Painting Miniatures 3: Priming

Primer provides an interface between your miniature and your paint.  The primer should adhere to your miniature, be thin enough to reveal the model's detail, and allow the water-based paint to cover the surface without "beading" into droplets and rolling off the miniature like water off a car windshield.

Supposedly Reaper's vinyl miniatures can be painted without primer, if you use Reaper's special paint line.  I counter that "can be painted" is not the same as "can be painted easily and well."  Please don't skip the primer, even if you only use Reaper's vinyl miniatures and their special line of paints.

a. What color primer

Primer color is a matter of strong debate among miniature painters.  Lots of colors are available from lots of spray paint manufacturers, but the most popular are white, black, and clear.

I originally used black primer.  I reasoned that I would be painting the surface of the model, and if the tight corners were still black, then they would resemble shadows.  However, I discovered that my paint did not lend itself to just brushing the surface; quite the opposite, the paint wanted to pool into the tight corners via capillary action.  The liquid paint tended to pull away from high pointy areas due to gravity and surface tension, and went thin there; the dark primer showed through, making my miniature heroes look like they just rolled around a greasy auto garage floor (or maybe a blacksmith's shop, in a fantasy setting).  The only way to combat this was to apply multiple coats of the same color to the same area, and that's inefficient and frustrating.

An actual apple, demonstrating real-world lighting effects on natural objects.

I then switched to white primer.  Suddenly, the paint allowing the pale primer to show through at pointy areas near the top of the model mimicked the effects of specular highlighting (tops of things generally appear paler because they are usually lit from above).  The paint pooling in dark areas suddenly made a lot more visual sense.  The white primer also made it easier to see fine details on the slightly translucent vinyl models.  I've been using white primer ever since.

Clear primer is appropriate where you want the color or translucency of the model to show through.  Clear primer is a special case, and I plan to cover this in a future article.

b. Brands

I recommend "Skull White" spray primer from Games Workshop; their website might list it as "White Spray," and the "Skull White" name must be just to make it sound spooky and cool, because it certainly is not the off-white dark ivory color of actual bones.  Compared to hardware store spray paint, "Skull White" is very expensive, but (unlike off-the-shelf flat white) it is specially formulated to accept water-based paint.

c. Applying

Apply spray primer in a well-ventilated area.  I'm not kidding about this; there are very toxic solvents and other poisonous chemicals in quality spray primer.  At the same time, don't do it outside, where wind will blow your spray all over.  Your garage is a good place, but don't let the spray cloud come anywhere near your car; the particles of spray will slowly accumulate on the surface of your car, like dust you can't wash off.

You can help limit the spray cloud and reduce wind hazards by setting up an old cardboard box as an inexpensive "spray chamber."

Make sure you get the undersides and interiors of the model and all angles you want to paint.  The working pedestal I described previously can help with this, by allowing you to tilt the miniature by its pedestal.

Metal and vinyl miniatures after priming

The white vinyl miniatures present a challenge when applying white primer, because the white vinyl and white primer are so similar in color that it's hard to know whether you've covered all the angles.

Decent lighting can help you inspect your priming job.  You can probably find 100W clamp lights with reflectors for about $20 each at your local hardware store, including the cost of bulbs.  I recommend slightly bluish "daylight" bulbs for the sharpest color distinction.

Give your primer plenty of time to dry off before you paint it, or the solvents in the primer may interfere with your paint.

Note that detail is still visible in the models

As we move into winter, I have noticed that below-freezing temperatures can have an effect on the the quality of your sprays; if you must spray in your cold, cold garage, consider keeping your miniatures and sprays in the house, arranging your miniatures inside before spraying (I move my minis around on a rusty cookie sheet I pulled out of recycling), carrying the minis and paints to your garage, spraying in the garage quickly, then bringing everything back in the house.  Keep in mind that your wet minis are still giving off harmful vapors, so bring them to a part of the house far from living quarters, like the basement.