Black vs White vs Grey

Transcript*

Intro

That is the sound of a 30-year-old. [laughter] Hey there, it’s Paul back at it once again. If you’re new to the channel, welcome to Loisirs vers le soleil YouTube channel. If you’re not, hey, welcome back. Uh, so last time I was here, I used and painted um a recipe from the True Metallic Metal book. This is the BSL system in collaboration with Vallejo and Angle Giraldez, one of the legends of the model making painting industry and social media. And in that recipe, we painted gold.

And I thought the gold was excellent. Probably one of the best ever put on a mini. Now, not to my skill, of course. I think it’s genuinely just the recipe plus the gold paint itself, which is the True Metallic Arcane Gold. Anyway, you ever had this thought when you’re painting metallics? Why does the primer have to be gloss black? [clears throat] Ever thought about it that way? Um, cuz I have. Obviously, I know the answer, but starting off I did think about it like that. I’ve always been told watching YouTube guides, reading forum posts, etc. Or if you walk into a hobby store like ours, I’m sure maybe the retail worker there uh told you please use gloss black.

I may have told you it’s uh you know myself when you walk into Sunward Hobbies, I may have personally told you to use gloss black. Has the thought ever occurred to you why? Um but then the second question is does it even matter? So we’re going to answer those two questions. Why we use gloss black paint and ultimately does it matter? We’ll find out. But before we get started, I just like to point out that we’re a little bit over a month away as I’m filming this from our very first instore painting class. That’s right.

Isn’t that exciting? Cuz I’ll try to sneak in [laughter] on April 18th at 11:00 a.m. We will have our very first painting class. This class will be headed up by Mr. Adrian Pech, whose Instagram handle is WarglamourMinis. Links in the description down below. Uh give him a shout out. Go to his Instagram page. And once you go there, one of his pinned comment or pinned uh posts will show that he is a Golden Demon bronze recipient winner amongst other awards. He’s kind of a big deal. He’s insanely good. So give him a shout out and yes, he will be your teacher. This class fee, which by the way, the links for the class will be down below in the description as well. Sign up now. Comes with the class itself plus a free miniature.

And don’t worry about bringing your own paints. You can uh use Adrian’s paints. That’s right. He will be bringing the paints for the class. You can’t take it home because it’s Adrian’s, but you get to use it during that time. Isn’t that nice? So, yeah. Links in the description down below. And I’m super super excited. We’ve been waiting for this for a long time. We’ve been asked actually quite a few times ever since we expanded the store in 2023. Uh we just never got around to it till now.

Gold Recipe Video Outcome

So yeah, this is the miniature we painted for last week’s video, the gold recipe video. Links in the description down below for that video. Anyway, um this gold is so rich, so beautiful. But this paint job is helped not by my skill. Again, it’s not going to be my skill. This is all the paints, but by the primer itself. I used Vallejo’s black primer. And you know that primer is not matte, but it’s not fully gloss either. There’s some glossiness to it um that helps it along. And the fact that it’s a very smooth black regardless of the gloss.

So those two combined, the fact that it’s black and it has some gloss helps this to become an immensely rich color. And then of of course we added the uh recipes from the True Metallic Metal book to make it what it looks like right now. what you’re seeing right now. And to be honest with you, this is going to be my custodes recipe going forward. It’s so vibrant, so beautiful. This is the primer can in question, by the way. 28012. That is the code. Use that for the primer can specifically.

And again, this is just the normal black that they have. Nothing special about it. Not too glossy, but not too matte either. There’s a little bit of gloss. Uh it’s not quite semi-gloss either. I think there’s a little bit more shine to that.

Black Primer Issues

Anyway, to answer question number one, immediately the effect is two fold. Uh, the first is the black color itself negates and mutes everything underneath it. That would include any sort of errant color lying around. So, you can use black to thinly mask whatever color is underneath. Maybe you’ve painted before and you strip the paint. But, you know, it’s a lot of paint stripping isn’t really complete stripping because if you do complete the stripping, depending on how old the paints have been, uh, you may actually damage the plastic. So, a lot of paint stripping is 90% stripped, if that makes sense. So, it mutes everything underneath it.

And that also includes the plastic itself. So, a lot of plastic for model kits aren’t just grey. Some are green, some are blue, some are yellow. A black primer does an incredible job at suppressing all that because that will interfere with the richness and the vibrancy of any metallic paint, not just gold. So that’s the first effect. Number two, the glossiness of it. Uh and then you know there’s a difference actually because you can’t just have a matte black primer. I mean, you can, of course, but the theory is that the glossiness part of it will act like a pseudo mirror um reflecting whatever light that does pass through the two thin coats that you apply of the metallic and then reflect it subtly back to your eyes, providing a further glint, a further shininess, a chrominess that wasn’t there to begin with if you use a matte black primer, enhancing the effect.

So again, two fold richness and contrast because it mutes everything underneath, but at the very same time, the glossiness provides a mirror enhancing the metallic effect. Because remember, a metallic paint has those little tiny solid metallic flecks that give it that metallic sort of sheen that you So it is a two-fold compounding effect. If you only have a matte black primer, theory says it only suppresses whatever is underneath, but it doesn’t provide that reflectiveness that you may be looking for.

Unless, of course, that is what you’re looking for, like some sort of aged, worn down metal, in which case go for it, man. 100%. But the second part of the question earlier this video is, does it matter? Like, we will put the theory to the test. So, we will do a demonstration. We will prime one miniature with white, one miniature with grey, and if we have time, another with an even glossier black. Cuz previously mentioned, the black Vallejo primer isn’t truly truly gloss. It’s bordering on semi- gloss, which is satin and glossy. It’s like in that sort of in between. Uh so, yeah, we’ll see. Here we are.

