Good morning everyone.
It’s a good day off for me and with that in mind, I’m going to catch up with my painting. So I’m needing some pros and cons on this subject as well.
I would like to know what is the best quality primers out there in terms of resilience to masking, weathering and maybe even sanding.
I was planning on priming some of my parts but I ran out of my Tamiya spray primer (rattle can). I would like to purchase a primer that can be used in my airbrush.
Thank you.
I’ve been using Mig Ammo One Shot primer for quite a few years- I’ve never had a problem with it and I think it is durable for an acrylic primer.
I was using MrSurfacer1500 on models and figures in the past, but it is lacquer and I honestly can’t stand the Leveling thinner even with respirator and spray booth.
So I went for VMS No peel primer lately and I’m impressed, although skeptical in the beginning. It has the same finish as the surfacer, but is acrylic and almost no issue with a smell. I didn’t notice peeling from masking and handling, if you clean the model first from grease and leave it to dry several hours. Sands nicely.
Cheers!
I like Mr Surfacer 1200 in the spray can,or Tamiya Extra Fine.
I hate firing up the a/b to prime
I used to use Tamiya primer, but it collected in engraved detail, and drained off raised detail, requiring two, or more coats. And it was inconsistent in drying matte, sometimes having a semi-gloss sheen. Now I use Army Painter white primer - much better.
Interesting. I often don’t prime my models exactly because I think it’s an opportunity to lose detail. My usual methid is to simply shoot my base color. If I’m happy with it - good. If not, I give it another shot. Sometimes though, with a lot of white styene additions on a dark green kit, I may use a primer just to even the colors out first. I"m the guy who has said more than once nearly any primer will do, and that’s pretty much true. I mist it on in several extremely light coats - I’m talking Krylon here. But I’ve become enamored with Tamiya spray primer on my models simply because I use it on my figures, and there is no loss of detail whatsoever. Some of my recent posts show three or four iterations of filling and priming and the detail remains crisp.
Could you have possibly gotten a bad can? I left several different can of paint in my garage over the winter, and a (very) few of them started suffering from just the issues you have described.
Edit: Here’s one I worked on recently, a Checkpoint Charlie guard in class A’s:
Badger Stynylrez. Water soluble urethane primer that dries rock hard and doesn’t obliterate fine details. You have a choice of 18 colors to suit every need.
No such animal like a primer that’s resilient to sanding. Using any abrasive removes material including anything covering said material such as paint and/or.
I prime my figures but not the face. I have a hard enough time trying to paint facial details as it is without another layer of paint. I used to use Tamiya gray primer out of the can but now I use a Tamiya medium or light gray through the airbrush, as Robert said very thin. I recently bought VMS gray acrylic primer but have not tried it . I want to start trying to scratch build some structures out of styrofoam and would use it as a primer that won’t attack the foam.
I have recently tested & reviewed Gaahleri Acrylic primers and found them very good, I have kept using them afterwards and very happy so far.
Great review. What pressures did you use during testing? I saw you mentioned “low” and “medium” pressures. Appreciate any additional details you can share. Helps us newbies lock in on concepts. Great varnish review as well. Cheers. 
I am afraid I can not give exact figures… my desktop compressor only has 3 levels of output represented by lights, no scale.
Last weekend I have been testing a new compressor from Gaahleri and using the primer with 1 bar (its max output) with a 0.5mm needle airbrush. It worked fine.
In any case I would recommend you to get a hull from an old kit (I am sure someone at a model club will give you one, if you don’t already have) and practice. And write down your findings. As I use acrylic paints, from time to time I clean the test hull with a cloth and alcohol and it is ready again for new test.
I will preface my comments on primer with an axiom: If you cannot sand the primer and achieve a perfect feathered edge, it is complete garbage.
These are the primers I actually tried over the last three years:
Model Master Light Ghost Gray enamel, in the old formulation, was fantastic stuff. Back when I painted with Model Master enamels, before the formulation change, I did not prime because it was unnecessary. That stuff was extremely durable. Around 2017 the Model Master enamel paint formulation was changed to meet a new California law. The entire paint system died not long after. That California law would go on to kill a bunch of paints. Anyway, when I switched to acrylic paints, I used old formulation Model Master Light Ghost Gray enamel as my primer until I ran out.
Mr. Surfacer is excellent primer if you do not mind the fumes. The resulting finish is very durable and sands very well. It is my go to primer for sealing putty work. Use a high quality mask with this stuff. If I was immune to chemical damage, I would prime everything with Mr. Surfacer.
Badger Black Sneeze (or whatever it is called) Primer is an excellent acrylic primer. Once dry, it sands quite well. White Sneeze is garbage that acts like shrink wrap and comes off in sheets when sanded. I cannot say what other Sneeze primers do because I have not tried them. I have read other users claim that White Sneeze eventually dries and becomes hard like Black Sneeze. If that is so, it takes days and a primer that takes days to cure is garbage.
Vallejo Acrylic Primer is garbage in Black, White, and Primer red. Those are the three colors I tried. It acts like shrink wrap and comes off in sheets when sanded.
…
Here I go off the rails and shoot the breeze…
As a rule, petroleum solvent based primers will be significantly more durable than water based primers. The most amazing primers of all are a kind of two part epoxy. They need to be mixed in batches and sprayed immediately. When I did research on this subject, epoxy primers topped the charts for durability by a wide margin. They are widely used in automobile production. However, unless you plan on putting your models out in the sun and weather full time, such primers are very probably over kill. (If you want to make a model that will last a thousand years, well…)
I suspect the best bang for the buck, durable primer for a model builder is something like Rustoleum Enamel Primer decanted into a bottle, thinned, and sprayed with an airbrush.
…
One last comment. No one has tried every single primer. No one has performed some massive, double blind, primer experiment with completely controlled variables to determine what is objectively best. Every single person in this forum mucked around with a bunch of different primers and eventually settled on a personal best. You will very probably go through the exact same process and your personal best may change as you experiment or your needs change.
As a model builder, I assert that it is always to your long term advantage to experiment with new things. It costs money. It may cost you models. But the knowledge gained will allow you to make better informed decisions in the long run. Of course, experiments can be costly and painful and each of us has a personal tolerance for that.
I will finish by adding that my skills are modest and my experience is far behind some guys who frequent these forums. However, I can write long, wordy, boring posts better than most.
Sir,
Thank you for your time and support. As for being long winded, I would rather you be that way than not.
Your advice is very helpful.
Chris
I have used a long time the AK primer (filling type). These were some kind of substitute from the Tamiya primers. Eventually they worked well, but the fumes and possibility that with heavy weathering (with spirits) they would not be as resilliant as I want, so I switched to the VMS No-peel primers. They work exceptionally well and has no fumes. The only thing I encountered was to clean up my airbrush with the right liquid, but airbrush cleaner is the way to go (used Tamiya Airbrush Cleaner before buying a large bottle).
So, VMS is now absolutely my go to.
VMS primer cleans well with 98% cleaning alcohol (probably will do with lower percentage also) from the pharmacy, and is cheap for a liter. No fumes also like the airbrush cleaner from Tamiya or Gunze etc.
