Coloured primers. Uses/advantages?

[DOD]

Hi,

Recently back to aircraft modelling and discovering new products and techniques. Main interests are WW2 (and sci fi). Traditionally have used a grey primer and have discovered Stynylrez which I really like. On getting a new bottle recently I discovered there are 18 different colours. Grey, white, black, blue,  greens, browns , metallics and even pink.

I have come across usages for some of the colours in the forum.

White. Red, yellow, white

Black. Black basing technique,  metallics.

However,  what about the rest?

Are there any advantages of using a colour similar to the final colour? E.g. blue primer for US Navy schemes or RAF Pru Blue or Olive green for an Olive Drab scheme.

If you put enough paint on it is likely to cover up the primer colour whatever it is(?).

Any thoughts and opinions would be appreciated. I am constantly trying to expand my knowledge!

Cheers

David

 

 

[Bertie McBoatface]

Pink primer makes yellows applied on top really glow. Yellow is a difficult colour to paint due to its transparency but somehow pink priming cures all that. Yellow primer is often recommended for underneath reds though I haven't tried that myself yet.

 

Most paints are translucent to some extent so the primer can affect the final appearance but as you say, if you put enough layers on, you can cover it up. But who wants a thick layer of paint on a model?

[Mike]

• Black primer is helpful for creating shadows in the nooks and crannies of your model
• Grey primer is good for a neutral tone on which to apply colour
• White primer is a good base for a less dense colour such as yellow, orange or red
• Red brown primer is great for German WWII tanks, as that's the colour they were primed in the factory
• Brown primer is neat for brownish things and organics such as dioramas
• Green primer is good for camo

 

Any others I don't know.

[Bertie McBoatface]

17 minutes ago, Mike said:

Black primer is helpful for creating shadows in the nooks and crannies of your model

 

And then you can spray white primer downwards onto the model, creating highlights too. If you then spray a translucent base coat over the shaded and highlighted primer, you get shadows and highlights with very little effort. This is called zenithal priming and is very popular with figure modellers though it works on anything really.

[Casey]

In ideal world of opaque paint, color of primer would have no meaning

 

But... all paints are transparent. We think of them at 'opaque' but in reality color of a paint comes from light being scattered or absorbed by pigment particles. The paint works basically as an 'color foil filter' applied over the surface. If you apply yellow paint on a black or grey background, you will end up with greenish color, if you apply red on white, you will end up with pink.

 

That is why you should pick color of your primer based on the target color you want to achieve. Or if you want special effects - chipping paint down to a rusty brown primer is a great weathering trick.

 

[dnl42]

5 hours ago, Bertie Psmith said:

 

And then you can spray white primer downwards onto the model, creating highlights too. If you then spray a translucent base coat over the shaded and highlighted primer, you get shadows and highlights with very little effort. This is called zenithal priming and is very popular with figure modellers though it works on anything really.

I learn something new every day!

 

https://www.thearmypainter.com/advanced-techniques/spray/zenithal-priming/

[Pedagogue54]

I found this to be very interesting:

https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235063321-complementary-pre-shading-trying-out-a-new-pre-shading-method/&do=findComment&comment=3494906

[DOD]

Many thanks to all who have responded. Much appreciated.

 

 

22 hours ago, Bertie Psmith said:

Pink primer makes yellows applied on top really glow. Yellow is a difficult colour to paint due to its transparency but somehow pink priming cures all that. Yellow primer is often recommended for underneath reds though I haven't tried that myself yet.

 

Most paints are translucent to some extent so the primer can affect the final appearance but as you say, if you put enough layers on, you can cover it up. But who wants a thick layer of paint on a model?

Thanks for tip, I have a yellow spinner to do and will try it out.

 

22 hours ago, Mike said:

• Black primer is helpful for creating shadows in the nooks and crannies of your model
• Grey primer is good for a neutral tone on which to apply colour
• White primer is a good base for a less dense colour such as yellow, orange or red
• Red brown primer is great for German WWII tanks, as that's the colour they were primed in the factory
• Brown primer is neat for brownish things and organics such as dioramas
• Green primer is good for camo

Again, thanks for this selection of uses.

