Could I get help on painting a white shoulder pad?

[brainwashed]

I'm doing a Space wolf army with a gritty codex grey armor and a white shoulder pad. It's Bran Redmaw's great company. See my avatar for a rough idea.

 

I performed a couple of searches but am not finding much on how to paint a white shoulder pad smoothly. I've been trying to do an Astronomicon Grey Foundation Paint, and then blend up to a Vellejo 'White' - but it's taking 6+ coats and it just a ton of paint on there. It's coming out alright, but the rest of the model is coming out to a higher standard. There must be a better way.

 

Does anyone have a good way to pull this off? The Next Squad I will prime that shoulder pad with white instead of grey but this squad is all assembled and primed.

 

Thanks for any suggestions.

[striker8]

Are you painting plastic marines or metal/resin ones?

 

For plastics spray priming the whole pad white seperatly is just the easiest method. It's just easier to put color over the white for the rims and detail bits on them and baring Dev's right shoulders( these will fall into the metal/resin catagory) the pad doesn't have to be put on during assembly so they can be done seperately.

 

For the metal/resin minis( and the mentioned Dev's) that have the shoulder pad intergal to the sculpt you don't have many options.

 

You can prime the whole mini white but then you lose the hiding ability that black or grey gives you in those hard to reach places or if you miss a small spot and is often more trouble than its worth. I personaly reserve white priming to just those mini's I intend to be predominantly white or very brightly colored for this very reason.

 

The other option is to build up to white with many thin coats. And it's going to take quite a few coats and 6 for me wouldn't even be considered started yet. IF you want a nice job you just can't rush things with white. I've found it's actually easier to get to white by going from a blueish(for a cool white) or light brown shade( for a warm white) than it is going from grey, giving you a cool/warm white as opposed to a neutral one. For a cool white start with shadow grey work and mix in white bit by bit and coat by coat till you're satisfied and for warm white start with a brown/tan/bone and mix in white same as for the cool version. Some time it helps if you start your mix with an itermediate color like mixing in wolf grey into the shadow grey before you add white and mixing bone into the brown to start before progressing to mixing in white.

 

The whole key to white is it will take many, many, many coats of very thin paint to achieve a smooth finish when applied with a brush just like yellow requires.

[henrywalker]

one hint i found with my purifiers is to start on a light, pale blue, sah ice blue:skull white 1:1 or maybe 1:2 that gives the brightest white. priming at the start is still the best though, that or an airbrush.

[Grey Knight Purifier]

You might also want to crosspost this to the Templar forums, as we have quite a bit experince in that regard. I personally layer up from a tannish-white, and it takes a long time. White is finnicky, so just be patient and layer it thinly.

[Redfinger]

Vallejo Pale Blue Gray

Vallejo Sky Grey

Vallejo Foundation White

 

Ashton

[brainwashed]

Thanks guys. I'll give it another go tonight.

[blackbabyjesus]

Failing that, what I did for my templars was keep the shoulder pads seperate during priming and prime them white instead!

 

So much time saved

[brainwashed]

After talking to a painter I respect, it looks like I'm making the white too thin actually. I'll try less thinning and do it over.

[brainwashed]

I think pictures are the best idea. I think I'm actually over thinning the white:

[Kurgan the Lurker]

Painting White Tutorials thread:

 

http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/index.p...howtopic=134415

 

Please direct any further comments there.

 

If you want commentary on your painting itself, feel free to start a thread in the WIP section or you can PM myself or the PCA mods to split those pics off into a thread for you.