expensive though.

Maybe I\'ll try some of their surfacers again sometime on a test mini. The last time I tried to brush it on, I failed horribly. I think I have some Gunze brand retarder though for my lacquers...maybe that\'ll work.