The search for Spray Primer

GW white primer has been my go to spray primer for about a decade.  I use past tense because GW has seen fit to replace their spray primer with spray paint and my can is about to run dry.  Paint is fine for all the plastic kits GW produces these days, but primer makes a world of difference on metal figures.  A bit of research turned up a number of discussions on the subject:  ReaperMini forums brought me to a test site on Maximusinminimis for various primer products.  TMP and Dakka also added their 2 cents to the topic.  Be sure to check out the scratch test results for the rather popular choice of Krylon black.

The top recommendations were:

• Plasti-Kote White
• Floquil from Testors
• Duplicolor – automotive primer
• Krylon Ultra Flat Black

I wanted a product that I could buy locally – no need to pay more for shipping than the product.   After a bit of shopping, I found Plasti-Kote white sandable primer at Micheal’s Arts and Crafts for less than $4.00 per can.  Perfect!  Now to try it out.

Primer Test: Plasti-Kote left and right. GW center.

The Plasti-Kote primer is as smooth or better than the GW primer.  Drying time is similar and plasti-kote was able to spray clean dispite the humidity of July in Chicago.  The only test left is to see how well the primer takes paint.  Short of some sort of disaster with paint – I think I’ve found my new brand of primer.

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Arab solders – batch 2

More test figures – starting to get a feel for the color schemes.  Some of the reds in the bottom back might need a dip, but the rest of the figures are ready for the table.

Arab Standard Bearer

The Gripping Beast figures I purchased for my Arab WAB army does not include banners with the standard bearer figures.  The model is simply a figure with hands prepared to accept a home made shaft and banner.  Time to see what I can come up with.

Making a banner for a standard bearer

First, flattened a ball of Procreate between two sheets of plastic taken from a milk jug.  (A little bit of water on the plastic & I had zero issues with the putty sticking to the work surface.)  Next, cut the shape of the banner with an exacto blade (press the cut – don’t drag the cut).  Finally, prop up the banner on a few rods to add the flowing shape.

The standard rod is .052 gauge brass rod.  The banner is attached using super glue with a strip of paper folded over the joint span.  Not only does the paper hide the ugly meeting between banner and rod, but I also hope the superglue infused paper will add a lot of joining strength.

Over all I’m satisfied with the result.  The spotty paper should clean up once painted.  The banner shaft is a bit short, but I’ll sacrifice height for easy transportation of the model.  In the photograph I can see finger prints, but in real life the surface appears clean.

Standard bearer

Standard bearer back

Chaos Cavalry

Two Chaos Cavalry units, seldom played but still taking up space in the army collection.

The Marauder Horsemen are the best sort of figures – free.  Many years back, a local game store was given this unit by the local GW rep as a pre-release display piece.  In exchange for painting the unit, I received the models after short stay in the display case.

Chaos Marauder Horsemen

The Khorne Knights are plastic/metal hybrids from early 2000. Does not matter how many pins are used – the limbs spend more time off of the model than on. Last time I check the rule book, the small 4 man unit with the mark of Khorne packed a might punch. I’m sure with all the changes GW as made to the Chaos roster they now qualify to work as water boys.

Khorne Knights

First Figures for Arab WAB Army

Testing a variety of color schemes for my new Arab army. The goal is to have a variety of colors scattered through out the army. All too often my figures are too similar – unity in an army is an important quality to have, but I seem to take it to extremes at times. So far I have found little information/inspiration for painting an Arab WAB army. Osprey has a number of tiles for the time period – I purchased Armies of the Caliphates and Saracen Faris. Both book depicted the solders of the period in a variety of primary (if pastel) colors with soft brown leather foot ware and gear. Darrel Hindley creates a very different view of the Arab world with a controlled pallet of white and blue – check the bottom of his Figure Painter blog page.

Additional Sources:

• More painted figure pics from the Musketeer Miniatures forum: Spear men and cavalry & Command.
• Arab Cavalry army from Olicanald.
• Tom Weiss’s show case of Moors and El Cid from Gripping Beast.
• Cleeve Prints Gripping Beast Moors from the Steve Dean Painting forum.
• More from Steve Dean forums:  Musketeer archers, Musketeer Ghulam, Ghulam.
• Saxon Dog Crusader project.

Of the 6 figures – I’m most satisfied with the three in the front rank. The primary color pattern is much cleaner than the three brown figures in the back row. I really like the red – but a whole army in red robes would look too much like some chaos death cult. On the next set of figures, I need to revisit the brown & see if I can create a softer result.

Paint List

All figures primed white and washed with a brown ink.

Spears: Vermin Brown (GW)

Bows: Tan Yellow (V)

Green: Orkhide Shade (GW), Snot Green (GW), 50/50 Snot Green/Ivory (V)

Red: Burnt Cad. Red (V), Beige Red (V), 50/50 Beige/White

White: Astronomican Grey (GW), white

Blue: Regal Blue (GW), Ultramarine Blue (GW), 50/50 Ultramarine Blue/Ivory

Flesh: Medium Flesh (V), Gryphonne Sepia (GW) (Borrowed this wash hint from Five Armies)

Brown: assorted combinations of Calthan Brown (GW), Iyanden Darksun (GW), Bubonic Brown (GW), Ivory, Sepia and Devlan Mud (GW)

Shoes: Tanned Flesh (GW) or Iyanden Darksun

Shield: Red Leather (V)