New Base Coat Painting

I've been starting up my painting blitz these past couple weeks to finally finish some models and get that satisfaction of having a painted army on the board. My Necron have been painted for a long time now, they just don't have any arms/guns because that assembly is made up of about 8 pieces per model (and I have 48 Warriors...) and that is just too daunting of a task when I don't like playing as them on the board. As for my Angels, I have about 15 assault troops, 10 tacticals, and 5 Rhinos, and a Land Speeder ready to go, including each of the PDF HQ-choice models.

My original painting scheme was basing them in Primer Gray and then layering Mechrite Red, Devlan Mud wash, Red Gore, and highlighting with Blood Red. The first thing I found a problem is was the gray base. It works fine for soaking up the paint and giving it a smooth feel, but any place I couldn't paint (like arm pits, necks, etc) stood out against the dark red of the armor. Minor details, but distracting for me, so I decided I'd go get a black primer spray and redo my guys. I couldn't find a black primer in all my searching, but then I stumbled across something... Krylon Ruddy Brown Primer. Ruddy Brown for a red army, you ask? Only it comes out to be a perfect stand in for a dry Mechrite Red, with all the benefits of a primer and a spray and it was only $2.97 a can. Now, I looked around online for pictures of this in use and found a 40k article on the subject. They said it would be 5-6 bucks and not any better than the store brand 99 cent can of spray. I disagree because 1) it was only 3 bucks and 2) directional nozzle for sweeping passes instead of directed blast of paint and 3) it's actually a primer and not just a base paint. It leaves the model a little rough to the touch, so paint will stick and get soaked up instead of just pushed around and pool up. This addresses the inaccessible areas as well, while not a dark black shadow, it is at least in the same ballpark red and not contrasted gray. Also it's not a heavy black that will need many coats of white/light paint to do chest eagles or eyes. And for the lazy man in all of us, even after basing them in Ruddy Brown, if you can't get to painting all you stuff, it still LOOKS NICE on the board. It's not a wall of gray or black (which I guess would be okay for Wolf and Templar players, lol) but actually looks passable. Below are some pics to show what I mean. 

(Click for bigger pics)

Everything in those are just a few minutes of time with the Ruddy Brown except the Rhino top that holds the turret, because I painted it before I found the spray paint, but it's still not a final product. For those that haven't seen the new BA models, that is the new Baal Pred turret with one of the new included icons attached to the Rhino door. The front has the icon shown in most official pictures of it. The doors and the turret are fully magnetized, as I blogged about earlier. Also, the two guys next to it are the new Death Company models that I will be using as veteran Sgts. Anyway, some professional painters might cry fowl and say I'm doing it wrong, but I like the results so far. Still waiting on my new brushes, so work will be on hold for awhile, but for whatever reason, I'm way more happy to play with these guys than my Gray Angels that have been in my battle reports before.