I'm thinking of buying some spray primer made for miniatures. (Not buying from a hardware store because that didn't turn out so well last time.) I currently use brush-on primer, but the thought makes me shudder when it comes to a rank-and-file game. It worked well for Imperial Assault's 30-some-odd minis, but Runewars is different.

Now, I don't live near any retail stores that sell miniatures supplies, so I want to buy enough primer online in one order.

I will be priming just the 4 core armies for now.

How many cans should I buy?

Are you doing the army painter method of priming in the main color? in which case one can should be enough for each color...I primed all my reanimates in metal and still have a ton of primer left..

I was thinking of buying black amd white and doing the highlighting technique Sorastro demonstrated.

one can of each will most likely be enough for one faction

I'm quite partial to the GW white, it works in my very humid summer even. Got black recently but I don't bother with zenithal priming. It can work, make sure you keep your paint layers very thin though. Otherwise you wasted your time. I tend to prefer a less transparent paint job.

for RWM models one can will go awhile. I prime black, and i primed all my stuff with 1 can (2core + 3Spearmen +2Command +1Cav +Hawthorne for Daqan, 1Core +1Command +1Archer +Maro for Waiqar, and Elfbox).

Actually had to think about that for a moment since in the middle of that i also started painting a gargantuan squiggoth...which probably ate half a can itself (that thing is almost as big as a house cat...)

Primer can be pricy though so i'd avoid buying it in bulk anyway. Buy as you need.

If I'm priming black I just use auto primer. In the past it was entirely Duplicolor sandable auto primer, but I heard that there are certain qualities of auto primer that can fill in details. I never noticed this personally, but last time I bought some it was a different brand that didn't say anything about being sandable or filling gaps, and couldn't really tell the difference.

They're usually a few bucks a can.

I use Tamiya's Fine White primer. It has done 2 whole armies for me. Not a fan of black primer.

Yeah, I was told that black primer is good for beginners. That may be true, but I didn't like it. It was way too much effort to get bright colors going, and to me, the Terrinoth armies require bright colors. Much easier to bring white down to a dark black than the other way around.

I appreciated the zenithal highlight technique as a beginner because it gave me the best of both worlds. Unfortunately, my can of Army Painter black spray primer got clogged, so the rest of my army is primed in solid white. *shrug* I guess I'll give it a go.

47 minutes ago, Parakitor said:

Yeah, I was told that black primer is good for beginners. That may be true, but I didn't like it. It was way too much effort to get bright colors going, and to me, the Terrinoth armies require bright colors. Much easier to bring white down to a dark black than the other way around.

I appreciated the zenithal highlight technique as a beginner because it gave me the best of both worlds. Unfortunately, my can of Army Painter black spray primer got clogged, so the rest of my army is primed in solid white. *shrug* I guess I'll give it a go.

I agree completely. Black is just a pain to paint over if you want saturated/bright colors at all. The advantage of black primer, not needing to paint in the cracks, is overrated. Shades will take care of that for you.

The advantage of black is it hides the crevices you dont want to bother painting because you will only see it at odd angles anyway.

What youre supposed to do is prime it black, let it fully dry for awhile, then drybrush the gak out of it with white from above/side. It makes all the details "pop" and gives a natural light/dark contrast to the model when using paints such as Army Painter which are slightly translucent.

1 hour ago, Vineheart01 said:

The advantage of black is it hides the crevices you dont want to bother painting because you will only see it at odd angles anyway.

What youre supposed to do is prime it black, let it fully dry for awhile, then drybrush the gak out of it with white from above/side. It makes all the details "pop" and gives a natural light/dark contrast to the model when using paints such as Army Painter which are slightly translucent.

Been meaning to try that technique of base coating purely in black & white, then applying colors as glazes... but keep chickening out. I think I'll use my extra Ardus and Kari as test subjects.

Final colour has a pretty high impact on what colour of prime, if I'm base coating near blacks, black primer, otherwise almost universally white. White helps point out if you miss spots.

I recommend games workshop skull white. two cans per faction.

I think I'll probably go with one can of Army Painter white for now. If I run out, I'll finish up what's left with my brush-on primer. But first, I need to get those Uthuk in hand!

16 hours ago, Budgernaut said:

I think I'll probably go with one can of Army Painter white for now. If I run out, I'll finish up what's left with my brush-on primer. But first, I need to get those Uthuk in hand!

I think my can of Corax white (GW) is finally rtunning out, it has primed 32 spearmen, 16 archers, 14 cavalry, a few golems, 10 standard/flags, some command pack, probably a couple other things. It also isn't quite dead yet, maybe next go for leonx riders?

I think I've gone thru three cans of white primer for my waiqar now, might be laying it on a little thick but one can should get you thru one core.

11 hours ago, Jukey said:

I think I've gone thru three cans of white primer for my waiqar now, might be laying it on a little thick but one can should get you thru one core.

I will impart you the wisdom of ages. Primer is not base coat. Different formulations generally (I suppose the AP stuff is an exception, not sure it is actually primer either), and sometimes really thick primer can impede painting. 1 can should do a good 2-3 cores.

I use Vallejo brush on primer. Works great. One mid size bottle (8$ or so CAD) has lasted me for hundreds of miniatures.

It takes maybe 1 or 2 minutes per mini to apply and is way less messy than spray. Can't recommend it enough.

Just remember that 1 thin semi-translucent coat (I use the light grey primer) is enough.

2 hours ago, Darthain said:

I will impart you the wisdom of ages. Primer is not base coat. Different formulations generally (I suppose the AP stuff is an exception, not sure it is actually primer either), and sometimes really thick primer can impede painting. 1 can should do a good 2-3 cores.

Yeah the AP primer is a primer that acts as a base coat for your main color...i've used it a lot, never lost any detail like I have using non-model primers...

55 minutes ago, CMtheGM said:

I use Vallejo brush on primer. Works great. One mid size bottle (8$ or so CAD) has lasted me for hundreds of miniatures.

It takes maybe 1 or 2 minutes per mini to apply and is way less messy than spray. Can't recommend it enough.

Just remember that 1 thin semi-translucent coat (I use the light grey primer) is enough.

That stuff lasts forever and kind of shrinks as it cures, fantastic stuff, idiot proof.

@jek Funny you mention primer issues, had my first (due to being dumb and working too close nearby) with archers backs, gimmed them up/got grainy due to distance and quantity. Lesson learned, slow down and stage work. Spray prime definitely likes the rank and file.