You're an absolute king for this video. I hate how people always pretend brush-on primer is not a viable option and instead waste money on very expensive primer sprays or pay $200 for an airbrush set only to use it a few times to prime. Subscribed 👍️
you can get an airbrush set for like 120 USD, which is cheaper than some models lol considering how good airbrushes are, it's totally worth it rather than wasting your time with brushed on primer.
@@mindfuqq you can get a cheap 20$ airbrush from Green Stuff World for priming and it will be good enough, having a compressor is an entirely separate problem. However you can get airbrushes that have built-in compressor for like 50-70$, these suck too but again are good enough for priming. Airbrush priming is absolutely accessible, not very expensive whatsoever when you compare it to the cost of rattle cans and time saved otherwise spent brushing primer on (time is money). But the real problem is that airbrush primers are easily scratched off, they are not durable. You'd need can spray aerosols for that.
I prime everything by hand with a brush. I like the Valejo Surface Primer, I water it down a tiny amount and then I spread it around a bunch. I've used it on vehicles too. I just dislike spray cans and live in New England where it's either too cold or too hot all of the time.
Due to medical reasons (2 battles with cancer), I try to limit my exposure to anything that might be cancerous or inadvertently impact my immune system. I prime by hand with Vallejo gray brush on primer. I don’t miss the rattle cans at all.
Dude, you have consistently some of the best content in this whole hobby sphere. It's a CRIME that you don't have more subscribers (yet). Keep it up! This is so digestible and helps a ton for newbies like me in understanding the logic of all of these techniques.
Great video, I gotta say though when it comes to professionally produced polystyrene mini's, I am don't prime anymore. Metal and resin though, absolutely.
I live in the desert and get major pucker factor whenever I go to spray prime anything because there is a high probability that it will get really severe orange peel texture, or conversely that I'll have to spray so close to get it smooth that I will cause a run. So a reliable brush priming option would be terrific.
Thanks for the vid 👍 had a buddy's cat break/eat a couple hilts from daggers on a eldar voidscarred corsair. Had some plastic replacement bits that i glued on but didnt want to repaint the whole model
I always get so much useful information from your videos. Really great stuff! One thing I had trouble with is with priming some resin models. Even after cleaning in both soap and alcohol, airbrush primer wouldn´t stick, brush on was also hard. This is mostly a problem on "larger" flat surfaces. Could very well be my airbrush technique and/or setup, the specific primer (did try both vallejo and another one)...the paint would just pool in small droplets on the surface no matter how I try to get it on. There are many factors with airbrushing so trouble shooting can be hard. So sometimes with resin models I now will first do a very gentle first spray with a rattle can primer, like the misting I think you mention in another video, not a full covering coat. The rattle can primer really sticks like nothing else, so after that coat I can airbrush on or paint on what I need, and make sure that coat gets into all hard to reach areas. You ever had problems like this?
I don't get that problem much anymore. But it's very common and what I was replicating on that plastic disk. A tack coat tends to be the way to solve that. So with your airbrush just hold it further away and dust the surface with a slow fine spray, it should dry on the way to the model pretty much. That microscopic texture will prevent the paint from beading up which is pretty much what you're doing with the spray primer. The silly part is I tried to get that to happen but something about my resin or print made it impossible which is why I had to use that flat base XD
Something I found interesting was mixing my primer with 'Lahmian medium' or similar substitute could help the bubble problem go away because the Lahmian Medium has retarder which slows down the drying process and also give the primed model a satin finish.
Wow thank you I’m new to painting miniatures, my one model is like 6 inches in Length, I am debating if I should paint with brush or spray paint? I do have an airbrush it’s actually my husband’s but I have never used one before and don’t know what to do and rather practice on something I don’t care about first then just prime a model I care about. So the other pieces a brush seems more reasonable and less risk because they are extremely small pieces that like a few brush strokes will cover it. The main thing is the biggest piece, I am really torn on the best way to go about it. I may begin practicing on the airbrush to see if I will do a good enough job just to prime with it, then practice more with on fine details later, cause I need this model done before my daughters bday. Which I have time, if I start now. So let me know on a 6 inch model that doesn’t have really any knooks or crannies other than one small part where there is a gate on a wall where possibly paint could pool using a spray can if I wasn’t careful. A brush could work. Your tip with thinning the primer is genius! Cause on my tiny pieces I just need a slight coat to allow my paint to adhere to.
I had problems with Vallejo brush-on primers (weird long drying, smell staying with the miniature for a week and more, looking a bit weirdly and rubbery - as if it would come off if I scratch it with my nail), and priming is still my biggest obstacle and problem in the hobby (where I live, it snows for half a year at best, and it is an urban area with not a lot of appropriate space for rattle-cans). So I focuse more on building and converting, but the lack of painting makes me sad... As you can guess, anxiety plays a big role in the whole thing. I get it now that it is better to paint with thin layers of primer, but how to tell if the bottle is bad or expired? All of mine are still with me, but they've been sitting on the shelf for a couple of years now, and a couple of them have separated considerably.
