Favourite gaming genre?
* 31% (41) – Fantasy
* 24% (32) – World Wars (I & II)
* 18% (24) – Science Fiction
* 5% (6) – Any Genre, added by visitor
* 5% (6) – Fantasy and Science Fiction, added by visitor
* 5% (7) – Steam Punk (PP), added by visitor
* 4% (5) – Near Future Sci-Fi/Ultra Modern, added by visitor
* 3% (4) – Ancient Historical (pre 1500s)
* 3% (4) – Modern Historical (post 1500s)
* 2% (3) – Modern (post WWII)
Total Votes : 132
Time I wrapped the last poll up I think, so here’s the results which probably simply reflects the way visitors actually find my blog. Initially I started blogging mainly about Mordheim (Fantasy) and these days I’m mainly yammering on about Flames of War (WWII) and Pulp Gaming in a sort of mid-World-War setting. On reflection Fantasy is probably always going to be the most popular gaming genre, simply because it’s the most familiar and flexible setting.
It’s nice to see some sensible visitor added ‘Any Genre’ to the poll and I can see their point. If the game is enjoyable enough to play the genre is secondary. Personally I’m not really tied to any genre either being more of a hobbyist and painter than a hard core gamer. I don’t know who added ‘Fantasy AND Science Fiction’, but that’s two genres – I guess they couldn’t pick a favourite!
Anyway, the next poll is a contentious question: White or black primer? Which do you use for your figures? I’ve been painting figures for almost 20 years (on and off) and have always used white primer except for one failed experiment where I black primed some GW Mordheim skaven and attempted to paint them. I find white priming gives you a good base to lay down colours prior to ink washing, whereas black priming tends to deaden colours and requires more effort to cover. However I do black prime all of my terrain, here black nicely hides scratch built details and gets into all those nooks and crannies your dry brushing won’t.
For my Flames of War armies I experimented with brown priming – GW’s Scorched Brown painted over a white primer. I would have used a brown spray primer if I could have found one! Brown priming turns out to be an excellent choice for painting 15mm North African troops because it gives you instant ‘blacklining’ with minimal effort.
I opted for “gray,” since that’s what I tend to use about 70% of the times. I’d have preferred to add an option of “depends on the miniature,” as I tend to prime either black, white, or grey, depending on how I want the finished figure to look.
It might be worth mentioning that I prime with gesso, applied by brush, so I can, depending on the need, use 2 or 3 primer colors on a figure.
Hi Hyun, yes I’ve seen the gesso primer articles on your Wee Toy Soldiers site. I have a large pot of artist’s canvas prep Gesso that I use for terrain texturing occasionally but I haven’t tried it on a figure yet – Citadel Skull White used sparingly is what I’ve used for years.
You don’t have problems with chipping/flaking down the track with Gesso at all? I use a spray primer because I understood they contain an acidic etching agent to help the primer bond with plastic/metal.
I’m lazy too and much prefer spray priming where I can hit 6-8 figures in a couple of minutes rather than brush priming (which I used to do years ago) which takes considerably longer.
Mind you there’s a hidden bonus to brush priming – in that you get to examine the figure quite closely prior to painting. Whereas spray priming means you can sometimes miss details until you’ve done a fair bit of painting. For example I inked a couple of 28mm DAK Germans last night only to notice one of them has ‘DAK sleevebands’ modelled onto the figure which I would have liked to have highlighted prior to inking…
Actually, that can be a problem. Others have reported on threads on TMP that their gesso applications are durable, but I’ve noticed that it’s not nearly as strong as spray priming. I have to take care to not touch the miniature other than by base or some extruding part that can be easily re-primed afterwards.
I tend to do most of my hobby activities late at night, which makes it difficult to use spray cans.
The yellow-basecoated Imperial Fists marine on my website was spray primed white, and I just love how that worked out. I’m not sure if I can get such good results with gesso–I’ll have to experiment.
I forgot to add:
- the more I thin gesso (with water or Tamiya airbrush thinner), the more “fragile” the coverage seems to be;
- once I basecoat the figure and then paint it and seal it, the paintjob seems just as durable as those done on spray can primed figures.
Interesting information thanks! Citadel primer is getting ridiculously expensive locally – almost $25nz a can now up from $18nz a year ago. So I am definitely looking for a replacement once my current supply is exhausted.
I with you on the depends on the model but black is my favorite. Generally if I am going to use washes I will use a white base. more often though I build my colours up from black.
I do prefer the deadened look on my colours that black provides, it feels more gritty and realistic.
I always ink wash 28mm figures. It’s really the only way I know how to paint them! Probably explains my preference for white primer :)