I am an OIL man!!
I have tried acrylics several times and apart from using them for shields belts etc I gave up on ‘em and threw them out of my pram along with my dummy, rattle and a copy of Mayfair!

I have always used car grey acrylic for priming my figures but loath to pay the large cost to buy a spray can (round about £4-99)

So I have had this idea to do away with the car primer and use my redundant acrylics to undercoat for my top covering of oil.

I have approx 12 jars of acrylics (Lifecolour) so I decided to experiment on my latest figure by using each phase of the painting by priming each part with the approx colour I intended to use in watered down acrylic followed up by oil to finish

This is the figure I have just finished the 90MM English archer by Andrea

As an experiment I am quite pleased and will definitely do my figures this way in future

Comments are welcome

John, first of all the figure looks good! Secondly, how in the world did you paint in oils before without undercaoting in acrylics anyway?! My oils go down so thin, I have to have some sort of base coat to help with coverage. Nice work, I would keep this up!

Jay H.
OKC

Hi Jay
I suppose that priming with car primer is using acyrilics as an undercoat but my reason for using my redundant little pots of acyrilics was a cost issue
The cost of the car primer I use is quite expensive £4-99 ($9-00) and I also felt somehow more in control painting small areas first with an acyrilic then oils seemed and it seemed to go on smoother over the thin coat of acyrilic
All sounds a bit strange and also if I can save money by not buying the primer I can spend more on figures!
Cheers

John

John,

I also paint in oils. I do not spray with carprimer because it is to smooth.
I spray Citadel white primer about € 10 for a can. I can spray around 15 figure's with it. Then undercoating with Vallejo acrylic, and then my oilpainting.
I ám satisfied with the result.
Your figure is painted great. You are on the right track. Keep posting...

marc

You will find that by not priming your figure the paint will come off very easily. Also on metal figures the primer acts as a sealer preventing oxidation from occuring. Many years ago I thought I would save a few dollars and not prime the figure......Big Mistake......... as the figures began to oxidize ( like rust showing through the paint). Leaving out the priming stage I feel is foolish and will cause you problems later in both metal and resin figures. If you can spend $50 dollars or more on a figure..why not $5 dollars for a can of primer that will prime at least a dozen figures.

my 2 cents

First of all the figure looks very good.Secondly as an oilpainter myself i can understand completely what you r saying about acrylic disappointement.I have tried them like 100 times.They won't work for me no matter how much i try.So what i do is use primer(which is Andrea's pearl grey whit the airbrush) and then basecoat it s part with Andrea acrylics.I have tried Vallejo as well but they have now absorbing ability and oil doesnt stay on them as well as on Andrea.I think the absorbing ability helps the matt finish as well.I hope that helps.Keep up the good work.

Nice work on the figure and thebase also. The mainissue for every painter is to find his way to a beautiful figure , no matter what kind of color is used. And your way looks GOOD !!!

You can use every paint is good for you,nice try John!
christos

Guy, you have answered a question about acrylics as primer I have wondered about for a while. To be on the safe-side I prime with enamel paint, matt with alittle gloss varnish added to give a smoother base, but still with some 'tooth'.
Am I on the right track?

My guess is that in the primer stage no kind of varnish should be added in the priming mix. Because this makes more difficult the adhesion of the paint on it.

Find a nice smooth primer in a spray can (MOTIP car Primer is perfect ) or use airbrush with some enamel or acrylic, or even hand prime with brush with Valejjo acrylic primer (Foundation White )

These are roads safely tested many times withsure results

Costas

I use 'skullwhite' as a primer and that's it. No vallejo undercoat or something. Just the oils. Works well for me.