Paint doesn't usually degrade with time, just dry out. Separating in the bottle is also normal it just means that it needs to be shaken or stirred much longer before using. As for if it's bad or not, that usually can be pretty apparent right when you get it, most of those samenproblems you were having will still be around I think though the paint won't have changed. Though sometimes just a thorough stirring is what it needs. I have had trouble with Vallejo brush on primers in the past too so it might just be the brand in this case, but there are lots of strong ones out there. Greenstuff worlds, scale 75s, AK interactive, I've tried all those and they work well.
I've had a hard time finding good primer that I like at a good price. I wish I could just airbrush. Honestly with as many cans of primer as I have bought I coulda just got one of those ultra cheap airbrushes and used it exclusively for priming. I ruined my first minis (or so i thought) with bad primer. It was sandable automotive primer. It left a terrible looking texture. The best budget primer I have found is probably rustoleum black, the stuff they sell for like 4$ a can. It's matte enough, and I never noticed a loss of detail. It could be more matte though.
Brush on primer is how I've primed about 50% of my models that past year...worked out pretty good; though hopefully switching to Badger primer will work in airbrush a bit better (vallejo black had a tendency to clog all the time).
@@ScytheNoire not sure what needle is big enough, I did switch to a .5 and am using thinner...but still has issues. Apparently this is somewhat common for Vallejo's Black primer as I have next to no issues with the white primer even through a .3 needle
Hey there. All of the videos currently available on my patreon do use a combination of Jo Sonja and Kimera as do almost all of my recent painting videos. I don't really have any reason to change for now so that will most likely be the case for the foreseeable future too!
Is there a difference in texture left behind using spray cans vs airbrush? Whenever I see people airbrushing it seems like there's always this stippled look to the surface texture of the models.
It can depend a bit on the type of primer and it's finish but generally a paint can will spray much more paint in much larger globules which saturates the model more and gives it a smoother finish, but can fill in some details if there's too much. Airbrush priming usually has much finer paint particles and has a tighter spray angle so if spraying from too far away it might look a little more 'dusty' But that's why I always get in real close with my airbrush to make sure each part is being flooded like it would be with a spray can, and do a few layers. However when it comes to a surface to paint on, I find that stippled texture much nicer to paint on because it doesn't get hydrophobic like a really smooth satin spray can might.
Depends how much you thinned the primer by, but I think the rule of thumb would be that if you can see particles of the primer pigments on the surface in kind of an even coat, then even if you can see the grey model though it some, there should be enough of a layer to get the paint you do want a solid coat of to stick.
I don't see why you couldn't. The only issue might be that the pigment is a little dilute and doesn't cover in a single coat, but doing a few layers shouldn't be a problem when you're saving a lot of time getting the colour you need to start from as the prime.
"Brush on Primer hasn't been shown in any detail." God, don't I know it. I love using a brush but it feels like priming is never discussed, and people just scoff at it. Basically all Brush discussion on gunpla and model kits have been tossed aside, and only a few use it on minatures.
Oh noes! Thanksf or the heads up, looks like the end of video link was still the one for my discord and not the Patreon now, the one in the description should be right.
Paint that doesn't stick and having a model/crafting item base colour that doesn't support the paint colour is infuriating. Example: the item is made of black material but you need it to be bright yellow. I hate having to paint multiple layers just to get just a single base layer the colour I want, you lose so much detail. Always prime, set yourself up for success.
You're an absolute king for this video. I hate how people always pretend brush-on primer is not a viable option and instead waste money on very expensive primer sprays or pay $200 for an airbrush set only to use it a few times to prime. Subscribed 👍️
you can get an airbrush set for like 120 USD, which is cheaper than some models lol
considering how good airbrushes are, it's totally worth it rather than wasting your time with brushed on primer.
@@ThePacmandevil Still not worth it just for priming. I prefer brush on or rattle.
@@mindfuqq because u suck, u smell bad, and don't understand that airbrushes are great even excluding priming
@@mindfuqq you can get a cheap 20$ airbrush from Green Stuff World for priming and it will be good enough, having a compressor is an entirely separate problem. However you can get airbrushes that have built-in compressor for like 50-70$, these suck too but again are good enough for priming.
Airbrush priming is absolutely accessible, not very expensive whatsoever when you compare it to the cost of rattle cans and time saved otherwise spent brushing primer on (time is money).
