Army Painter: Colour Primer Base: Pure Red

A Solid Red Foundation, Ready to Go

Getting a deep, even red onto miniatures is one of the more deceptively tricky tasks in the hobby — reds are notoriously poor at covering dark primers, and brushing them on by hand often means three or four coats before the colour reads cleanly. A dedicated red spray primer solves that immediately. Army Painter's Colour Primer in Pure Red lays down a bold, opaque base coat and primes the plastic or metal in a single step, saving time and preserving detail that heavy hand-painted layers tend to obscure.

Paint Type and Function

This is an aerosol spray primer — a colour-matched undercoat that prepares bare plastic, metal, or resin miniatures for painting while simultaneously delivering your first colour coat. Pure Red is a saturated mid-red: warm enough to work as a finished base for bright red armies, and deep enough to serve as a foundation for shading down to darker crimson tones. It is compatible with all major miniature paint ranges, so subsequent layers of Citadel, Vallejo, Army Painter, or any other acrylic paint will bond cleanly over the top. Apply at arm's length in short, even passes in dry conditions — aerosol matte primers can be sensitive to high humidity, so avoid spraying in damp weather to protect the finish.

Who Should Reach For This

Any hobbyist painting red armies in volume will feel the difference immediately. Forces built around red colour schemes — chaos warriors, crimson-armoured space infantry, red-clad fantasy fighters — go from bare plastic to game-ready base coat in minutes rather than an evening. New painters benefit from the time and frustration saved, skipping the notoriously patchy first red layer that catches out even experienced brush painters. The primer works across game systems and model ranges — equally at home on a regiment of fantasy infantry, a warjack, or a unit of science fiction soldiers. A brush, paints, and shade washes are still needed to finish the models, but this primer handles the hardest part of painting red.

Specifications