How I prime miniatures
In this guide, I will show how I prime my miniatures, and why I choose certain colours or techniques depending on my goal.
This is not an exhaustive list of primers or priming techniques, but rather the ones I use the most. The decision-making behind what primer to use often serves as the foundation of the miniature and the plan I have for it; because of this, whilst it is the most basic of basics, I still decided to cover it as a starting point.
I will be honest, I have never used a coloured primer outside of grey and metallic, so I will not cover tan, blue or any other colour primers. Whilst they can be useful for army batch painting, I have no use for them since I have gotten an airbrush, and it saves me on a bit of money and space by only stocking two or three cans (black, white and metallic for commissions).
Single Coat Priming
Single coat priming is probably the most common way I prime my minis. Whether by can or airbrush, I will simply cover the whole miniature in multiple passes of fine coats of primer - usually black.
Beginners: two things to remember when spray can priming;
1) Always warm up the cans, always shake them vigorously, for up to five solid minutes if needed. I will let my cans sit in a plastic container filled to about a quarter of warm (not hot) water, for about 5 minutes, shake them, put them back in the water for another 5 minutes, until they feel lukewarm in hand again.
2) Do not hold the can too close to the miniature when spraying, keep it on the move as much as possible. This will limit the risk of overpriming/filling in details on the sculpt.
By exercising the above, I found I only very rarely get priming issues with cans nowadays - whether I do it outside during the warm, humid summer or dry, cold winter. The only weather conditions stopping me from priming outside are rain/snow. Yep, I do own an airbrush, but I still prefer the walk to the car park.
The colour itself is not critical per se, however it will influence the results. Below are a list of pros and cons to certain colours of primer, in my own experience.
BLACK
Pros:
smooth finish
shadows and recesses are covered, less of a need for washes
allows to skip some subassemblies by not having to paint hard to reach areas
if an area has been left unpainted accidentally, it will be harder to notice it
Cons:
bright colours take a lot longer to build up to a smooth, vibrant finish (brush and airbrush included)
Black is the most forgiving and useful primer, in my opinion. It leaves a smooth finish oftentimes just reflective enough that I can hold the miniature under a light source, take pictures and use these as a way to help me determine my highlight placement.
But more importantly, black gives shadows. It fills in the recesses of the miniature, so that - as long as painted carefully -, washes are not really needed.
Black primer also saves me the trouble of having to paint between the legs or under the loincloths and capes of my miniatures. All these areas which would naturally be hidden away from the light source of my choosing can now be left black without having to worry about “getting my brush in there” and twisting and turning until I finally get everything covered. This is also why I almost never paint in subassemblies.
By default, most 'parade' and 'display' paint jobs I get commissioned to paint will only be primed black.
WHITE
Pros:
perfect canvas for Contrast paints, Speed paints and other “one coat does it all” types of products
bright colours are easier to apply smoothly and they retain their vibrancy
Cons:
hard to reach areas and mistakes will stand out if left unpainted
shadows might take longer to rebuild or be messier
can be very speckly, is known for being a little more capricious than other colours
I do not use Contrast/Speed paints in the main way they are advertised (the “one coat does it all” part). The odd Contrast paints I own, I use as a glazing method over my acrylics, or through the airbrush.
As a result, I do not ever prime my miniatures fully white, as the drawbacks outweigh the benefits in my case. However, I still wanted to talk about white primer, because of what comes next.
Zenithal Priming
Oh, no! Look at this disgusting gap in the cloak of the second lad. Completely flew over my new hobbyist head at the time, and now I am not feeling like fixing it anymore. Anyway…
Zenithal priming takes the benefits of both black primer and white primer and squishes them into the perfect recipe. Well, almost. It also brings a lot of the white primer issues. But hey, bright colours are now easier to paints and the natural shadows of the black primer are still here, so for tabletop ready paint jobs, I will never skip the zenithal effect.
Pros:
shadows and recesses are mostly covered, less of a need for washes
hard to reach areas untouched by the white primer can be left as is
perfect canvas for Contrast paints, Speed paints and other “one coat does it all” types of products
bright colours are easier to apply and they retain their vibrancy
Cons:
can be very speckly depending on white primer, and these will still show through Contrast/Speed paints which can be very off-putting (… to me at least)
recesses and shadows will need some retouching
There are multiple ways to go about zenithal priming, mainly in which direction and how much of the white primer is applied. These are two of the main ways I execute it:
A) The first Stormcast pictured has one coat applied strictly from above, and then a lighter one directed slightly towards his face.
B) The second Stormcast has one coat applied directed towards his face, and then one from every direction at the same angle.
The first application gives a closer picture of how the light behaves and leaves stronger shadows, which I prefer for darker miniatures. The second one is better for brighter colours whilst retaining some, but less shadows — I often default to this when painting tabletop ready pieces, as it helps me visualising the sculpt and all its details.
The zenithal priming technique's goal is the same as underpainting, sketching, grisaille or even slap chop: it prepares the miniature for the future colour applications. Whether or not I end up covering this step entirely when base coating does not really matter to me; it serves its purpose in allowing me to paint quickly, or airbrush bright colours without obliterating the recesses and shadows.
I also tend to prepare miniatures I want to apply an OSL effect on by spraying a thin layer of white primer from the direction of my light source, like on this banner holding Stormcast.
Metallic Priming
I use metallic primers in the same way I use zenithal priming. The differences between priming black first or not are very similar to those between single coat priming or zenithal priming.
A full coat of metallic primer will look extremely shiny, but also extremely flat in my opinion, and harder to work from. By using it sparingly on top of an initial black coat, I keep shadows and recesses, and gain a brushed metal finish. Should I wish for the shiny plated metal look, I will cover the parts I want to shine the most with my brush. The retention of the contrast and shadows (and to avoid washes*) is still what I am mainly after.
Again, this is a type of primer I rarely use, so not much more to say. The Stormcast on the left was primed fully Leadbelcher, the one on the right was primed black and then Leadbelcher from above.
Now…
How do YOU prime your miniatures and why?
Thanks for reading!
* Yes, I sort of dislike washes, haha! I had so much disappointment with some products leaving extremely glossy residue out of nowhere, that I stay away from them now.