# Priming A Model - White vs. Black?



## D-A-C (Sep 21, 2010)

Hey everyone.

I just wanted to pick the brains of the more artistically gifted members of Heresy online for a moment:

*When your priming your model with, for example, either Skull White or Chaos Black (or their named variations), how do you know which models should be given a white coat, and which should be given a black coat?*

I'm just wondering are their certain colours that always benefit from a particular base coat?

Forr example, I am about to help my nephew paint his Crisis Battle Suit, and usually I would start by painting a model thinly with chaos black, but this time I'm thinking of going:

Skull White - Vermin Brown - Tau Sept Ochre - various highlights

So i'm just wondering what difference this would make as opposed to beginning with my traditional chaos black coating?


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## khrone forever (Dec 13, 2010)

one of the differences is that with a white undercoat if you miss any areas then it will stand out, where as with a black undercoat you can sort of pass it off as shadow, and also with the white undercoat you might have to do black lining


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## The Son of Horus (Dec 30, 2006)

White undercoats have very limited applications, as far as I'm concerned. Paints are formulated these days with the assumption that you're working from a black undercoat. Citadel certainly does, and results with Reaper Master Series and Vallejo are definitely better with black. 

Basically, if you're after a look that has subtle shading, white's a good starting point. You basically just apply a shading wash of whatever color you're planning on using, and working it back up from there. It's particularly good for models that are going to be predominantly yellow or pink. This wasn't always true-- for a long time, white primer was the staple of serious painters. But the products available now remedy the problems painters ran into in the early 90's with coverage over dark colors, so the necessity for a lighter undercoat for general purpose work is sort of gone, I think.

For literally everything else, black wins out. Even if the model itself is going to end up being white-- you get better results going through a transition of browns up to white than you do just spraying something white and applying shades to it. Same goes for red, I've found, since that's also a common one people use white primer for. 



Anyway, for your question about the Crisis Suit, I'd start from black. You'll actually need another coat of Vermin Brown to cover the "splotchy" effect you'll get over white, whereas you'll probably need just one coat over black.


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## imm0rtal reaper (Jul 15, 2008)

Another issue I always have with gW white spray is it always makes the models "dusty" with little specs. Regardless of temperature, humidity, distance sprayed.


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## CattleBruiser (Sep 3, 2011)

I normally say if the majority of the model is going to be dark, then use black. If it's going to be light, then use white.

Seriously, if you've ever tried getting a decently large portion of a model to be yellow or white after having a black basecoat then you know what i'm talking about.


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## imm0rtal reaper (Jul 15, 2008)

CattleBruiser said:


> I normally say if the majority of the model is going to be dark, then use black. If it's going to be light, then use white.
> 
> Seriously, if you've ever tried getting a decently large portion of a model to be yellow or white after having a black basecoat then you know what i'm talking about.


Yellow it relatively easy over black, so is small scale white, but lots of white is a bitch!


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## khrone forever (Dec 13, 2010)

i dissagree, all of my empire models are light blue and white, and i used a black undercoat and they turned out fine, if you dont believe me see my blog

http://www.heresy-online.net/forums/showthread.php?t=108684


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## Words_of_Truth (Sep 20, 2007)

Tried painting my World Eaters with black and then white primers, wasn't happy so ended up getting a red primer 

Sometimes you can work up to white from black if you have patience, but I have next to none and I've started experimenting recently getting a white scheme for something like White Scars etc, what I ended up doing was working dirt etc into the scheme by doing a coat of bleached bone over the white then washing it with devlan mud and then picking out the raised levels with white again, so it looks like it's been worn without being washed.

It's so much easier painting with a black undercoat for most things but if you want bright then white is the best way, also I like the way washes work with white primed models, painting yellow is a lot easier and vivid when you use white than if you try to paint up to yellow over a black coat.


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## Turnip86 (Oct 7, 2011)

The Son of Horus hit the nail on the head really. White primer for using washes over the top, black for everything else. You'll tend to get a smoother finish layering up thinly from black than trying to paint over the annoying white primer


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## falcoso (Apr 7, 2012)

Personally I would say it depends on the effect, a white prime will make it look lighter and generally 'cleaner looking'. So say with my lychguard because I want a nice light clean metal I use white (and the heads are white too which helps), even though I use the same colours it looks much more regal and higher than warriors. Also bright colours work better with white, so if you are doing Aurora or The Pyre then use white because the colours will pop that bit more, and its easier to just paint the black trim after then apply several hundred layers of orange to get an even colour. 

Black is the standard choice, if you don't have a reason to go white then go black, its easier to hide mistakes where you forgot to paint, it make things looks dirty (which for a lot of armies is fairly apt) and is generally a lot easier to get a nice look with (to prime I mean).


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## odinsgrandson (Jun 9, 2009)

This matters quite a bit less than you'd expect. I usually prime my minis in black no matter what the end result is going to be, and I don't have any trouble painting white/yellow or other colors over it.

If you do start out with white, then it is a good idea to paint armpits and other nooks in black before starting in earnest. That way, if you miss a spot, it won't show.

As an odd side note, I've met some spectacular painters who use white all the time, and never use black. At some point, you're covering it all up anyway, so it is just preference.


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## GrimzagGorwazza (Aug 5, 2010)

It comes down to personal preferance, i always use white for ork infantry and lightly coloured (yellow bad moon) vehicles but then i don't like using the foundation paints very much. I can imaging using a yellow foundation coat over black would cover really well but if you don't want to use the foundations then i'd stick to white for the lighter colours and dark for the darker models.


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## Azezel (May 23, 2010)

Allow me to be the crazy voice in the wilderness...

Grey.

I've tried black and I've tried white and I've settled on grey - about one shade lighter than the regular GW plastic. It has all the advantages of both.


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## D-A-C (Sep 21, 2010)

Hmmmm, I tried the white on the Battle suits, and to be honest, I dodn't see much of a difference.

But, I did have to do the vermin brown coat twice as it was blotchy in places.

However, the one thing I will say, is doing black prime can be a pain sometimes, as it can be hard to cover.

So you end up with little flicks of black poking through, say, a red coat. Then if you use a black wash, it becomes worse.

So, when I do my next set of bloodletters, I'm going to try working up from white to see how I geton.


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