Base coat/primer colours for metals for Knights, Titans etc.

[Brother Desultor]

From what I have seen online, and tried myself in practice, black is generally accepted as the colour to base coat/prime a large model such as a Knight or Titan. Using black gives it a darker metal finish, whilst white I would assume makes it brighter.

 

I recently purchased some Vallejo surface primers in German Red Brown (for Blood Angels as per LutherMax's blog) and UK Bronze Green (for a future Salamanders project) and was wondering if anyone has tried using any of these as a base coat, and then painting with Leadbelcher (or other appropriate metal colour) on their larger models.

 

I'm curious to know how (or if) they affect the end colour. Does anyone have any experience of this? Or colour theory they'd care to share?

 

I've just finished disassembling and stripping my Warlord Titan and am looking to change how I painted it the first time around.

[Guiltysparc]

I like using blue for undercoating leadbelcher and brown or red for undercoating gold...but thats only if i really want to spend the extra time (or i've sprayed something large with one of those colors).  90% of the time i'm putting metals over black or white.  White sucks, but it just takes a few more coats.

[Ovidius Incertus]

I'm actually in the process of doing an experiment with metallics and primer colors, and one of the primer colors I'm using in the experiment is Vallejo Red Brown.

 

I haven't done them with silvers yet, but I will say that the red primer does affect the golds and coppers I've tried.  They do pick up a red tone, but are not very bright (vs., say the gray Vallejo primer I'm also using in the test).

[Guiltysparc]

I had read somewhere once that cool colors work well for undercoating silver and warm colors for gold.

[Brother Desultor]

I'm actually in the process of doing an experiment with metallics and primer colors, and one of the primer colors I'm using in the experiment is Vallejo Red Brown.

 

I haven't done them with silvers yet, but I will say that the red primer does affect the golds and coppers I've tried.  They do pick up a red tone, but are not very bright (vs., say the gray Vallejo primer I'm also using in the test).

I look forward to seeing your results if you do get the chance to test with silver / other metallics. I can see how a red primer would affect colours like gold and copper as they are similar in "warmth" but it's the temperature difference with silver/lead colours that really holds my interest.

Maybe, with that in mind, the UK Bronze Green would work better - it's a pretty dark green after all, and cold in comparison to red.

[Ovidius Incertus]

I'll be starting a thread on it in the near future, including trying out different metallic schemes over different primers with GKs, SoS and Custodes.  My concern is, however, that the shifts in color are perceptible, but may be impossible to notice on camera, short of having really serious photo gear, which I have not.

 

The red does convey a warmth, but, to add to Luthermax's excellent tutorial, red is a super transparent color for a layer.  Having tried Flesh Tearers using the same Vallejo Red Brown primer, I can tell you it's very difficult to get any contrast without going to excessive layers of highlights.  He basically covers over the red prime to get his high contrast red.  With a less transparent color like Leadbelcher, you'd probably have less of an issue with this, but it's worth noting.