My standard is p3's white primer. It always has worked great. The problem with it, is that it's never in stock! Anywhere! Not amazon, ebay, the war store, nothing. I have used Army Painter's white primer, it's alright. It kind of smells though, and I just don't trust it as much as P3. I'm worried it will gunk up squadrons.

So, until that stupid stuff gets stocked again, I'm looking for other options. What has been everyone else's experience?

Go to home depot and buy the $.99 rattlecan.

No joke, after trying 3-4 different spray and brush on primers that is the one I like the most for coverage, adhesion, and not masking details.

I have used it on all my squads and wouldn't go back. I actually just ran out and am gonna go get a few more cans probably tomorrow.

For quality, it's hard to beat Stynylrez primers from Badger, but they are expensive and require an airbrush for application.

Cost isn't that much of a factor simply because a light coat on something as small as a frigate or couple of squadrons doesn't use that much. Getting a large batch together to prime all at once saves time and money in that regard.

I had an airbrush for years that I used for a little painting here & there (I'm not particularly good with it) but it never occurred to me to use it for priming. Yes, you can certainly get good results with a spray can, but that's really dependent on temperature and humidity. Spraying indoors isn't an option for everyone.

Once I saw the light, so to speak, and realized that primer should only be a very light coat, the airbrush has produced really good results. The Stynylrez primers are available in most online hobby stores and through Amazon.

I use Corax White from Games Workshop. It is very expensive but it lasts forever and coverage is phenominal.

By lasts for ever I mean the contents of the can. It just goes and goes.

The trick really is technique though, you want a light coat with full even coverage. That can be a tough thing to get until you get your technique down. I actually learned from watching Adam Savage (of Mythbusters fame). Check out this Video... The URL should bring you right to the time stamp you need to watch. Notice he uses short fast strokes and he is not holding down the nosel, it is short bursts on off, on off, on off.

Cora white is one of the ones I tried, and while its mainly a cost preference, i felt the 99c spray was on par with it performance wise.

I use low-cost black acrylic paint from a 0.5 l can I bought 4-5 years ago, with much water, except for TIE, I can't do TIE with black primer, I don't know why, so I have my white can. Use it with a low end plastic flat brush

I already have primed more than 300 minis (armada+25mm naps) from it, plus bases, and it's not half used. cheap as dirt.

I don't like sprays as it feels like wasting 75% of the paint and it smells for several weeks

4 hours ago, BrobaFett said:

Go to home depot and buy the $.99 rattlecan.

No joke, after trying 3-4 different spray and brush on primers that is the one I like the most for coverage, adhesion, and not masking details.

I have used it on all my squads and wouldn't go back. I actually just ran out and am gonna go get a few more cans probably tomorrow.

What brand exactly is it? I have tried other cheap brand cans on 40k models with disastrous results. Very clumpy and grainy.

1 hour ago, gounour said:

I use low-cost black acrylic paint from a 0.5 l can I bought 4-5 years ago, with much water, except for TIE, I can't do TIE with black primer, I don't know why, so I have my white can. Use it with a low end plastic flat brush

I already have primed more than 300 minis (armada+25mm naps) from it, plus bases, and it's not half used. cheap as dirt.

I don't like sprays as it feels like wasting 75% of the paint and it smells for several weeks

I'm impressed! I tried GW's paint on primer, and it wasn't thin enough for squads.