Way of the Lazy Painter: Primer

This is the first in a series of articles on basic painting methods. We'll be discussing priming today, what it is, why you need to do it and more importantly how to do it. The end of this will also have a demonstration video showing how I do my priming.

What is priming?

Priming is the process of applying a thin coat on your miniature to give your acrylic paints a better surface to bond to.

Why do I need to do it?

There are two major reasons why you should place a primer on your miniatures. First as I mention above it gives your paint a better surface to bond to, this means that once your done painting your miniature the paint won't just chip off when you touch it. Second reason to primer is that depending on the color of your primer, it make painting easier. This second reason should be discussed in detail in a the later post, so just use this guide to know what color of primer to use. Miniatures that wear a lot of metal(armor, weapons, etc) primer with black, if it wears a lot of cloth(cloaks and the like) primer with white/grey.