You should probably buy an airbrush…
Okay so yet another douche painter is telling you, you need an airbrush. No, I am not saying you need it but I am telling you, you should get one. I am making one big leap in logic. I believe your in this painting game for the long term. So here is how I am going to break it down. Economically. See you may think we painters are allergic to numbers but see I can write this article in advance and I don’t have to show you my face so you will never know if I broke out in hives.
Army painter spray is 28 dollars a can, Citadel spray is 29 a can. The consensus is that you can spray about 50 models with that if you know what you're doing, usually less but let’s call it 50 because it’s a nice round number. So you are paying almost 50 cents per model to have it primed with a can. Not to mention a cans restrictions like you must do it outside and so on.
You can get an airbrush for 20 dollars, a compressor for as cheap as 50 and that turns any regular old paint with thinner often just water but just splurge for the thinner/medium trust me. So 70 dollars for that which turns any paint into a primer… a nice covering primer too
No no please look it easy, airbrush means two and half spray cans. Literally 2 and half… Lord help me.
Okay so economically it’s cheaper in the long run but by the time you have bought your third spray can you are already beating the cost of spray cans. So what? You're never going to buy a third spray can out of spite now your going to brush prime all of your models!?!
Sigh okay… so, you can do things other than prime them and no it won’t take more skill than it does with the rattle can.
Ha ha that’s right you thought I was going to show you a Zenithal prime but you're wrong it’s even more basic than that. This was my highest cost character level commission I have done thus far and this was one of the steps. Taking photos of semi-gloss primed minis. Why?
This simple reference photo tells me where the highlights should be for the metals because gloss will act like a reflective metal. As you can see I used that reference picture to put where the reflections should be.
Simple.
But yes Zenthal priming
Now in the most technical sense, you could do these things without an airbrush…
You could use the gloss paint with a brush and clean it a lot. You could drybrush with grey with a standard drybrush and then drybrush with white with a make-up brush.
However, it won’t be this clean.
It won’t be this easy.
Here is the thing to use zenithal priming with a drybrush you actually need a bit of knowledge of how to paint and how to do things… but with an airbrush zenithal priming, nature does the work for you. Doing that zenithal priming takes time for me, no skill or talent is required.
Okay so I have explained zenithal priming but why do it?
If you want to use contrast paints directly on after this they will come up so much better same goes for speed paints, washes, instant colour, inks, and whatever transparent paint you want to apply it will come out so much better.
Okay so you’re not going to paint non-metallic metal or true metallic metal, you're not going to use transparent paints so why should I get this airbrush, why should I zenithal prime?
It makes it easier for you to see
Maps highlights and shadows
Easier to paint thin coats on white and it does natural shadows/highlights
Okay… so you have not once talked to me about actually painting with an airbrush just priming
So many people think of the airbrush as the next step in painting that you're going to have to learn a completely new tool. It’s not. It’s a basic tool you should have in your painting arsenal. It’s a screwdriver, not a hammer. Some people exclusively airbrush and I am not suggesting for a second that is something you have to do. Not for a single second. I am saying hey models need priming. Look at this interesting thing you can do with almost no skill with an airbrush.
I want you to have it, because you can use it for priming… but let’s say you want to try painting with it… It’s there. And the first step in every journey is the hardest one.
All I am saying is that economically and ergonomically it is easier to have the airbrush. So why not?
Until next time friends…
Keep those brushes wet