But the real problem is that airbrush primers are easily scratched off, they are not durable. You'd need can spray aerosols for that.
I prime everything by hand with a brush. I like the Valejo Surface Primer, I water it down a tiny amount and then I spread it around a bunch. I've used it on vehicles too. I just dislike spray cans and live in New England where it's either too cold or too hot all of the time.
That is also something to take in count , brush doesn't really care about the temperature or humidity but spray and airbrush does
Due to medical reasons (2 battles with cancer), I try to limit my exposure to anything that might be cancerous or inadvertently impact my immune system. I prime by hand with Vallejo gray brush on primer. I don’t miss the rattle cans at all.
Dude, you have consistently some of the best content in this whole hobby sphere. It's a CRIME that you don't have more subscribers (yet). Keep it up! This is so digestible and helps a ton for newbies like me in understanding the logic of all of these techniques.
Really good advice. Thank you for doing this video!
Great video, I gotta say though when it comes to professionally produced polystyrene mini's, I am don't prime anymore. Metal and resin though, absolutely.
I live in the desert and get major pucker factor whenever I go to spray prime anything because there is a high probability that it will get really severe orange peel texture, or conversely that I'll have to spray so close to get it smooth that I will cause a run. So a reliable brush priming option would be terrific.
Same here
Thank you. Another great video
Thanks for the vid 👍 had a buddy's cat break/eat a couple hilts from daggers on a eldar voidscarred corsair. Had some plastic replacement bits that i glued on but didnt want to repaint the whole model
Thank you for the video. Fun and well-explained.
🤯 thanks for the tips!!!!
I always get so much useful information from your videos. Really great stuff!
One thing I had trouble with is with priming some resin models. Even after cleaning in both soap and alcohol, airbrush primer wouldn´t stick, brush on was also hard. This is mostly a problem on "larger" flat surfaces. Could very well be my airbrush technique and/or setup, the specific primer (did try both vallejo and another one)...the paint would just pool in small droplets on the surface no matter how I try to get it on.
There are many factors with airbrushing so trouble shooting can be hard. So sometimes with resin models I now will first do a very gentle first spray with a rattle can primer, like the misting I think you mention in another video, not a full covering coat. The rattle can primer really sticks like nothing else, so after that coat I can airbrush on or paint on what I need, and make sure that coat gets into all hard to reach areas. You ever had problems like this?
I don't get that problem much anymore. But it's very common and what I was replicating on that plastic disk. A tack coat tends to be the way to solve that. So with your airbrush just hold it further away and dust the surface with a slow fine spray, it should dry on the way to the model pretty much. That microscopic texture will prevent the paint from beading up which is pretty much what you're doing with the spray primer.
The silly part is I tried to get that to happen but something about my resin or print made it impossible which is why I had to use that flat base XD
@@PaintmanJourneying yep yep, I should practice that airbrush technique on some flat surfaces to get the distance and amount right. :)
Great vid
Something I found interesting was mixing my primer with 'Lahmian medium' or similar substitute could help the bubble problem go away because the Lahmian Medium has retarder which slows down the drying process and also give the primed model a satin finish.
Wow thank you I’m new to painting miniatures, my one model is like 6 inches in Length, I am debating if I should paint with brush or spray paint? I do have an airbrush it’s actually my husband’s but I have never used one before and don’t know what to do and rather practice on something I don’t care about first then just prime a model I care about. So the other pieces a brush seems more reasonable and less risk because they are extremely small pieces that like a few brush strokes will cover it. The main thing is the biggest piece, I am really torn on the best way to go about it. I may begin practicing on the airbrush to see if I will do a good enough job just to prime with it, then practice more with on fine details later, cause I need this model done before my daughters bday. Which I have time, if I start now. So let me know on a 6 inch model that doesn’t have really any knooks or crannies other than one small part where there is a gate on a wall where possibly paint could pool using a spray can if I wasn’t careful. A brush could work. Your tip with thinning the primer is genius! Cause on my tiny pieces I just need a slight coat to allow my paint to adhere to.
Loved the shake it up montage
There was a time when I primed by brush, using gesso. Worked fine, but until paint was on it it was easy to rub off.
Awesome as always.
You know, why I wanna use a prime with a brush?
To paint the gaps and fissures of my metal dice, not the whole thing, sooo
let´s give it a try ^^
Cool as always.
I had problems with Vallejo brush-on primers (weird long drying, smell staying with the miniature for a week and more, looking a bit weirdly and rubbery - as if it would come off if I scratch it with my nail), and priming is still my biggest obstacle and problem in the hobby (where I live, it snows for half a year at best, and it is an urban area with not a lot of appropriate space for rattle-cans). So I focuse more on building and converting, but the lack of painting makes me sad...
As you can guess, anxiety plays a big role in the whole thing.
