Hello everybody,

I would like to ask if you know what is the purpose, and how one can use the Game Workshop's Primer. Thank you for you attention.

Hi, generally priming a model shall give the colors a better grip on the figure's surface. Especially for gaming the models will becaome more durable and the risk of getting blank spots is reduced.

I'm using black and Grey primer. The black one is from GW. It gives a dense covering on the surface without disturbing the details. My Grey primer is a cheap product from the DIY market, made for priming cars. It is ok for miniatures too, especially the metal ones.

The bright primer is for models I plan to peint in bright colours, f.i. elves or the shade, beause the colors apper even brighter on the grey ground. The black primer ist for my more sinister models, i.e. black Numenoreans or uruk hai.

And after painting I give my models a last coat with a transparent spray, normally not a glossy tone, to give them some more durability.

Werennor is correct. While you don't need to prime plastic models, especially if you use the thick base paints, they do help the other paints adhere to minis better and help your colours become more vibrant. For example, many beginners are frustrated with the muddy colours they end up with on the balrog's flaming parts. The solution? Prime him with white on these parts. The yellow and red will be much brighter.

On metal models, you will have to prime them to have the paint stick. At least that's been my experience.

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Thank you both for your replies! Yes, I've been having problems with my metal miniatures–and some plastic ones–losing some chips of paint through the years. I will start priming them.
Werennor, do you use GW's black primer straight out of the bottle, or is there any step before applying it on miniatures?

You can also prime in colours other than black and white. I did my Easterlings in a flat brown, akin to GW's old scorched brown. (Man, I miss that colour. I think I'm the only one who misses GW's equivalent of poo brown. ) It worked well for both the gold and the red, as the base in the gold is brown and the old gold paints had problems with coverage. I have to say the new layering system of paints has improved vastly on this since I started with my octagon GW pots. Red can be a troublesome colour to paint too, as it can change colour based on what you used as a primer. Try it and see!

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"Diplomacy is the art of saying 'nice doggie' until you can find a rock." -Will Rogers

@GreatKhanArtist - vallejo game colour do a colour called Charred brown which is identical to the old scorched brown.

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Hi Constantine, sorry for my late answer to your question, but here it comes: I use the GW primer directly from the can. Be careful not to spray too much color onto the miniatures. In some painting guides from GW they recommend to paint after priming with a brush and black paint over spots which were not successfully covered by the primer. (These spots are often under the arms of an figure or under the corpse of a horse.) I did so and it worked, but maybe it would be o.k. in either case as there is normally still a fine mist of primer even at these obscured spots..

Concerning the topic of primers in other colors than black or white: there is a nice range from Army Painter. I once used a bluegrey one and later a leather brown. Both worked quite well.

I tried some cheap Krylon spray paint the other day. It didn't work. The paint was really watery and I had to brush on primer anyway. I don't know if it keeps freezing in the transport trucks or what, but this is my 3rd can of this stuff and it never works. I think I'll just buy the expensive one, having thrown out the other cans it isn't any cheaper. And I do shake the snot out of it!

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"Diplomacy is the art of saying 'nice doggie' until you can find a rock." -Will Rogers