Undercoating: black or white?

[Trooper Hornman]

I know this may seem a bit obvious but I've been second guessing myself lately. My chosen scheme involves shades such as shadow grey (flak armor/helmet) along with catachan green or a lighter green as well as a light/aquatic blue (cloth/fatigues).

Taken all together I would assume that a black undercoat is best since the overall tone is darker, but my (admittedly inexperienced) gut tells me that white is better to let the colors stand out more and still be discernible to the eye from a distance. Does the rule generally follow that darker scheme - dark undercoat, and light scheme - light undercoat?


Also, is it best to undercoat freehand or use spray paint for beginners?

[RejectionHurts]

personally, i'd probs go with the black undercoat just cuz as you have the light greens and blues they'd contrast really well and make the colors look a little darker than they would normally be with just one coat. but that's just me speaking from my own inexperienced time of doing these miniatures =P

and i'd use a spray just for the simplicity, speed, and ability to make sure you dont get lumpy/streaky spots. but what would i know, i dont undercoat my models xD

[emptyhat]

I always hated undercoating my models by brush when I was a kid so I only use spray paint now. I think that skull white used to be pretty rubbish for an undercoat from the paint pot but I did hear that the current version has been improved.

(spray, spray, spray)

[Cosmic]

Definitely Spray, it's a good investment and is just fantastic.

Personally I think you've got too many colours as it is, a light Aquatic Blue, Shadow Grey and Green......sounds like they belong in a sweet packet or something.

But if they're what you want then I'd go with Black undercoat, it'll tone it down.

[Trooper Hornman]

I hear you Cosmic, I do at times think the look is too 'busy' but I still think t can be pulled off.

A sample I made on a friend's DOW painter: cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/577796899265257015/806EBE71C5AF3CC37D30D474924FCBE7CC25B94E/

It's a camo scheme obviously, I figured since they were all 'cool' colors it would work, to say nothing of my ability to paint camo lines. I'm going to test it soon and I'll throw up some pics, see what the masses think. But overall you can see it's an overall dark tone which is why I considered a black primer coat.

edit: @cosmic2157 I'm staring at that pic more and thinking about your advice, I wonder how it would look with simply the dark/regal blue armor and a lighter blue or shadow grey for the cloth bits? I still like the camo idea but not at the expense of looking decent.

[Empirespy]

I think that it doesn't matter what colour you spray them, I chose to use white because it's easy to paint light over white than light over dark, but that's my preference.

[Cosmic]

Jun 9, 2011 14:49:59 GMT -5 Trooper Hornman said:

I hear you Cosmic, I do at times think the look is too 'busy' but I still think t can be pulled off.

A sample I made on a friend's DOW painter: cloud.steampowered.com/ugc/577796899265257015/806EBE71C5AF3CC37D30D474924FCBE7CC25B94E/

It's a camo scheme obviously, I figured since they were all 'cool' colors it would work, to say nothing of my ability to paint camo lines. I'm going to test it soon and I'll throw up some pics, see what the masses think. But overall you can see it's an overall dark tone which is why I considered a black primer coat.

edit: @cosmic2157 I'm staring at that pic more and thinking about your advice, I wonder how it would look with simply the dark/regal blue armor and a lighter blue or shadow grey for the cloth bits? I still like the camo idea but not at the expense of looking decent.

Ah well it's completely different to how I expected it to look so forget what I said!

It's looking really good actually, I think you should keep it, but just like the sample you've done make sure the Light Aqua Blue is as minimal as possible. Just use it to break the cloth up a little.

[Trooper One-Nine-Seven-Four]

White primer, definitely use white.

Only use black primer if the mini is going to be primarily black or metallic in color.

My $0.02.

[mccaptain]

I actually used to swear by black, but now I have recently converted to gray primer.

1. It is light enough that you can still see your details well enough to paint. Sometimes they tend to disappear on me with black basing.

2. Light colors still go on well.

3. Dark colors still stay dark.

4. You can get it in a big can for $3.00 at Wal Mart.

[Cosmic]

Jun 9, 2011 18:07:05 GMT -5 Trooper One-Nine-Seven-Four said:

White primer, definitely use white.

Only use black primer if the mini is going to be primarily black or metallic in color.

My $0.02.

If you look at his scheme though it is very dark, White Primer would be difficult to entirely cover up and it would lighten the scheme too much.

[Trooper Hornman]

mccaptain, thanks for the grey primer idea, that one never occurred to me.

@cosmic awesome, thanks! I'll take to heart what you said about the ratio of blue vs green...painting those camo lines looks like it'd be tough, but it'll be worth it. Once I figure out how to transfer pics (only have an iphone camera *sadface ) I'll throw 'em up and can get some CC going.

[RejectionHurts]

ok so i decided to start undercoating my guys after first reading this post and wow it makes a good difference... why didn't i do this before?

i'd still have to say go with black since it will darken whatever colors you put on top of it and you can still lighten them up if you wish with more layers. i tried one white undercoat and the colors were just too bright for me (note that he was redone with a paint thinner bath and recoated in black =P).

dark sticks with dark nicely (as seen on my plague marines) so yeah, give the black a try and hell, if that doesn't work, give it a bath and try it over again =D

trial and error makes for some nice learning experiences lol