I get it now that it is better to paint with thin layers of primer, but how to tell if the bottle is bad or expired? All of mine are still with me, but they've been sitting on the shelf for a couple of years now, and a couple of them have separated considerably.
Paint doesn't usually degrade with time, just dry out. Separating in the bottle is also normal it just means that it needs to be shaken or stirred much longer before using.
As for if it's bad or not, that usually can be pretty apparent right when you get it, most of those samenproblems you were having will still be around I think though the paint won't have changed. Though sometimes just a thorough stirring is what it needs.
I have had trouble with Vallejo brush on primers in the past too so it might just be the brand in this case, but there are lots of strong ones out there. Greenstuff worlds, scale 75s, AK interactive, I've tried all those and they work well.
@@PaintmanJourneying Thank you very much for the reply and reassurance!
Nice video commander
For me I use airbrush primer, although recently I started to use rattle can for some larger terrain kits.
Definitely much better for large things, small airbrushes can only pump out so much.
Good video, thanks mate. I’m also interested in the colour chart behind you in the video. Where can I get one of those?
Tnx
I've had a hard time finding good primer that I like at a good price.
I wish I could just airbrush.
Honestly with as many cans of primer as I have bought I coulda just got one of those ultra cheap airbrushes and used it exclusively for priming.
I ruined my first minis (or so i thought) with bad primer. It was sandable automotive primer. It left a terrible looking texture.
The best budget primer I have found is probably rustoleum black, the stuff they sell for like 4$ a can. It's matte enough, and I never noticed a loss of detail. It could be more matte though.
Brush on primer is how I've primed about 50% of my models that past year...worked out pretty good; though hopefully switching to Badger primer will work in airbrush a bit better (vallejo black had a tendency to clog all the time).
Are you using a large enough needle? Adding thinner and flow improver?
@@ScytheNoire not sure what needle is big enough, I did switch to a .5 and am using thinner...but still has issues. Apparently this is somewhat common for Vallejo's Black primer as I have next to no issues with the white primer even through a .3 needle
@@demon1103 pro acryl is better imo, doesn't clog straight from the bottle
Yes yes to Badger you must switch. Your life better it will be.
Great video. In your patreon will you be primarily using Jo Sonja paints? I like them and you're the only one I've seen use them.
Hey there. All of the videos currently available on my patreon do use a combination of Jo Sonja and Kimera as do almost all of my recent painting videos. I don't really have any reason to change for now so that will most likely be the case for the foreseeable future too!
Is there a difference in texture left behind using spray cans vs airbrush? Whenever I see people airbrushing it seems like there's always this stippled look to the surface texture of the models.
It can depend a bit on the type of primer and it's finish but generally a paint can will spray much more paint in much larger globules which saturates the model more and gives it a smoother finish, but can fill in some details if there's too much. Airbrush priming usually has much finer paint particles and has a tighter spray angle so if spraying from too far away it might look a little more 'dusty'
But that's why I always get in real close with my airbrush to make sure each part is being flooded like it would be with a spray can, and do a few layers. However when it comes to a surface to paint on, I find that stippled texture much nicer to paint on because it doesn't get hydrophobic like a really smooth satin spray can might.
With the first coat of brush on primer still wet. Should I have any of the gray plastic of the model showing through the primer.
Depends how much you thinned the primer by, but I think the rule of thumb would be that if you can see particles of the primer pigments on the surface in kind of an even coat, then even if you can see the grey model though it some, there should be enough of a layer to get the paint you do want a solid coat of to stick.
Question: Can I mix ‘clear’ primer with a chosen color I wish the model to be?
I don't see why you couldn't. The only issue might be that the pigment is a little dilute and doesn't cover in a single coat, but doing a few layers shouldn't be a problem when you're saving a lot of time getting the colour you need to start from as the prime.
@@PaintmanJourneying
Thanks for the quick response - I will try it and let you know the results.
"Brush on Primer hasn't been shown in any detail." God, don't I know it. I love using a brush but it feels like priming is never discussed, and people just scoff at it. Basically all Brush discussion on gunpla and model kits have been tossed aside, and only a few use it on minatures.
Link to the patron doesn't seem to be working 😢 loved this video though :)
Oh noes! Thanksf or the heads up, looks like the end of video link was still the one for my discord and not the Patreon now, the one in the description should be right.
Brush on primer? I just water down some black citadel paint and prime with that lol..
prime or not to prime, that is the question.
Paint that doesn't stick and having a model/crafting item base colour that doesn't support the paint colour is infuriating. Example: the item is made of black material but you need it to be bright yellow. I hate having to paint multiple layers just to get just a single base layer the colour I want, you lose so much detail.
Always prime, set yourself up for success.