Washes for white power armor.

[pcheck]

I'm trying to do my Space Wolves with white power armor (I can feel the hate from the SW die-hards already). I'm trying to figure out what route to go for a wash. Any help is greatly appreciated.

[Motorbike Mike]

Good Evening.

 

The problem with White armour, is almost the same with yellow.
It shows up all the mistakes you make on it and it doesn't cover very well.

The technique I use is blending, but it all depends on how comfortable you are with this.

 

For this guy (sorry about the naff photos, but I just snapped them now for you and I'm tired lol.)

I sprayed him a solid basecoat of white, then washed him with really watered down black wash, use it slowly and carefully, making sure more goes in the recesses than not.

You'll likely need to do it more than once to get the depth you want. I did it twice here.

Then I blended up using skull white, thin the paint so its almost water and take it slowly. Remember to always run it towards where you want the light to hit it in order to get shading.

 

I then extreme hightlighted the edges using skull white.

Finally, to tint the armour, I used some thinned down purple wash straight into the recesses.

 

The model was just an intro dummy from my local shop I painted while I waited for my girlfriend to get off work. So I wasn't particuarly bothered about the end result. The purple wash isn't a must, I was just experimenting with it, you could sub it for blue if you wanted that kind of tint instead or not bother at all.

 

Hope this helps,

Mike.

http://i927.photobucket.com/albums/ad114/Motorbike_Mike/Whitemarine_zps910b57e1.jpg

[Razblood]

Whilst Motorbike Mike has a really nice White there it looks like it'll take a while to get a nice effect.

As an alternative my method is simple and requires 4 ingredients - White basecoat, Black Wash (I use AP Dark Tone, but GW's will do the job), Ceramite White & Skull White/White Scar (whatever White paint you have to hand).

1 - Basecoat with your White spray (I do it by hand with Gesso, but it's pretty much the same).

2 - Apply liberal coat of 50/50 diluted Black Wash ovewr the whole mini, focus on the recesses but you want to get all the panel lines too (You can do your metals before this stage so that you can get them shaded at the same time)

3 - Layer 50/50 thinned Ceramite White over the armour, avoiding the panel lines. A couple of coats should do.

4 - Highlight with whatever your other White paint is, applying it to the prominent raised areas such as the top of the toes, kneepads, other areas that would catch light.

It may seem odd to highlight the Ceramite White but it works due to it being very slightly Off-white.

Here's what you get -

If you want to lighten the Black Wash a bit add some Blue to it, a spot of Blue paint or Ink/wash will do the job :)

Hope that's helpful.

[pcheck]

Thanks guys, those both give me some good ideas. My friend just suggested watered down Agrax Earthshade and dry brushing with white for a simple approach. Think I'll try all three and see what works. It's my first time painting mini's so we'll see what happens.

[CovertToaster]

I don't have any pictures for this, sorry, but I start with a straight black basecoat and then use codex grey, fortress grey, and skull white. No washes needed just thin the paints down and the colours underneath will give you a slightly dirty look especially if you leave a thin line of each coat at the edges.

 

I do have pictures of this as it's how I do the wings on the dark angels iconograpy and it comes out really good. I have been playing around with this as an alternative to bleached bone schemes but I'm moving house and all of my models and paints aren't here. Just remember it's dark to light just in case I have the greys around the wrong way.

[sockwithaticket]

Just to throw in my 2 pennies here's my counts as Gabriel Seth, if you focus on his face and left leg you can see what was achieved with a Ceramite White base coat,3 layers of thinned Vallejo Model Colour White then use Vallejo Pale Grey wash and retouch raised areas with VMC White.

 

http://images.dakkadakka.com/gallery/2012/8/14/401433_sm-.JPGhttp://images.dakkadakka.com/gallery/2012/8/14/401436_sm-.JPG

Hope that helped a bit.This is obviously a light grey shading of the white, if you want more of a blackline effect then Raz's suggestion is sound.

[Battle Brother Kevin]

By the Emperor!

I'll try that out sockwithaticket!

That is pure awesome that white.

