In this post, I quickly update you on my latest project – priming some Space Marines.
For those of you who don’t know, I decided to dive full in on collecting Space Marines with the coming of Warhammer 10th Edition. Right now, I have about 3000 points worth of an army.
Using Paint Stir Sticks as Paint Handles for Priming Miniatures
In the past, I just tossed my miniatures on a bed of cardboard and sprayed them with primer. I have also used brush-on primer before. This time I chose to make home-made priming handles for these miniatures.
To start, I lashed a bunch of miniatures to paint sticks with elastics. The paint sticks are free paint stir sticks that I picked up from a local hardware store. The elastics I had laying around already.
I decided to use official Games Workshop colors for this project and bought some Citadel Colour Macragge Blue primer to make the job faster. This way, I won’t have to paint the models blue after priming them.
Priming the Space Marine Miniatures
To work in a vent-able space, I moved the project to the garage.
I tossed on some protective gloves, gave the can of primer a shake and started priming! I may have gone a little heavy in my application, but that is okay. Afterwards, I tossed them on a bed of cardboard in the garage to dry overnight.
They turned out pretty good, but some of the movable parts on the dreadnaughts got stuck from the dried-on paint. A quick trace around the affected areas with a hobby knife got the movable parts working again.
Yes… You are seeing the image above correctly. My army currently has three Dreadnaughts. The Redemptor I built with a magnetized main gun so it can either take the Heavy Onslaught Gatling Cannon or the Macro Plasma Incinerator.
After allowing the models to sit out overnight to dry, I brought them into the house the evening.
Prepping the Next Batch
Inside the house, I prepped the next group of space marines for priming.
A Note About Elastics When Priming Some Space Marines
When priming my Space Marines, the elastics worked well enough, but many of them were eaten away in some way by the primer.
Those that remained intact, I was not able to reuse. That said, at the price of a few elastics and some free stir sticks from the local Home Depot store, this was a very affordable way to prep these miniatures for painting. The most expensive thing used was the primer itself.
Wrapping it up…
Thank you for joining me in today’s post about priming some space marine miniatures. The figures turned out pretty good and I will use today’s approach again.
Next step is to paint the models up and I already have a paint scheme in mind. In case you couldn’t tell, these miniatures are going to be painted as Ultramarines.
The models and primer in this post are all purchased from retailers of official Warhammer Products.
Until next time, Happy Gaming Everyone!!!
Nice article. I have been trying to get the Macragge Blue primer through my FLGS here in Quebec, but I was told that they are not able to order it from GW.
Where did you get it? Was it from a GW store or through your FLGS?
Two of the FLGSs in my area have it in stock when I last went. I actually bought another can too for more priming!