What primer colour?

[TonyBv9]

Just a general question really. Would you change the primer colour according to the final colour, size of model etc, and for what reasons? I'm using Halfords Grey at the moment, but when would I be better off with white, or something else?

Thanks

Tony

 

[tecdes]

Can of worms there Tony.

First depends on the paint manufacturers products & their coverage also to a degree enamel or acrylics.

Also if you have for instance a multicoloured fuselage & wings.

I use Vallejo. They do about 5 primer colours.

Predominantly white then I would choose white primer. For the Wellington recently with camouflage in dark colours mid grey primer. A blue Hell Cat a dark grey. Black I would be careful of unless your model is totally black when finished as coverage of any colour other than absolute black is very difficult.

Yellow I would like advice on as the Wessex Heli. I am building is half yellow. I have read that this is a most difficult colour & cannot remember the advice.

If in doubt I have plumped up to now for Vallejo grey.

Be interesting for a test with Halfords grey & Vallejo to see if there is any loss of detail one to the other. I like to keep to all Vallejo rather than mix always seems safer to me but experience is the spicey side of life !

Laurie

 

[TonyBv9]

Thanks Laurie. I should add that I don't use an airbrush, only rattle cans for primer, with acrylics by brush to finish.

Tony

 

[stona]

I use white or grey. Under yellow definitely white!

Cheers

Steve

 

[phalinmegob]

i could be totally wrong on this laurie but i am sure i have heard of spraying red first then yellow to make it more vibrant.

 

[wbk666]

i've been using vallejo's model air grey primer nder every colour and it seems to work just fine.......so far:wink:

 

[stona]

i could be totally wrong on this laurie but i am sure i have heard of spraying red first then yellow to make it more vibrant.

Blimey! Good luck with that

Cheers

Steve

 

[tecdes]

I will have an experiment with that Andrew & let Steve have another blimey but which way ? Sounds cor blimey to me. Took 5 or 6 coats to paint yellow tips on the props over dark black/grey.

My problem is the Helicopter is bright yellow on top & darkish blue under. So that makes it difficult in priming terms. Decided to use Vallejo medium grey all over fingers crossed. Will as usual experiment. Note that Vallejo now do not 5 but 10 different priming colours. They really are a progressive company.

Do not want to spray two primers or it will give a horrible joint at the intersection despite Vallejo being thin in coat thickness. Had this problem (not with the primer) with meeting of the dark colour under & lighter colours on top with my Wellington. With the two colours on the top camouflage there were 4 coats at the junction in places. Got to think out a better strategy for next time. Thought with the top colours going on last it would over shadow the joint. Not to be.

Any suggestions on this gratefully received.

Laurie

 

[CDW]

i could be totally wrong on this laurie but i am sure i have heard of spraying red first then yellow to make it more vibrant.

Yellow under red to make the red more vibrant is the norm, especially if you want to make your car "ping" ....

anyway under light/bright colours normally white primer, dark colours then normally grey or red oxide.

But ...you can change the effect of the end colour by what primer you use, and different colours produce different results so there's no definative answer ....but as a VERY basic rule ...

white = bright clean end result

grey = more depth to end result but appears duller

red oxide = a flatter but "warmer" appearence to end result

I'm sure Ray could come and give a couple of pages on this topic

 

[phalinmegob]

Yellow under red to make the red more vibrant is the norm, especially if you want to make your car "ping" ....

oh well , i was close

 

[stona]

Took 5 or 6 coats to paint yellow tips on the props over dark black/grey.

That's opposite to the way I do it. I spray the ends of the propeller yellow,over the white primer. I then mask the yellow tips and spray the rest of the blades black,much easier and no build up of muktiple layers of paint. Black covers yellow as easily as it covers the white primer.

I did a demo of this somewhere on this site a while ago,no idea where it is though

Cheers

Steve

 

[Richy C]

I only use haldfords grey and white primers , grey for dark and dull colours - white for light colours ie reds yellows etc works for me .

Richy