Mass painting with coloured primers???

[Ethelred the Almost Ready]

I am horribly slow at completing painting projects.  I am wanting to get some massed armies painted up and thought perhaps coloured primers may help.  I want to do a sizable (for me) Orc army.  I have 40 infantry mostly painted but have another 70 or so to go.  I thought a base/ primer colour - possibly dark brown, may speed things up.  Has anyone used this method?  Does it make a big difference in time?  Using Oathmark Orcs for a Tolkien look (i.e. not green orcs) what primer would you use? 

[Dr DeAth]

I use Halford's Camouflage Brown ultra matt spray.  I've used it over their own grey primer and directly onto the figures, both methods work equally well so if you're in a hurry I'd go straight in with the brown.

https://www.halfords.com/motoring/paints-and-body-repair/specialist-and-decorative-paints/halfords-camouflage-spray-paint-brown-300ml-252036.html

[tomrommel1]

Have you thought about using the contrast paints by GW over different primers. They work a treat for me in speeding up painting.

[Polkovnik]

The Army Painter spray primers are ideal for this, and you can get the exact matching paint to go over any missed bits.
They do two browns - Leather Brown and Fur Brown. Necrotic Flrsh may also be suitable, depending on what colour you want your Orcs' skin.
I generally use Leather Brown as a primer for most of my figures, so I can leave some parts (boots, bags, belts, etc, some horses) in the primer colour and not need to paint them with another colour.
I'm sure you can get some painting guides (on the Army Painter website or on Youtube) on painting with this system - spray primer in the most common colour, paint the other parts, each with a single colour, finish with AP quick shade). 

[Cat]

I routinely use any colour spray paint for troops with a predominant colour.  Blue for Napoleonic French, Red for British, drabs for WW2.  It doesn't need to be a 'primer' paint.  Using flat colours makes it much easier to paint on top of.

Otherwise I use white paint or primer for figures where I want the colours to really pop.

[Robosmith]

I would go for a light brown or beige primer and then use army painters soft or strong time after highlighting it. Would be able to paint the flesh in a few minutes each, even faster if you drybrush it. The old tyranid dipping method.

[pixelgeek]

The Army Painter spray primers are ideal for this, and you can get the exact matching paint to go over any missed bits.

I do this all the time.

One thing to be aware of is that if you have old AP paints they may not match the new colours and consequently the primers. I had this issue with an old bottle if Desert Yellow.

If you use the primers buy a current bottle of the same paint to ensure they matcch