Best brush on primer?

[Billchuck]

I often will prime in black then do a heavy drybrush in white or grey. This fills the corners with something dark but picks out the detail well.

[Hammers]

+1 been using it for years as well.

Just do be aware that it flakes off rather easily until you paint over it. 

+1. Artist gesso, black or white. I use liquitex.

[ced1106]

Stynylrez, GW's Imperial Black. Reaper Brush-On primers. More expensive than gesso, so it depends on how many mini's you're working on.

You can tint gesso with inks and paint.

[FramFramson]

I think it does but I have not had great succes with white gesso. I find it obscures details and is quite chunky. I think it has something to do with the color pigments for the white being larger than for the black.

I've noticed this as well. Liquitex black gesso has been fine, but white is quite thick. I thought about doing a mix to try priming grey instead of black, but the white's thickness put me off.

[jthomlin]

Badger Stynylrez.

Ostensibly for airbrush use, but brushes on beautifully, self levels, dries quickly and comes in six colours.

Buy on Amazon direct from Badger

(Free postage on some.)

Cheers!
Joe Thomlinson

[Jagannath]

I've noticed this as well. Liquitex black gesso has been fine, but white is quite thick. I thought about doing a mix to try priming grey instead of black, but the white's thickness put me off.

Liquitex grey is excellent - it's a bit thinner than black so can look thin when it dried, but it's not issue. I've not got many great pics but these guys where primed in grey liquitex - you can see it's raw finish in the helmet on the right:



I've used gesso for a while and have three rules:

- don't skimp, use Liquitex and definitely not some 'student' gesso. The pigment's too big. (though I've heard good things about Golden).
- stick to the 24 hour drying time religiously.  Not worth chancing for a bad result.
- avoid white, it just doesn't work as well.

[FramFramson]

Hm, never seen Liquitex grey for sale around here, even in the big art stores.

[Jagannath]

That's odd - I'm in the UK and it's always with the other liquitex in my local. Do Golden make a grey I wonder?

[cram]

my friend presented me with a 1 litre bottle of Galeria black gesso yesterday which only cost a few quid thanks to his discount. Its really great stuff!

Thanks everyone for your input

[Wargamer Dave]

I often will prime in black then do a heavy drybrush in white or grey. This fills the corners with something dark but picks out the detail well.

That is a brilliant solution!