FAQ: Painting White

[BrotherCaptainPrimus]

I'm a gamer first, painter very much last.

 

My Ultramarines look k except for the vets, i can NEVER paint white properly. Can anybody give me tips on how to paint white? I can never get a uniform colour. It's always patchy.

[Gnolan]

The key to white is lots of thin layers. Thinning your paints is key to this. Using either a little glaze medium (preferable) or water, thin your paint. You want it to be around the consistency of cream, much thinner than that and its worthless. Paint a layer on, then make sure you let it dry. Doing it faster can lead to it becoming uneven and splotchy. Dont worry if it looks like crap at first, it will turn out nice, solid, and smooth. Just keep painting thin layer, let it dry, thin layer, etc until your happy with it.

[LifeAfterDeath]

for white or some other light color... is always better off to paint a layer of light grey/bone color before painting the white on top, since those colors are much better to cover the original color of the base then white.

 

I always paint a few thin layer of bone color before white/yellow most of the time.

[Cigaro]

most of gw's white tutorials give you this basic setup

 

basecoat codex grey

highlight fortress grey

highlight white

 

that gives a decent look, but (especially on marines) if you want that stark white look, you gotta use a different forumla. white looks whiter on top of blue

so

basecoat fortress grey

highlight space wolves grey

highlight white

 

and assuming you are painting over a black undercoat, like previously people have said, this will require multiple thins layers

 

keep at it and you'll get it : )

[Alys Dwr]

i paint my deathwing white and have found the best way is to use and enamel based paint with lots of thinners. Start with black and then all many thin layers of white. The thinners mixes the white into the layer below it so you get many shades of grey leading up to the straight white on the raised edges. I'm working on model at the moment and i'll post a pic of it later.

 

Al

 

edit:

 

http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l39/bonsai-al/STA71109.jpg

Here he is a couple of days ago. i use the photos to look for things i've missed (i'd missed a lot here).

[Allerka]

For the Apothecary I just did, I had primed black, then bestial brown, bleached bone, then I did the white. Came out pretty nice, though the white started acting up on me and wasn't drying evenly, so it's slightly textured now (Though not enough to be noticeable from more than a foot or two away, at least). >.<

[AlvinBlah]

I second Allerka's method of white. That's how I do it as well with thin layers of paint and it works. Bummer about it coming out rough in parts, I've never had it get bad on me, but yeah, that's probably the fastest way to do it.

[diddy_lemon1]

i normaly spray white models but if its only a part i want to do i have 2 pots of gw skull whitewhich i have thined down

[Climpse]

I started to do Sisters army with GW white, got through half before I found Vallejo white. I will never go back to any other white. Twice as fast to paint white and so smooth.

[Allerka]

Yeah, I've been thinking about completely switching over to Vallejo. I bought a few bottles of prime colors (Black, white, red, green, etc) to test out, and it was just...wow. They just...work so much better. The consistency is a bit different, though, so it takes a little getting used to in terms of how much water/thinner you use and whatnot to achieve the same blend. I'm kicking myself now for not using what I've got left of my Vallejo white on my apothecary.

 

One awesome paint Vallejo sells that I haven't seen anyone else with is the Metallic Medium paint. Basically mix it with any normal color to get that color in a metallic shade. I mixed it with some regal blue, and got a BEAUTIFUL look for some power weapons, that's just WAY easier than layering a highlight to the edge or something. Word of advice, go with darker shades, because the Medium is gonna lighten it quite a bit.

[John Thompson]

BC Primus, do yourself a BIG favour..

 

I bet you spray your Ultra's a black undercoat. This is fine for the basic armour and everything, but to do an easy white (so for the non-painters) there's only one solution:

 

White undercoat.

 

Try basecoating your white-helmeted guys in 2 colours in the case of plastics. Spray the body and all with black paint and keep the helmet seperate to be sprayed white. Then after painting both, glue them together!

To paint white over a white basecoat, just thin down some Fortress Grey to a 1:1 mix with water, take a small brush and paint the thin mix in the recesses. After this, paint a thin white over the rest of the helmet and it's a job well-done!

 

In the case of metal models, however, the heads are usually in one piece with the body and so impossible to spray seperately. In that case, stick to your usual black.

To give the to-be-white part a good basecoat over black is to take Fortress Grey and White and mix them about 1 part Fortress to 2-3 parts White. This will give you a very light colour that will cover a black basecoat very well in only about 2 or 3 thin coats!

When this is done, you can, if you want to, paint some thin (1:1 with water) Fortress in the recesses and then paint 1-2 thin layers of pure White over the rest of the helmet.

 

The BIGGEST mistake a lot of paople make when painting white is beginning with too dark a base coat, like Codex Grey. Fortress Grey is covered by white a LOT easier and gives a nicer, more even white than Codex Grey. Beter still is to make the base coat even lighter, by starting with a mix of Fortress Grey and white. This last thing is what I always do and to be honest, I count myself as being rather adept at painting mini's to an acceptable level...

 

In my step-by-step Storm Ghost tutorial I covered white at step 11. Here's the (crappy) pic from that step with the basic rundown:

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v320/John_Thompson/Space%20Marines/Step11.jpg

1- 1:1 mix Fortress Grey:Skull White

2- highlight 1:3 mix FG:SW in 2 thin layers

3- highlight pure SW in 2 thin layers

4- shade the deepest recesses (around the pins) with a 1:1 mix FG:water.

5- doesn't matter in this case as it's just giving some colour to the white.

 

Hope it helps...

 

John.

[the_unforgiven]

I am wondering for asons of malice force hwta woukld the best way to paint a bbright white color ??? possibly highlighted

[esinhorn]

I use white primer then a thinned down was of black ink with a drop of elmers glue.

Then many thin layers of skull white the consistancey of milk

[John Thompson]

By reading my post in last weeks topic about painting white.. ;)

 

Linkie

 

John

[the_unforgiven]

Elmers glue ????

[the_unforgiven]

tutorial not to great for dons of malice unless i get good at sparyin exactly half of a side right down to the skull on the chest

[esinhorn]

The elmers glue helps the ink grip into all the cracks evenly.

But only use a tiny bit.

BTW Elmers glue is a brand of pvc glue(the stuff you use to put flock on a base)white glue

[LifeAfterDeath]

codex grey as base color... then either light grey/bone color... then white at the last...

[Daeothar]

Blended the two white threads together...

[the bearded snot]

For my Teutonian Templars :

Undercoat with Tamiya primer ( = light grey )

Spray some skull white from above

Use a wash made with Payne grey (oil color) and white spirit

Glaze with Titanium white (oil color). No need to be too even when applying color as you'll use a soft brush to smooth the paint.

Et voil

[isack iraticus]

as the title says, how do i paint white onto a model, straight from the brush(i dont like using spray paint)

any help will be appreciated ;)

[PanzerSmurf]

you dont. Or, you can try, layer over layer over layer over layer, and eventually it will be pearly white.

[Commander Sha'son]

if you have some wierd primer phobia, then you are boned. may i ask why you "dont like using spray paint"? it would better put us all in a frame of reference when we give you advice.

[isack iraticus]

i dont have a phobia of spraypaint, its just that when i try to prime the model, i cant get to all the places of the model. i just find it easier to paint it by hand.

[Commander Sha'son]

Ok. try a spray can nozzle trigger. alternately, try latex gloves to rotate you model. if you absolutely must, try vallejo's paint on primer