Primer?

Primer serves basically two functions. One, it provides a "tooth" for the finish coats to stick to, thus creating better paint adhesion. Two, it allows you to better see small imperfections in your construction, allowing you to correct them before you apply the finishing paint. Primer also seals areas where you have applied putty and blends them into the rest of the model. So, if you are going to use primer, do it after you have finished construction. Most primers are light gray, which would work fine. They can also be dark red or black. Most folks wash their models after construction, since skin oils, fingerprints, nacho cheese and other foreign objects could be attached to the surface.

Welcome to the forum. Looking forward to some photos of your build. As for your questions, I always wash my parts on the spru to remove any oils or othe contaminates from the plastic before painting. I also prime before putting down my final color. Depending on how you plan to weather your finished build determines the color I prime with. If I plan to do some major dents, dings, scratches, oo other damage I may prime with a non-buffing metalizer. If I do a fresh of the assembly line model (ducks to avoid thrown objects) I just use a light grey. Just my.

Thanks a bunch Leopold. I'm a bit mixed up in this area. I guess enamels would be best for priming huh?

I have had the same old can of Pactra primer for many years now, it is a lacquer. I'll let somebody else answer as to what the current state-of-the-art in primers is.

I 'prime' everything. I use 'Plasti-kote' Automotive, Sandable Lacquer Primer. You can get it in white or gray or red. Can find it in most auto parts stores. It's a spray can. That's what I do!

Matter of fact I just primed the completed tracks for this Panther D I'm working on!

Glenn

Thanks a lot you guys,
I have a couple of cans of the aforementioned colors from a U.S.S. Tarawa build. My father-in-law was stationed on her. It was an old kit that he had and the transfers crumbled in water so I never finished it. I just looked at a picture on the living room wall and realized I could probably mask it and paint the deck myself. Oh well, sometime in the future.
I really appreciate the input. I'm definitely going to prime this kit. As for the final scheme I'm going to stick to O.D. so I can concentrate on washes and drybrushing. I'll be using spraycans and brushes mostly. (I have an airbrush but it's a cheap plastic Testor's #8826 and no compressor. I'm unemployed at the moment so propellant cans really aren't feasible.) I need to work on panels etc. anyway. I didn't do it on my last kit because I screwed up the canopy -MRC's AH-1W Supercobra, so it sort of looks "fresh off the assembly line" except for the big hole in the canopy from my dremel. I'll definitely do better with this kit, I hope. Thanks again.
-Spencer

My tamiya M2A2 bradley is dark green and " fresh off the assmbly line" in appearance. i built it for my dad. I am now building a cheap Hobby Craft version in U.N. colors of the same kit to practice my washes on so I won't screw up the $40 Tamiya. My wash is coming along pretty good. so when I'm done i'm going to pick the tamiya back up from my dad and weather it. I actually use a lot of automotive paints on my sci-fi kits and robots. I used Krylon Cammo paint from the auto parts store on my tamiya. A nice dark green. The only catch was there are no after maket brush paints to match it to if you need to do some "touch ups" which luckily i didn't have to. So i learnd from that experience.

I have some battleship gray Krylon rust-tough , I was wondering if that would work.

I use a rattle can of Testor's flat gray primer on my builds. It's enamel and takes about a full day to dry. Otherwise I can't disagree with any of the rest of the folks on this one.

Welcome riffraff. Good luck and are looking forward to your build.