Primer question

[Hardcore]

I am going to make a white-orange-black SAR scheme. Should i get that PINK tamiya primer for the job? 

[Stokey Pete]

I had a similar conundrum over use of pink primer, after a test using a paint mule, my conclusion was that it made zero difference. 
That said, I painted my subject to full colour opacity. 
I even ended up not using a primer at all, and painted straight to the prepped plastic. 

[Woody V]

I'm in the same camp as Stokey Pete. In my way of thinking, primer only serves one purpose and that is to create a single color base over different color components like resin and styrene, but then so does a coat of any other color. Now we have this new craze of different color primers. I'm sure someone out there has come up with a reason for colored primers, but since your finished colors are opaque anyway I don't get it. 

But that's just my opinion and you know what they say about opinions. 

[Neo]

I just painted a red car interior, tested over white grey and black prime and results were meh. I pulled out a bottle of Stynelrez neutral yellow primer, and the results were by far the best, i would strongly recommended 

 

https://usaairbrushsupply.com/products/stynylrez-primer-neutral-yellow

[themongoose]

On this one I’ve had the opposite experience as Stokey Pete and Woody. I used the Tamiya pink primer under orange and red. It made the orange way darker than with it over the white primer. Which means it’s probably closer to Neo’s experience with the light yellow primer. I like that idea by the way so may try that in the future. Reds especially are very see through and not nearly as opaque as grays and blacks. Orange is in-between. I’m a firm believer in how primer color changes the top color. Anyway my thought is, you have to try it out on a paint mule and see how it turns out. Then go from there.

[Woody V]

6 hours ago, themongoose said:

Reds especially are very see through and not nearly as opaque as grays and blacks. Orange is in-between. I’m a firm believer in how primer color changes the top color. Anyway my thought is, you have to try it out on a paint mule and see how it turns out. Then go from there.

 

Correct! Some colors like yellows and reds (for instance) are less opaque than others and applying them over another color of a similar hue will result in a richer top coat with less color build up. Keep adding coats until the build up obscures the primer color and the primer color is irrelevant, but in this hobby thick paint is not desirable so the underlying primer color has merit.

So I guess I stand partially corrected. 

[Neo]

On 4/26/2023 at 10:09 PM, themongoose said:

On this one I’ve had the opposite experience as Stokey Pete and Woody. I used the Tamiya pink primer under orange and red. It made the orange way darker than with it over the white primer. Which means it’s probably closer to Neo’s experience with the light yellow primer. I like that idea by the way so may try that in the future. Reds especially are very see through and not nearly as opaque as grays and blacks. Orange is in-between. I’m a firm believer in how primer color changes the top color. Anyway my thought is, you have to try it out on a paint mule and see how it turns out. Then go from there.

Fun fact is that this yellow primer is very close to tamiya tape, if you are curious to compare without buying you can try pink primer vs tamiya tape. This is what actually made me reprime in yellow as i had i part masked and my red looked super dark and looked amazing on the tape

[themongoose]

7 hours ago, Neo said:

Fun fact is that this yellow primer is very close to tamiya tape, if you are curious to compare without buying you can try pink primer vs tamiya tape. This is what actually made me reprime in yellow as i had i part masked and my red looked super dark and looked amazing on the tape

i may paint some spoons this weekend for reference here. Will cover one with yellow tape if i do 

[ivanmoe]

15 hours ago, themongoose said:

i may paint some spoons this weekend for reference here. Will cover one with yellow tape if i do 

 

I read these discussions and am struck by just how easy it would be to do a comparison with some old model parts.

 

Yellow sprayed overf pink, black and white, for instance.

 

But wait, someone has done it already: