Should I prime miniatures black, white or grey?

Primer colour is doing work for you. Every layer of paint over it either has to fight it or is helped by it, and choosing wrongly for the scheme you have in mind can double the number of coats. It is not an aesthetic decision made before the real painting starts — it is the first painting decision.

Safety

Step by step

1. Decide what the dominant colour of the model will be.That is the colour whose coverage matters. If the model is mostly dark metal and black leather, prime black. If it is mostly white robes and pale skin, prime white. Priming for the small details is the wrong way round.
2. Understand what black primer gives you.Every recess is already in shadow, so the model looks three-dimensional from the first base coat and you can leave the deepest crevices unpainted. Metallics look richer over black. The cost is that reds, yellows, oranges and whites need three or four coats and can still look dull.
3. Understand what white primer gives you.Colours reach their true brightness in one or two coats, and any transparent pigment glows. Contrast and speed paints only work properly over a light primer. The cost is that the model looks flat until you shade it, and every mould line and scratch is fully visible.
4. Treat grey as the default.A mid grey covers reasonably in both directions, shows flaws about as well as white, and gives a neutral starting tone. If you do not have a strong reason for black or white, grey is the answer, and it is what most experienced painters reach for.
5. Consider zenithal priming to get both.Prime black, then spray white or light grey from directly above at an angle, so the upper surfaces catch the light coat and the recesses stay dark. You have now pre-shaded the model. Thin paints or contrast paints over the top pick up that gradient automatically.
6. Match primer to scheme, not to habit.Many painters prime everything the same colour out of routine and then fight it. Priming an individual model to suit that model costs one extra can and saves hours.
7. Prime in thin coats and check the detail.Miniature detail is fine and a heavy primer coat destroys it. Two light passes at a hand span, turning the model between them. If the recesses are filling, you are putting too much on.
8. Use a coloured primer where it saves a whole step.Ranges sell primers in armour reds, greens, browns and bone. For a large army in a single colour, a coloured primer removes the base coating stage entirely, which on a hundred models is a substantial saving.

Tips

• Prime a spare or a spoon in each colour and paint your intended scheme on both. Twenty minutes of testing saves the discovery that your yellow needs five coats over black.
• Spray primer needs the same conditions as any other spray: warm, dry, still, and can and model at room temperature. Cold primer is the reason for the fuzzy, gritty coat people blame on the brand.
• Brush-on primers exist and are genuinely useful when you have nowhere to spray. They are thicker, so thin them and use two coats.

Common mistakes

• Priming black and then painting a yellow army — Yellow, orange and red pigments are transparent. Over black they need four or more coats to reach anything like their true colour, and the film ends up thick enough to lose detail.
• Using contrast or speed paints over a black primer — The whole mechanism relies on light bouncing back through the translucent paint. Over black there is no light to bounce, so the result is uniformly dark and the highlight never appears.
• Too heavy a primer coat — Miniature detail is measured in fractions of a millimetre. A primer coat thick enough to look solid in one pass has already filled the recesses you were going to shade.

If it doesn't work

Questions people ask