Hey all, this may be an old trick that everyone knows but I just tried it for the first time and am happy with the results!

Basecoating a miniature is always a pain for me. If I do it by hand, it takes longer and I'm not using proper primer, but simply GW Chaos Black. If I spray them, my hands get paint all over them and it's difficult to get off.

So, I decided to scrape the mould lines from a sprue of WoMT, wash the sprue and then spray it. All without taking a single model off. Obviously there will be some touch-ups needed and a little filing where the sprue meets the mini. Still though, it took me about 2 minutes to undercoat.

Just wanted to share this "discovery." Sorry if it's old hat!

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Gondor: 2339pts
Rohan: 1318pts
Dwarves: 2482pts
Elves: 1091pts
Mordor: 2305pts
Isengard: 1762pts
Moria: 1463pts
Evil Men: 381pts

Why would you get spray paint over your hands, surely you don't hold the models when spraying? Fix the model to its base, sand and then prime, this way your sand gets a good primer to.

If you do spray models on the sprue, cut of all the excess and just leave the bits touching the base tab.

i don't like the spray, it's never the good base as brushing it

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donuthare - helmsdeepbuilder - love this site

Silly me, I'd hold the base and end up messy! This was a few years ago, mind.

@donuthare: Painting Chaos Black onto the model actually isn't as good since it's not a true basecoat primer. Having said that, I've found now that spraying and then using a brush to touch up the mini before painting in earnest is the best way to go for me.

When you have boxes of WoMT, Orcs, Uruk-hai, Ghostly Legions and assorted other bits you may find that brushing just doesn't cut it. I undercoated 12 models in the time it would take me to do 2 or 3 if I was using a brush.

_________________
Gondor: 2339pts
Rohan: 1318pts
Dwarves: 2482pts
Elves: 1091pts
Mordor: 2305pts
Isengard: 1762pts
Moria: 1463pts
Evil Men: 381pts

I always prefer to spray. I use Armory primer and I spray one model at time that I hold on the end of a 3/4" round dowel, stuck there with sticky tack. That's also what I hold them on to paint them. When spraying I can turn them and tilt them easily to get the spray just where I want it. And when painting them, it's easy to rotate the dowel around and prop it against the table or whatever to hold it nice and still. I saw a pro painter do this long ago and it works great.

Depends on what you mean by as good, sure with a spray you may need to touch up in the difficult to reach areas, but if you want you paint to adhere to the model and stay there, then you have to use a proper spray primer first - this is not the same as a base coat, totally different paint formulation.