Army Painter spray primer first test

We bought some spray primer off eBay, some time after buying the Army Painter Mega Set from www.ibuywargames.co.uk. The primer arrived today - some time ahead of the paint set - so there's not really much we can do except prepare a few miniatures, ready for when the paints arrive. Then again, if we'd received the paints before the primer, we wouldn't be able to paint any miniatures anyway, so maybe it doesn't really matter.

We've seen a few tutorials on the 'net about spray priming miniatures. Almost all of them line up their miniatures inside a small box and blast them with a quick coat of primer. It looked easy enough, so that's exactly what we did:

spraying outside is always a good idea - and even more so with a paint you've never used before, and have no idea about how it's going to behave!

We stuck some sprues down with a blob of white tack and hit the miniatures with a layer of spray paint.

We turned the miniatures around a bit and continued spraying, in short bursts, from about 20cm - as recommended by the Army Painter website. After a few blasts, we let the primer dry and inspected it.

Sadly there were still large areas of bare metal. Maybe it's down to technique, or just not understanding how it works, but this method of spray coating with primer wasn't exactly a resounding success! The only way we managed to get a nice even coat was by holding the model and moving it around. We really should have used some kind of mount though.

That acrylic primer really does stick to everything - and takes a massive amount of effort to clean it off. On the upside, even in places where we were a little "generous" with the spray, as the primer dries it tightens up and creates a lovely, smooth matt, textured surface ready for painting onto.

Now we just need to sit tight and wait for the Army Painter Mega Set arrives in the post, and see how their "quick tone" method of shading works.