How much does the shade of primer affect the actual color of Tamiya lacquers?

[Monty]

I've noticed that some people have experienced some darkening or lightening of their chosen body color based on which shade of primer they used.  For example, we're often told that white primer will brighten a red, and several have said that Tamiya's pink primer is ideal under red when trying to replicate "Ferrari red".  (Yes, I'm aware that Ferrari has used a number of reds over the years).

Anyway, I wondered if Tamiya's white primer might help lighten up their Light Gunmetal.  I'm trying to achieve "pewter" but the pics I've seen give me the impression that it's still too dark.    

[High octane]

The "rule of thumb" that I use when painting is to use grey primer under black or any silver colors, and white primer under any other colors. This seems to work for me.

[Ken Kitchen]

It really depends on the specific color. Some of Tamiya's paints are more translucent and are heavily affected by the primer. Others are so opaque that the primer doesn't seem to have any impact. The best thing to do is try the spoon test. Take a white plastic spoon and put white, grey and black primers on it then overcoat with the color of your choice. That way you'll have a side by side comparison and can easily judge which primer works best for your application.

[Kit Basher]

I can't say about Tamiya, but it makes a big difference with Testors. Here is the same paint over six different primers.

[Snake45]

It really depends on the specific color. Some of Tamiya's paints are more translucent and are heavily affected by the primer. Others are so opaque that the primer doesn't seem to have any impact. The best thing to do is try the spoon test. Take a white plastic spoon and put white, grey and black primers on it then overcoat with the color of your choice. That way you'll have a side by side comparison and can easily judge which primer works best for your application.

I was going to tell you exactly the same thing.

Just for grins, here's some Duplicolor red over several different primers:

But here's their Hampstead Green--nothing you put under it makes too much difference at all:

[Ace-Garageguy]

It really depends on the specific color. 

It also depends on how many coats of paint you use OVER your primer.

Once you achieve what's known as "full hiding" in the real-car paint world, the primer color makes no difference whatsoever.

As mentioned above, some paints achieve full-hiding in a coat or two, and some take five or more.

On real cars we use a black and white patterned card to do sprayouts on, to determine exactly how many coats of paint will hide the difference completely.

  

In general, if you DON'T have full hiding, a white primer will make a brighter, cleaner look, gray primer will tend to be muddy, red primer muddier, and black primer just darker.

Candy colors that are intended to be transparent are very dependent on the undercoat color for their final look, however, and are very sensitive to variations in spray patterns that can make some areas streak and cover more than others.

Metallic paints with large flakes tend to achieve full-hiding with fewer coats than light solid colors, dark colors usually hide better than light colors, pearls with very fine flakes often don't hide as early as metallics, etc.

Edited May 28, 2017 by Ace-Garageguy