Priming Miniatures
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Primer is the least glamorous step in miniature painting and one of the most consequential. Acrylic paint does not bond well to bare plastic, resin, or metal; it beads on the surface, rubs off at contact points, and chips during play. Primer is a specialized coating that grips the model and gives every later layer something to hold onto. Skipping it, or doing it badly, undermines all the hours you spend afterward, so it is worth learning to do properly.
Your primer color is a strategic decision, not an afterthought. Black primer gives instant depth in the recesses and forgiveness where your brush cannot reach, which makes it ideal for dark schemes, metallics, and beginners. White primer makes colors painted over it brighter and more saturated, suiting vibrant schemes and contrast-style paints, but it exposes every missed spot. Grey sits in the middle and works for almost anything. Colored primers can shortcut an entire base coat: a red army primed red is already half painted.
Rattle can spray primer is the standard route. Shake the can for a full minute or two, then spray in short passes from roughly 20 to 25 centimeters, starting and ending each pass off the model. Keep the can moving; hovering builds up paint and drowns detail. Several light passes from different angles beat one heavy coat. Weather is a real factor: high humidity can make primer dry in the air before it lands, producing a fuzzy, sandy texture. Aim for a dry, mild day, and let the can sit at room temperature first.
Brush-on primer solves the situations where sprays fail. If you live in an apartment with no outdoor space, if the weather refuses to cooperate for weeks, or if you only need to prime one rescued model, a bottle of brush-on primer applied in thin coats does the job. It takes longer and needs care to avoid brush strokes, but it is completely viable. Airbrush primer is the third option, giving fine control and indoor convenience at the cost of setup and cleanup time.
Judge a good prime by looking and touching. The surface should be uniformly coated but thin enough that panel lines, rivets, and face details remain sharp. It should feel very slightly textured, like fine paper, which is the tooth the paint will grip. Problems are worth fixing before you paint: fuzzy texture can sometimes be knocked back by gently rubbing with a soft cloth or an old toothbrush, while pooled or obscured detail usually means stripping the model and starting again, which is annoying but better than painting on a ruined surface.
A few final habits pay off. Prime everything you intend to paint in the near future in one session, since setup and cleanup dominate the time cost. Attach small models to a board with poster tack so a gust does not scatter them. Let primer cure for a few hours, ideally overnight, before painting; it continues hardening after it feels dry to the touch. None of this is difficult, and once priming becomes routine, every model you paint starts from a reliable foundation instead of a gamble.