Does white primer fix poor coverage of acrylic light colours?

[Vlad]

I brush paint acrylics, combination of Humbrol, Xtracrylix and Revell. I always spray prime with Halfords grey, for better adhesion, and I'm very happy with it. The issue is, basically all light colours, greys, blues, yellows, reds, of the acrylic brands I use have mediocre to terrible coverage. Grey and blue I can usually get away with 2 or 3 coats, but yellows or reds, I'm lucky if I get satisfactory coverage in a single figure number of coats.

 

Obviously white is terrible as well, but since it's universal, I'm going to buy a Humbrol rattle can and use that next time I need it. However I'm not going to find, nor be willing to buy, a rattle can for every light colour I might want to use at some point.

 

My question is, if I go Halfords grey > spray white > brush whatever I need, will that help with brushed light colours not needing as many coats?

[Mr T]

Why not use Halfords white primer, I sometimes use a thin grey coat to highlight imperfections and the a coat 9f white as an undercoat/primer. 

Edited August 24, 2018 by Mr T
Making more sense

[Vlad]

Probably because I didn't realise they do white primer  Is it good enough to leave as-is if e.g. the kit I'm painting is actually white?

 

So would white primer help under light colours?

[bentwaters81tfw]

Halfords white primer is quite thin, so apply in several light coats. It makes a good anti-flash white. Silly as it sounds, if you are spraying yellow or silver, prime, then spray it with gloss black, then the colour coat. Don't even go near white, red or yellow with a brush, unless it's for fine details.

 

A trick of the motor trade was to grey prime repairs, then a black mist coat. Lightly sand the black off and the imperfections would show.

[dnl42]

Yellow is a tough color, even for an airbrush. I need many coats to get a good solid yellow atop a white primer.

[sapperastro]

What specific brand are you using for the most troublesome colours? I can brush paint white with 3-4 coats of Model master acrylic, all thinned coats. Alternatively, I have done it with less using Revell, though the Revell matt white is not quite white, more of an off white. And this is over bare washed plastic, no primer. Other brands have given me issue with coverage. Revell matt yellow is very good for coverage, as is their red. And the Revell enamel takes even less thinned coats than the acrylic for coverage of these weaker colours/shades.

Edited August 25, 2018 by sapperastro

[bmwh548]

Try using black primer under white and yellow. It gives a more... "solid" look. And shop around for other paint manufacturers. The ones used for wargame figures tend to have stronger pigments.

[Circloy]

8 hours ago, bentwaters81tfw said:

Silly as it sounds, if you are spraying yellow or silver, prime, then spray it with gloss black, then the colour coat.

Knew about spraying metallic coats over gloss black, never thought about using it under yellows 'suppose I've always considered it would darken the colours.

 

Red's I've allways sprayed over a red primer which bring's the coulor out

[Vlad]

10 hours ago, bentwaters81tfw said:

Don't even go near white, red or yellow with a brush, unless it's for fine details.

 

Hmm... I suppose red and yellow are fairly generic that I could invest in rattle cans for them. Depends what you count as "details" though. I haven't yet needed to paint a whole plane in these colours, it's things like yellow underside wingtips and nose cowling on a 1/72 Bf-109, or red nose on a La-5, that are giving me trouble despite being fairly small areas. But it's not just reds and yellows. I'm finding a lot of light blues that live on the undersides of planes (e.g. Xtracrylix RLM 76) quite troublesome too. I'm often close to obliterating panel lines before I have acceptable coverage.

 

6 hours ago, sapperastro said:

What specific brand are you using for the most troublesome colours? I can brush paint white with 3-4 coats of Model master acrylic, all thinned coats. Alternatively, I have done it with less using Revell, though the Revell matt white is not quite white, more of an off white. And this is over bare washed plastic, no primer. Other brands have given me issue with coverage. Revell matt yellow is very good for coverage, as is their red. And the Revell enamel takes even less thinned coats than the acrylic for coverage of these weaker colours/shades.

 

Humbrol is giving me the most trouble, as that's where my reds and yellows currently come from. But I did try a Revell red as antifouling on a ship hull and I wasn't impressed, although it was a satin not matt. I've also recently needed 3-4 coats with a Revell light grey just to make a 1/700 floatplane look acceptable, probably doubled the wing thickness in the process. Aside from that though I do like the brushability of Revell Aqua so I'm slowly getting more of those and swapping out some of my Humbrols as they run out. Might have to try their yellow.

 

Maybe I'm expecting too much? Dark colours are often single coat coverage, should I just accept lighter ones will be 3-4?

 

1 hour ago, bmwh548 said:

Try using black primer under white and yellow. It gives a more... "solid" look. And shop around for other paint manufacturers. The ones used for wargame figures tend to have stronger pigments.

 

I might experiment with this but intuitively black primer doesn't make sense. I have enough trouble hiding grey streaks from my yellow areas, with black primer I think it would end up looking like a common garden wasp! I don't have a convenient place to buy wargame figure paints unfortunately.

[bentwaters81tfw]

9 minutes ago, Vlad said:

 

 

 

I might experiment with this but intuitively black primer doesn't make sense. I have enough trouble hiding grey streaks from my yellow areas, with black primer I think it would end up looking like a common garden wasp! I don't have a convenient place to buy wargame figure paints unfortunately.

Just get a length of sprue and give it a try.

I was always of the school that you painted the light colour first, followed by darker shades. However, one of club members does 1/24 cars, and the paintwork is outstanding. He sprays nail varnish all all sorts. His trade was airframe painter for the USAF, and when painting camo, it was always the darkest shade first: Euro 1. Spray the entire airframe grey, followed by the darker green areas, then finish with the palest colour.

 

I have seen a TT Canberra with the Wasp stripes, and the black was done first, then the yellow in stripes. Superb effect. The modeller was used to spraying 1:1 RAF machines, and had never tried the method before. It really does make a difference. I gives the colour some depth.

 

[Vlad]

So it seems I need to go to Halfords and get black primer and white primer and experiment a little!

 

Would you recommend black primer for the undersides of an aircraft that was then going to be a light colour, like sky blue?

[bentwaters81tfw]

I don't think they do black primer, I use black gloss over grey primer, then yellow or silvers.

I have never attempted other colours over black. You need to understand the spectrum and light absorbancy. You can always experiment on a sheet of cardboard and see.

[sapperastro]

Hmm, how much are you thinning your paints? I find even with matt black, I usually need two thinned coats for really total coverage, at least over a large part. I could do it with one, but then the loss of detail just starts to kick in. Still, the part about the Revell light grey was confusing. I have't had that problem before, with matt anyway.

[Vlad]

This was 371 satin. I see a pattern here, satin seems to be an issue with Revell. I did use some of their Matt medium greys on small areas of a very multi-colour project, and those brushed fantastically.

 

Medium to dark colours I usually brush straight from the pot. If they feel too thick I do a bit of impromptu thinning by dipping the brush alternately in water then paint. Light colours I do thin, because unthinned they're just too streaky by brush.

[sapperastro]

You could try adding a little matt varnish or tamiya flat base to the satin paint, or even talcum powder. I do this from time to time with satins and gloss paints to make them more brushable. It is a process of adding just a small amount at a time until you get it to the point you need. In any case, the revell aqua satins can need a few more thinned coats, but I actually spoon the paint out of the pot and thin them seperately.