Primed Minis

So, the one on the left will be our control. Again, I used a nearly glossy black primer from Vallejo, just their normal black primer. Uh, and then on the one on the middle, and the one on the right is the one I primed right now. So, that would be a white primer from Vallejo on the middle or in the middle. And then this one right here is Primed Grey using Grey Sear from Citadel. I figured it’s probably the most neutral grey right after Tamiya got banned and their grays are no longer here. So, yes, this will be the group today.

Gloss Varnish

And I will be spray painting or airbrushing arcane gold True Metallic Metal Airbrush paint like last time. So, it’s all consistent. That will be the paint I’ll be using today. We do, however, have a new Challenger. It’s this little guy here that’s been primed black, but then has stuff on it that’s yet to dry. That’s the gloss varnish you see on the left.

Yes, you can retroactively apply gloss varnish if you’ve accidentally used a matte black primer instead. Nothing’s going to change. At least the theory states it’s not a chemical composition thing. It’s literally just the black primer being very glossy. So, yes, apply it to your heart’s content.

Airbrush Application

Again, uh that is what the theory states. We will test it and we will use the same Arcane Gold airbrush paint on top of it as well.

Final Results

Did you guys get Weezered? [laughter] That was my attempt at the song, the Weezer song. Anyway, you know which one. So, from the left, we have the gloss black primed one and then we have the control and then we have the white primed and then we have gray. So ultimately the difference is richness versus brightness. The ones on the left especially the white in the middle is extremely vibrant. It’s almost blinding. Right?

So compared so again the one on the left here is white and then this one is gray. this the uh differences between the two is minimal but I think what it loses is that you know the richness it’s very very uniform all throughout the same sort of shade this will be heavily reliant on shades and weathering to give it that variance and the poppiness it needs the richness in addition to the vibrancy See? So, it is undoubtedly very shiny, very nice. But we compare it to the gloss black primed one. Wow, look at that. It’s so rich.

The contrast is insane. And it’s incredibly shiny because of the gloss black primer. Look at that shield. Oh, wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. And then compare it the same time with the other black primed one, and the shininess does matter. Wow. Now, granted, um the control mini has been weathered, but I’ve also dry brushed uh at the very tail end of the last video a bunch of the shiny paints. So, it’s still very vibrant, very shiny. But despite all that, this is still shinier because of the gloss priming. And because it this is not fully gloss primed, it lost a little bit of the luster that comes paired with the richness.

Oh, yeah. Wow. And then you compare the black and the white. So yeah, again it’s brightness versus richness. So is there something wrong with both methods? No, not at all. It’s really up to you and what you want to do personally. There we go. Side by side. So it’s a little cleaner the two sides, right? Richness versus brilliance. I would say at the end of the day, you do what you want to do. I personally lean towards the richness first because I feel like you can add the brilliance later with again the dry brushing, right?

Cuz you can see for yourself what the result would be at the very end of the day. Whereas adding richness to brilliance, you know, the contrast of it and what not would be a little harder because it would require a lot more weathering and you may overdo it. But that’s just me though. Uh what do you guys think? I’m just giving you a little bit more shots at the end here. So we have the two black primed ones. Again, the one on the left is the gloss primed. Then we have the grey primed one versus the control. And finally we have the white.

Paul’s Conclusion

To answer question two, did it matter? Yes, absolutely 100%. You saw it for yourself. But at the same time, no, not really. Who cares, right? Because yes, it mattered the richness versus the brightness and the brilliance, right? So whichever camp you belong to, you saw the results for yourself. The differences are subtle, but at the same time incredibly incredibly apparent. And that’s just the first two thin coats after the primer. Uh so the effect will
compound, but at the very same time, it’s also just the first two thin coats.

In my opinion, depending on your skill level, you can 100% make up the difference and you can go from one camp to the other with sufficient weathering and the right paints and the right tools. But, you know, uh I feel like maybe you can skip by just going to that step uh right off the bat. So, it’s maybe 7030, 70 mattering and 30 not. So, that’s my opinion anyway. What What do you guys think? What camp do you lean on? Do you think it really doesn’t matter or it absolutely does? What do you guys think?

So, that’s all the time we have for today, guys. Thank you guys so much for watching. I didn’t yap as much because uh I spent all my time building and painting. [snorts] [laughter] So, that’s the secret to shutting me up just giving me a model kit. [laughter] Anyway, that’s all the time we have. Thank you guys so much for watching. And remember, every single item shown in this video is available right now on our website, links in the description down below. Uh from the shield captain to the Adeptus Custodes Combat Patrol Terminators, uh and then the the the primers, right, the three primers, the Arcane Gold True Metallic Metal, right?

And the gloss varnish from Vallejo. All of that is available on our website as regular stock. Just because it’s sold out on the website doesn’t mean it won’t go back. These are regular stock items for sure, so you guys are fine. Even if it doesn’t get restocked within the next week or two, it’s going to come back very, very soon. This is Paul from Loisirs vers le soleil signing off.

Bye-bye.

About the Author:

Paul Catindig As someone who’s been building model kits since he was 8 years old, Paul is very knowledgeable and adept at model kit building! When he’s not building or painting kits, he spends his free time cooking, playing video games with friends, or at a restaurant patio somewhere. Hopes to make his very own movie one day.

*Video by Paul Catindig
Video Edited by Daniela Castellano
Transcript generated by youtube
Edited by Angelo Castellano