[ravenizer]

Maybe this will help you. I'm realy a beginner in painting, but I found realy nice method to paint white armor. I wanted to start with Lamenters Blood Angels and White Death Company guys. For both I got Strong Tone quickshade. I tried 6 different ways to highlight white armor. And 7th time I discovered what worked best.

The answer is actualy - use quickshade in the wrong way xD. The quickshade contains oily medium, and pigment. Overtime, the pigment settles on the bottom of can. Quickshade instructions therefore tell us to shake it and stir it before using. The strong tone by itself is way to dark for white armor, but realy nice for other colors. So how would using quickshade without stiring and shaking look like? Here are the results of using pigmentless quickshade over white primer. This resulted in nice creamy White armor with natural highlights.

http://s17.postimage.org/l6jt2zxfv/IMAG0203.jpghttp://s17.postimage.org/71e016oej/IMAG0204.jpghttp://s17.postimage.org/3vteaz5sb/IMAG0196.jpghttp://s17.postimage.org/kxqtqta17/IMAG0197.jpghttp://s17.postimage.org/p85hmef4b/IMAG0199.jpghttp://s17.postimage.org/z6qg8vojv/IMAG0200.jpghttp://s17.postimage.org/vbn26b5e3/IMAG0201.jpghttp://s17.postimage.org/vcwzzq77v/IMAG0202.jpg

But be aware, that its CAN quickshade, not INK. Inks are like washes. They are water based, and thier pigment doesn't settle like the oily one.

[Kastor Krieg]

Here's what I tried, inspired by the awesome image of Corrupted Rogal Dorn from Dornian Heresy:

http://img708.imageshack.us/img708/4880/dsc0295et.jpg

Obviously, I just began with this guy, but the rich yellow against black lines looks pretty boss and was the easiest thing ever to accomplish, shading included. Just prime white, use a wash brush and load the mini THICK with the yellow/orangeish Cassandora Yellow Shade. DONE!

Any corrections required can be made either with Yriel Yellow or just white and Cassandora again, whichever you prefer.

[ravenguard2010]

Hi there,

 

I've been using washes over my Omega Marines of late, and it's a simple recipe that gives a decent battle worn effect to boot. Prime white, wash lighly with watered down Nuln Oil. Add a couple more washes of pure Nuln Oil, taking care to stick more to the recesses and shaded areas in subsequent washes,  and then finally highlight extreme edges white. It looks like this

 

[Motorbike Mike]

Your Omega Marine looks really good, but I think it looks more grey than white. I would have considered maybe a little wet blending to liven the white up a bit.

Mike.

[barek]

Basecoat, paint very light grey, gloss varnish, use oil paint for shading, clean off exces, use normal varnish, highlight with white?

[ravenguard2010]

Your Omega Marine looks really good, but I think it looks more grey than white. I would have considered maybe a little wet blending to liven the white up a bit.

 

Mike.

Yeah fair call there, it's a taste thing I guess though.  I really like trying to make my stuff look as 'realistic' as possible (within my ability range of course) and I figure your average 40k battlefiled would be a pretty messy affair where you're not going to keep your armour pearly white for very long lol.

[Ganders]

This is how i do mine;

White spray undercoat

Pick out all details that will be black/metalic/gold

Nuln Oil Wash on the entire model

Two thin coats of a mix of Ceramite White and Lahmian Medium.

Details.

 

And they come out as below;

http://i263.photobucket.com/albums/ii160/gordonayr/termsquad1_zps496ff0a6.jpg

 

You can see more of my white painting here;

http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/270029-white-grey-knights/

[Brother Nihm]

So few read the READ THIS FIRST stickies.

 

Topic moved.

[Chaeron]

 

Your Omega Marine looks really good, but I think it looks more grey than white. I would have considered maybe a little wet blending to liven the white up a bit.

 

Mike.

Yeah fair call there, it's a taste thing I guess though.  I really like trying to make my stuff look as 'realistic' as possible (within my ability range of course) and I figure your average 40k battlefiled would be a pretty messy affair where you're not going to keep your armour pearly white for very long lol.

 

Looks great I think! Either Nuln Oil or Agrax Earthshade are excellent for adding that depth, and with those edge highlights, really makes it pop - it's what I do for my Death Guard.