Black or White...and no I am not talking about Michael Jackson

Oh white primer, how I try to love you but I just can’t. Actually on certain models I really dig the white primer. I like the lighter undertone that it gives to the model and for those vibrant colors like yellows and even reds; it just tends to make them pop. However, this comes with a pretty hefty drawback. White primer is not forgiving….at all.

I have had a model finished and right when I get ready to go and seal it, I notice this little white dot tucked away in the nether reaches of the model that is just staring at me and daring me to paint it. Oh how I hate those little white dots. So I find my tiniest brush, I get out as close to the color as I can get of the surrounding paint, which at this point has been layered up nine different ways from Sunday, and I gently try to exterminate that white dot of doom that is just staring at me. I am successful about 50% of the time and don’t screw up the paint. Not so much the other 50% of the time however and the resulting clean up takes about another hour to make it look passable to the not so discerning eye.

I figured I would go with the White Primer on my Covenant of Antarctica Fleet and try this spiffy new washing technique that I learned from Aaron at NorCon. Looked pretty snazzy actually! I bought the flow aid, diluted it per instructions, mixed it with the paint and the water to get that skim milk consistency and started washing my primer’d white model. Everything was groovy until I started painting on the model and dear lord did I miss a metric shit ton of spots. Disgusted with myself and only a few hours in, Dystopian Wars are on a 1/1200 Scale so a few hours is really an almost finished model if you aren’t getting all detailed and shit. Some of the paint jobs at the Spartan Games forums are rather impressive FYI.



So I dunked the whole fleet in Super Clean, busted out a tooth brush, brushed off the P3 White Primer and grabbed my trusty can of P3 Black Primer, a few spritzes later and poof…I now have a black primer’d fleet that will be much more forgiving of my screw ups and mistakes. The detail on these models is crazy impressive. Just insane really but honestly, I just want some playable painted models. Nothing award winning, not that I am there yet, but something that will look good on the field and won’t be just a primer’d model. So I am going to do a few very simple layers.



- First Layer: Base Coat (obviously) – Debating on going with a grey scheme or a green scheme (Gretchin Green Foundation Paint)
- Second Layer: Wash – Devlen Mud!
- Third Layer: Drybrush – With what every color I decide to go with as my base coat
- Add some sort of striping or pattern in a darker shade
- Pick out details (such as deck plating, metallic surfaces, windows, turrets, etc…)
- Done



Sounds fairly simple in its execution and it should churn out a pretty clean and table-top quality models. I just have to make sure I write down all of the paints I use and on what layers so that if I pick up other models, which I invariably will, I can recreate the scheme without having to re-invent the wheel so to speak.

I did however run out of Badab Black wash while washing the fleet and typing up this blog…

/sigh