Chainmail Silver Primer

A metal ground straight from the primer

A silver primer is one of those products that save a whole working step. The usual procedure with armor looks like this: the part is first gone over with a gray or black ground and only then does the metal color follow. A colored primer joins that pair together: it grips plastic, resin and photo-etch, it fills small scratches and at the same time it gives the surface a metal tone that can be built on further.

Where it suits best

It saves the most work on broken-up surfaces where a metal color has trouble reaching into the hollows: chainmail, chains, scale armor, wire structures or running gear with a great many links. It is exactly there that the classic two-stage painting is the most tiresome, because every uncovered corner shines with the color of the ground. The container suits a brush as well as an airbrush once thinned.

Working with the coat

Let the bottle be shaken properly before use, as metal particles settle to the bottom faster than ordinary pigment. Apply it in a thin coat, as a heavy application wipes the fine detail out and dulls the metal sheen. Once dry the surface will take dark washes let into the recesses, which give chainmail depth, as well as dry brushing with a lighter metal on the raised edges. If you want to go into color, a silver ground lightens the glazes that follow and the result looks more metallic than the same shade over gray.

Sister shades

In the same number group you will also find further colored primers, for example steel gray, yellow or red. Choosing the ground tone according to the predominant color of a model shortens the work in the same way as this silver one does: the closer the ground is to the result, the fewer covering coats are needed in the end.