16 hours ago, Casey said:

In ideal world of opaque paint, color of primer would have no meaning

 

But... all paints are transparent. We think of them at 'opaque' but in reality color of a paint comes from light being scattered or absorbed by pigment particles. The paint works basically as an 'color foil filter' applied over the surface. If you apply yellow paint on a black or grey background, you will end up with greenish color, if you apply red on white, you will end up with pink.

 

That is why you should pick color of your primer based on the target color you want to achieve. Or if you want special effects - chipping paint down to a rusty brown primer is a great weathering trick.

 

I had not quite appreciated the extent of this. Thanks for the information.

15 hours ago, dnl42 said:

I learn something new every day!

 

https://www.thearmypainter.com/advanced-techniques/spray/zenithal-priming/

Indeed, every day is a school day. This was new to me too and thanks for the link that shows it in action.

 

From the information supplied I will be approaching things a bit differently in future and I can see some experimentation coming on. I am not a big fan of pre shading effects, going for post effects, but I can see there may be circumstances where it would be effective.

Thanks again to you all.

cheers

David

[dnl42]

On the transparency of paint. Alclad is very much an example of this. Any color will show through.

 

I foolishly believed the color call-outs for a Grumman Goose in pre-war service and thought I had completed the painting before the error was identified.

 

Turns out the leading edge was bare metal. I tried to spray Alcad atop the yellow--big mistake. I eventually overcoated with white before laying down the Alclad

You can also see the other error in the kit's color call-out.

[DOD]

@dnl42 Looks good in the end though!

[Dunderklumpen]

On 5/21/2022 at 12:16 AM, Casey said:

Or if you want special effects - chipping paint down to a rusty brown primer is a great weathering trick.

I do this every time I intend to let some rust show up! Rust primer followed by a layer of lighter rust. Some chipping fluid and then final color on top. Works great!

[Giorgio N]

If I may, as an aircraft modeller I'm not particularly convinced by the usefulness of so many shades...

Some are sure useful and I do have primers in some different colours myself: grey because it's the most commonly used colour. Black because it works great with metallics (and of course I know that some techniques need a black primer, even if I do not use them). White because it's easier to prime white areas in white... although really I've painted white on grey primer with no problem at all so even white primer may be a "nice to have" but not really necessary product and I don't know if I will really buy another bottle once this is finished.

I can understand pink now, as yes certain colours can benefit from a pink base, I may try it as well.. or I may just prime in white and add a pink coat over it.

Other colours though ? Yes, I could prime a Spitfire in green since certain areas would be in dark green, but what about the areas that are in dark grey ? Or those that are in light grey ? Yes, I could use a primer in the same colour of the real primer on that aircraft to do chipping and so on, but often real chipping shows a combination of the underlying primer and the bare metal, so I would still have to add some other colour... why not use a metal coloured primer then ? It would be the most realistic solution !

Not sure, it all looks like an overcomplication to me compared to the use of something like a grey primer

 

Another thing: the primer coat is not only necessary to allow if the following paint coats to stick to the plastic, it's also useful as a mean to check the surfaces of the model for blemishes of any kind. This means that the ideal primer should be in a colour that best makes such blemishes visible and IMHO a light or medium grey is still the best for this. Would a dark olive primer coat be equally effective ? Not sure, maybe but maybe not.

 

With this I do not mean to berate those who find the different coloured primer useful, in the end we all have our ways to reach a certain result. I should repeat that these comments come from someone who exclusively build aircraft models, I can understand that different subjects may call for different solutions, even if I have no direct experience with these. Simply, I struggle to find a reason why something like say a green primer may be useful to me.

[occa]

Hi

1 hour ago, Giorgio N said:

....

Hi Giorgio,

 

Sorry for being OT but I wanted to write you a PM but it says you cannot receive messages, could it be you still have my email address from the purchase of AML Fiat G.50s ?

Cheers Martin