Primer Therapy Redux

After a solid afternoon of exploration at Home Depot, Lowe's, Michael's, and the local hobby store (trains, model rockets, r/c cars...), I found a few primers to bring home and try.  The first purchase was a big bottle of cheap white Gesso from Michael's, then I discovered Kilz has odor-free spray primer for ~$5, and regular stinky primer for ~$4.  Went to Home Depot and picked up a can of Rustoleum after reading OST's recent article over on Dark Future Games, looking at his comments about spraying from a distance.  Even though I've had issues with it before - increasing my suspicions that the problem is more me than the paint...   Then at Lowe's I found a can of cheap Valspar with a funky lid for about $5.  Laden with loot I descended to the garage for a trying evening of experimentation, which would ultimately culminate in a long, drawn out post with lots of pics that showcased my poor photography and hamfisted painting skills.  But...


 I started with the Valspar and didn't go any further.  It has a very light, well measured spray that layers on smooth and thin.  Priming heaven.  Okay that's probably going a bit too far, but very close.  After testing on the (bane of my existence) plasma hatcher pods, two good layers successfully covered the lambent glow value of the translucent blue plastic.  I decided I'd try the treasure chests for Super Dungeon Explore.  Again - perfect.  Next up: my ne'er do well Exocrine of the strangely resistant to Simple Green grey primer.  It took a couple coats to get into the deep nooks, but it did the job with no pooling, no crazing, and no weird humidity bumps.  Then I went ahead and primed the SDE heroes - after all, if the bad guys are based in black, they have to stand out.  It *is* and anime-inspired game - gotta go with the exaggerated stereotypes.   I even primed my Steampunk Dorothy, picking out the micro detail like the watch hands and her necklace perfectly.  Not a figure I'd risk with an experimental primer as I hope to pull out some painting stops on it and make it special for the first lady.

At any rate.  YMMV, caveat emptor, etc...  but I had some pretty good results with Valspar.  I know what I'll be buying next time. If you believe the hype, there's even some nerd-catering explanation about Valspar's funky actuator (cap).