FAQ: Painting White

[GKTELIAS]

start with a base of shadow grey then highlight with space wolves grey mixed with skull white and keep adding skull white to the mix.

[HellChyld]

I normally paint white with a medium grey undercoat/basecoat I then work up to a powder grey color wash with a grey/blue mix then go over one last time in white. I'll try and post pics later

[Aarhus]

If you're painting white en-masse, then I'd go for using the Astronomicon Grey (which is a bit like fortress+space wolves+skull white), then use Reaper Pure White, which is the single best white I've found to date!

 

My High Elves thank me very much for using such an easy, yet good-looking combo! :wallbash:

 

 

Cheers,

Lawrence.

[KAINE-77]

Gotta agree, white's a tough one!

 

I'm with GKTELIAS, and it's how I've done White in the past, Shadow Grey, layer on Space Wolves Grey, highlight with Skull White.

It does take a while, and a few layers to make it smooth... Even then it still seems kinda chalky/gritty.

[asianavatar]

Codex grey basecoat followed by a mix of codex grey and white adding more white to each layer till you get to just skull white.

 

Tips: Be patient, lots of layers and use clean water to clean your brush.

[SamuraiJester67]

Has anyone ever used future floor wax with painting white?

 

I have been hearing that you should use one drop of white paint to 20% future 80% water to thin the paint and use alot of layers. any insight on that?

 

SJ

[Kurgan the Lurker]

Searchy the Search Servo is your friend.

[Narthecium]

I tried laying down a fairly thick layer of astronomican grey citadel foundation, then throwing some skull white over top of it...and all I got was brush-strokey looking white which I had to do multiple layers of to smooth it down. And now it looks gritty b/c of all the layers.

 

Am I missing something?

[Dam13n]

I discovered a fantastic way of doing realistic white, but it takes a while (you need to be uber patient)

 

It's best described here:

 

Painting Uber Cool White Armour

 

Like I said it's rather advanced (I'm currently doing a converted techmarine using this for the main colour,

which is white unsuprisingly) and it looks seriously good, probably a bit too longwinded for an army but if

you drop the battle damage steps it shouldn't take you long to do, it's mainly washes, glazes and rehighlighting

and it gives good results.

 

Laterz...

[Shinohai]

first off, dont use gw paint. that is your source for grittiness. try P3 marrow white. 2-3 thinned coats from a black undercoat will give you solid white.

[Narthecium]

I'm sorry, but what is P3? Is it a different brand of paint? If so, where can I pick it up? As a new starter to the hobby, all I know is what I've learned from this board but mostly what the GW people tell me -- which is "Buy GW stuff! Buy GW stuff!"

[Vodunius]

P3 = Privateer Press Paints, should be available from any (non-GW) shop that sell the Warmachine & Hordes games, it has quite a good rep since it was formulated by and is manufactured as GW's 'classic*' paints.

 

* widely regarded as being superior to the cheaper nastier stuff GW adopted so as to increase their profit margins.

 

PS: Shinohai means Morrow White (its named after the goody god in the Iron Kingdoms setting rather than the stuff you get in bones).

[PanzerSmurf]

I mannually undercoat white (or use spraycan when I'm lazy), and then put on 2 to 3 layers of white with a tiny but of watering to it. Should work wonders, at least it did on my apothecaries...

[Narthecium]

I mannually undercoat white (or use spraycan when I'm lazy), and then put on 2 to 3 layers of white with a tiny but of watering to it. Should work wonders, at least it did on my apothecaries...

 

 

Are they EVIL apothecaries??

 

P3 = Privateer Press Paints, should be available from any (non-GW) shop that sell the Warmachine & Hordes games, it has quite a good rep since it was formulated by and is manufactured as GW's 'classic*' paints.

 

* widely regarded as being superior to the cheaper nastier stuff GW adopted so as to increase their profit margins.

 

PS: Shinohai means Morrow White (its named after the goody god in the Iron Kingdoms setting rather than the stuff you get in bones).

 

ty for the headsup. Unfortunately that narrows it down to only one store other than the GW store locally that I know of, and it's a little bit of a drive to get there. Oh well, if nothing else I"m sure I can find it on-line. Does it run about the same price as GW paints? (aka, 3 bucks for a thimble)

[Vodunius]

cant speak for the US, but over here they do cost the same per pot, however you get 50% more per pot.

[Darkwynn]

Seems like you are not thining your paints out enough if you are having brush strokes pop up on the white.

 

Your paint should be almost like skim milk.

 

Good video about thickness and paitning can be found here from Tab Studios. http://tabstudio.wordpress.com/

 

I would work from black then go into a codex grey for shading then build it up to a fortress grey then finally apply a white.

 

or if you have just black and white it would be a mix of Codex Grey 1B:1W and fortress grey would be 1B:2W I would add about a drop of water or 2 per drop of paint.

[Narthecium]

Thank you, I will work more on my thinning technique.

 

Also today I went and picked up a few colors of the P3 paint the one local store I thought would have it (they did!) and also bought a tube or two of the P3 inks to try out for kicks.

[Ekkanus]

Is there an easy way of doing this? iv already basecoated my models with Chaos Black spray, and want to do a couple of bits pure white.

 

I only have Citadel Paints btw...

[Brother Nihm]

"the Search-Fu is weak in this one"

 

Sha-Zam! (click)

[Ekkanus]

Thanks! i feel like such a noob no this site..... :lol:

[Brother Nihm]

No worries, the various bits and bobs becomes apparent to us all with repeated use. :lol:

[BLARGAG!!!]

u use OIL paints on ur mins? ive never seen anyone do that. doesnt it ake like a day for the paint to dry or something like that? if it does then this method seems kind of impractical, and SLOW.

 

anyway... all of the suggestions listed above are really good and helpful.

 

BLARGAG!!!

[Ekkanus]

personally what iv been doing myself is basecoating with GW Foundation Paint Astronomicon Grey, and then adding Skull White to that, then adding thin layers of white on top.....I think that Astronomicon Grey works best as its slightly lighter than Fortress grey, and being a Foundation paint goes on well over black :)

[Shinohai]

first step to good white on minis: dont use games workshop paints. they dont have a very good quality and dont paint very well. use P3 or vallejo for good results without needed 50 thinned layers of paint to do it. depending on the type of white i want i start off with a basecoat of either grey or bone.

 

i have seen oil paints used for minis but mostly just display pieces since the drying time its excruciatingly long. most oil paints take 7 years to fully cure, they will feel dry to the touch in a couple days but wont be fulling cured. oil does give great results and can help produce some of the most beautiful pieces one can ever see but it takes patience and practice as it's a much different animal then the acrylics most people are used to. now they have oils that can be cleaned with soap and water and not a bunch of dangerous chemicals.

[AgeOfEgos]

first step to good white on minis: dont use games workshop paints. they dont have a very good quality and dont paint very well. use P3 or vallejo for good results without needed 50 thinned layers of paint to do it. depending on the type of white i want i start off with a basecoat of either grey or bone.

 

This. Vallejo Skull White covers smooth.