Airbrush primer by Vallejo

[grant]

Tried a new primer tonight, and I love it! http://www.acrylicosvallejo.com/gb/primers-gb.html - I picked up the white and the grey to try, and sprayed 15 figures in white in a few minutes using an Iwata HP-B, fine tipped airbrush. Great control, fast, dries fast, and easy clean up. I love it!

[Eversor]

I completely agree with you. I've bought my first bottles (white, grey and black) last year and since then I've dropped all the spray cans except the Army Painter Skeleton Bone. The coloured primers and the varnish can also be recommended.
By the way, you can also apply the primer with an old-school-non-air-brush easily.

[Fury]

I recently bought an airbrush kit and I'm testing the Vallejo primers. They seem very promising. I also got the polyurethane varnishes but haven't tried them yet. With luck, I will no longer be at the mercy of the weather when priming or varnishing my models!

[Targa]

I agree these primers are excellent. No thinning is needed before airbrushing. The paint adheres to the primer coat very well. And, they come in large sizes. It is an acrylic polyurethane and you can tell the difference if you compare a peeling of dried Vallejo paint to the dried primer. The dried primer is much more elastic and is much more resistant to tearing. This tells me it is adding considerable protection to the figure that you wouldn't get with regular paint.

[zedeyejoe]

Yep primer is a different formulation to paint, it is designed to help the paint adhere.

But I use car spray primers, is there a need to buy specialist model primer?

[Targa]

I would never use automotive primers with miniatures. They are made to fill in imperfections in the surface of the metal and provide a smooth surface. On your mini figs auto primer will fill in things that you don't want to be filled in -- the details that the sculptor worked long and hard to provide you -- the reason we gladly pay $2-3 bucks for a figure. Spend the extra money on a good primer made for miniatures.

[zedeyejoe]

Lets put it this way, I use car spray primer and if it filled in detail, I would not use it.

The manufacturers of model spray primer (probably the same ones who make it for the car market BTW) are having lower production runs, so they have to charge more. So you end up with a more expensive product which can in fact produce worse results than a commonly available car spray primer - I am thinking GW spray when I say that. The wonders of mass production in action.

Personally, my favourite brand is Hycote.

[Colonel White]

Actually . I am pretty sure the Halfords primers are made in the same factory as the GW ones if not the formulation must be the same very similar as I get identical results and smell, except I sometimes prefer to use grey which GW do not make.

[grant]

Spam! Spam! Spam!

[Cubster]

Normal people that want to look absolutely fantastic now use it.

This is hardly news though, my Mum used to run an 'airbrush through my mop back in the 70's.