I ordered a pile of minis from my LGS, but can't get primers shipped. Are there any good primers for minis that can be found at home depot? I'm in Canada, and I've heard good things about rustoleum, but didn't take note of the brand/variation.
I use spray cans in regular basis, never invested in more fancy, "original" primers. And never had any problems with those sprays, neither on metal minis, or plastic ones. With metals it's much less problematic, so just try something "universal". I usually go with white or black matt - don't know what you have in Canada, but that's what I use/used: PozdRawiam / Greetings
Are you priming miniatures or terrain? I use a can of auto primer to do my metals. A couple of very light coats. Just enough of a coat to allow the acrylic paint to stick to them afterwards. 'Course, it's approaching winter and rain season here, so the cans will be staying in the shed for the next 3-4 months. (Rattlecans have specific temperature and humidity preferences. Too hot, too cold, too dry, too wet and they won't work properly.)
OK, you forced me to post the Miniac video, the whole thing is very useful but the relevant bit to this is at around 1m20s or so, embed doesn't let you link to a timestamp:
Miniac is good but he tests Miniature can primers, not "hardware store" primers. Perhaps this is a thing more related to experience (and therefore, personal opinion) but for my metal minis I just love Rustoleum Sandable Primer. You need to be careful and apply thin layers, let it dry a day BUT it adheres to metal like nothing I know. I thought it came only in grey but found it in black this year as well! For bonus points, if you have an airbrush, decant the paint and use it through the airbrush for really thin amazing layers. The Rustoleum Primer/Paint for plastics is also amazing for plastics. I paint semi-professionally and use my minis for playing, too, and almost never had a chip after using the Sandable Primer (and no varnish either).
Yup. OP asked "hardware store" primer. Last time I checked, that brand wasn't one. Also, he has a voice better suited to silent movies. Not specialist miniature paint primer. "HARDWARE STORE" "primer". As for "not weather dependant" - Minnesota is far from my neck of the woods. Our seasons and weather patterns do not approach anything you northern hemisphere types have. We don't have to worry about snow where I am, but rain, yep, it definitely DOES have an effect on spray paint. So does wind. Especially the 60+kph ones that are rather common around here this time of year. For me, weather DOES have a VERY LARGE effect on my spray priming. Especially since I do not have a temperature controlled (nor even enclosed) bunker for the storage of land conveyances nor a separate room in my domicile copacetic to spray painting of any kind. I simply MUST do this in the "OUTSIDE", where the weather IS usually doing it's thing. My shed is an 8'x5' garden shed fabricated from steel sheeting. It is also filled to the gunwales with terrain and table boards for my club. It is not large enough to skin a felis cattus domesticus in, let alone swing one.
