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War Hammer - Putting First Kit Together

By Rory

I got a few warhammer 40,000 models for christmas and I didn't really enjoy them that much untill my mum took me to a games workshop and showed this kit called the battle for macragge and thats what got me into warhammer.

This is when me and my dad glued sand onto the bases of the figures.

This is after priming and undercoating the space wreckage.

Dad used an airbrush for the primer and undercoat and the finish looks pretty good.

Technical Notes

By Rory's dad.

I have been searching around for some tips on airbrushing and priming of the plastic figures and the information is a bit sketchy. On the one hand, the Games Workshop painting page describes Chaos Black as an undercoat in one place, in other places they advertise a special purpose primer called "Smelly Primer". Other modelling web sites really weren't much help on this and almost all of them assume the use of a brush (cf airbrush).

Either everyone knows something I don't, or the acrylic sticks ok to the bare plastic.

We first washed all the parts in soapy water then rinsed and dried them in the shade. The data sheet recommends washing the surface with "900 anti static cleaner" but we didn't do this.

The primer I used is Protec 440 PP Plastic Primer. The description in the data sheet is:

• "440 PP Plastic Primer is an adhesion promoting primer for all difficult to paint plastic surfaces including polypropylene and polycarbonate. It is suitable for use on all bare plastic parts and is essential in providing adhesion, flexibility and preventing solvent attack on sensitive plastics."

The primer didn't require any thinning. The only drawback is that it dries clear and it is difficult to tell where you have sprayed.

We didn't have enough of the "Chaos Black" from Rory's first kit to do these. Of course, I was half way through when Rory remembered that the instructions recommend a grey undercoat. Nevermind.

The undercoat is some water based craft (inexpensive) acrylic that looks like it has come from Bunnings. I had to thin this about 1:1 with water to make it suitable for airbrushing (I think I was running at about 15 PSI).

From the description of the primer, it looks like this would have facilitated automotive basecoat for the colours. This would have made for easier spraying but water based acrylic is much easier for the kids to work with.

I had done some tests with this combination a few days earlier and the primer made a big difference on the adhesion and finish of the acrylic paint.