Undercoat - Do you go black, white or grey?

[graeme27uk]

I am still unsure of which undercoat colour to go for....

 

Black seems to work really well most of the time.  White can be annoying if you miss spots... not tried grey.

 

However, black is a pain when it comes back to painting flesh and light shades....

 

Seen some painters who do black and then "dust" white over the top for a sort of stippled effect...

 

 

Any tips?

[dgraz]

The black base with white kinda gives an initial highlighting and helps you see the model better.

 

Black is fine for certain things......darker, dirtier schemes and if you're willing to do multiple coats you can still get bright colors.

 

White is unforgiving if you miss a spot, but you can easily get very bright colors......depending on how much you thin your paints, dark colors over white can be almost as bad as bright colors over black and require multiple coats.

 

Varying skill levels will get more or less use out of either color. Some fantastic painters use only black, and some use white.

 

I personally swear by grey. The neutrality is forgiving if you miss a spot, it's easier to see detail, it's dark and light enough that you can do dark or bright colors over it.

[Mako]

I like grey, but usually I go with black. Like Dgraz said, you can work up to bright colours (often using a hand painted white coat if I need to), but I like how black works for me. Except shang - he got white primed...

[Green_Lumux]

Generally I work with this rule, if I'm painting light bright colours, i prime it white, if I'm going with a darker colour scheme or metals I use black.

I second the black base with a white over spray, that will help give you done really sharp contrata in your highlights and shadows.

[Pierowmaniac]

I Swear by Black and only use White if the entire model is going to be very light colours (yellow or white etc) which is very rare.

[Bengt]

I use white for almost everything. I did use black for Raven Guard Space Marines. 

 

I think it's much easier to create dark details on a white primed model than creating light details on black primed model, by a large margin.

[Sholto]

I use white for almost everything, the exception being mechanical-type models which I prime in black. I love the clean, bright colors white gives me and I don't usually miss any spots!

Lately I have been trying a mix. Black primer all over, then I spray gray from above at a 45° angle, leaving black only on the underside of the model and deep recesses. Finally I spray white from directly above. I have seen this referred to on the web as zenithal priming, and I like the shading it "builds in" to whatever I paint over it.

[nagash13]

when i started painting (way back in 97) i was learning on high elves. so i primed white. later i realized evil will always win because good is dumb. the more villainous armies were all darker, so i switched to black primer for years. last year I moved from the wonderfully dry air of california to the horribly cold(winter) or humid(the rest of the time) air of long island. because this made priming such a pain, I switched to vallejo airbrush primer, so i could prime indoors. at the time, it was only readily available in grey. now i kinda prefer it. 

 

although i am kinda intrigued by the idea of pre zenithal highlighting.

[dgraz]

 to the horribly cold(winter) or humid(the rest of the time) air of long island. 

Do you get to play much? You should totally come out to Grim some time.

[zFiend]

I kinda like using black as it's really forgiving on a starter level painter  

 

Now I have been trying out a little with grey and I like it also. White was the only one I didn't really like, would be better if I painted colours propably, I have been having a hard time getting my vallejo yellow to actually be yellow on the black basecoat. 

[Sholto]

If you will be painting a lot of yellow, priming white is best. If you have already primed black then you could try the GW Base colours. Their yellow covers over black very well (much much better than Vallejo).

[zFiend]

Thanks for the info!

[nagash13]

i work nights and have rotating days off, so i dont really get down to grimm all that often.

[LordDarcy]

I use white for almost everything, the exception being mechanical-type models which I prime in black. I love the clean, bright colors white gives me and I don't usually miss any spots!

Lately I have been trying a mix. Black primer all over, then I spray gray from above at a 45° angle, leaving black only on the underside of the model and deep recesses. Finally I spray white from directly above. I have seen this referred to on the web as zenithal priming, and I like the shading it "builds in" to whatever I paint over it.

I usually use white as I often paint in bright colours.  How I learned to do the Zentithal priming/shading was to prime all white and then spay from below with black at about 20-30 degree angle from vertacel.  I use this especially if I am airbrush painting the majority of the figure. Several very light coats with my airbrush over this mixed black and white primer produces really good and quick shading.

[war_B00B]

One of the guys in our gaming group has a very cool basing technique.

 

He starts with a black undercoat and then uses one burst of a white spray paint from the direction you want your light source.

This gives you a very good idea for shadows, and where you will need to be high lighting when you start painting.

It also gives the lighter colours a natural high light as long as its a fairly thin coat.

[Loveless]

I use black for everything unless the whole model is going to be yellow - yellow is about the only thing that requires a ton of coats over black, even if you're using Citadel's Foundation/Base line (surprisingly white is a fair bit easier, given that the Foundation/Base light greys all cover in a couple of coats).

 

Black is, as has been mentioned, far more forgiving if you miss a spot.  Miss a spot on white and you'll be cursing yourself - especially if you already used up the last of your mix (been there, done that...).

 

I've tried brown a few times when I wanted to go for things in a earthier tone - it works all right, but it's not something I'd care to do regularly.

I really need to try the black with a burst of white thing - sounds like a solid idea.

[cfallsgamer]

I usually basecoat with Vallejo Model Air Grey Primer. It goes on really smooth wither applying with the airbrush (when home) or brushed on (when traveling for work). It is a bit darker grey but can easily layer to either end of the spectrum for darker or brighter colors. I go through many more bottles of it than any other dropper bottle I purchase. LOL

[ben th3 bear]

I usually prime stuff in grey, unless I am particularly wanting something with black recesses in which case I paint them black.