Army Painter’s Color Primer Review

I recently got a buttload of 15mm Sci-Fi minis from the Critical Mass Games Kickstarter.  I need to paint them, so I can have a full company vs. company to try out Quadrant 13.  I looked into how to speed up the painting process, and I came across The Army Painter’s Color Primer.  They spell it “colour” but they are wrong. 🙂

I use Army Painter’s washes – Strong Tone and Dark Tone, and I like them a lot better than the Citadel washes I had used previously, so I was already feeling positive toward the company.

The genius thing that Army Painter has done here is that they have a “100% match” regular paint for each color primer.  So you can, in theory, spray your minis with the colored primer, paint the other colors, then touch up with the 100% match paint.

Anyway, I wanted to try it out before I sprayed it all over my CMG minis, so I tried it on Kurasan’s “Terror Of Clambake Beach.”  These were perfect, because they are mostly one color.

raw_terror cleaned_terror The Clambake Beach minis before and after cleanup.

 

terror_primed After priming with “Ultramarine Blue”.  In the back is the spray primer and the 100% match paint.

 

Khurasan_terror_of_clambake_beach_15mm_PLA-6The completed minis.  I drybrushed a mix of the 100% match paint with a bit of Citadel’s Runefang Steel, then painted the eyes, mouth and teeth.  Of course I messed that up, so I had several touchups to do, and they blended perfectly.

Then I washed with Army Painter’s Strong Tone mixed with acrylic medium to thin it.  Basing was done my standard way.

 

The color primer really sped the whole process up.  I’m a fan.  The 100% match paints really seal the deal.  I think this will save me about 25% time when I paint the 79 infantry from the CMG Kickstarter.