Painting white - advice on how to get this effect

[appiah4]

OK, so I'm getting ready to paint a Sanguinary Priest/Apothecary, so mostly white power armor.. And this is the best looking way of painting white I've found so far (excuse the filthy xenos):

 

http://www.spikeybits.com/2015/11/whitewashing-the-tau-alternative-white-paint-tutorial.html

 

http://www.spikeybits.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/DSC04751.jpg

 

Although this is a tutorial, I've found it exceptionally vague on how he achieved that effect:

 

 

Step 2

At this stage it is important to add shadow effects in the cracks and sunken areas of the model. For this I use a combination of black and blue wash which looks fairly natural against the white areas. Brush this wash into the cracks and be careful not to be too messy as it will stain the white and make allot more work later on.

 

Has anyone done anything of this kind or have any advice on how to do this?  It looks like he did a very careful black wash in the recesses first, then an intentionally messy blue wash - it just doesn't look like what you'd get by mixing black/blue washes, like, at all?  The tutorial has absolutely no means of contacting the author, so I came to the best there is.  Help me B&C you are my only hope.

[winterdyne]

Looks like layering up to a just-off white, then spot washes with a thin mix of black and possibly blue grey, before tidying up with the edge highlights.

 

In terms of a general process (folks really need to stop listening to GW and working by paint names):

 

Dark Blue grey base (something like VMC bluegrey old GW shadow grey) up through to a light blue grey (VGC Wolf Grey / old GW Space wolf Grey) up to an off white (add white to Wolf grey / SW grey).

 

It looks very much like this was done at least partially by airbrush here. Probably hand painted with glazes (thin paint, not the GW product) over the airbrushed coats to smooth it out.

 

Thin down a mix of a little black and the original bluegrey. Apply that carefully into the crevices.

 

Edge highlights in the grey/white mix with white extremes.

[Firepower]

Also bear in mind, he had a lot more room to work with on that monstrosity than you will on a Sanguinary Priest, along with much deeper/starker recesses. A priest will have a lot more detail in a much smaller space with much subtler contours and changes in depth.

There's no reason not to try of course. Just something to be aware of in advance, should you find yourself running into problems.

Good luck to you. After years of failed attempts, painting white was nearly my...

wait for it...

White Whale.

[Kilofix]

They way I'd do it is:

 

Paint white

 

Wash only in recesses

 

Dry brush white to re-cover any wash that goes beyond the recesses

[Bryan Blaire]

You could make several combinations from darkest to lightest blue-grey shading (these are based on colors I have access to in my paint box - you could also alter the tint by changing the ratio between the black/grey and the blue):

 

Darkest: GW Nuln Oil:GW Drakenhof Nightshade (this would be too dark IMO to use for white, more appropriate to shading a dark blue)

 

GW Nuln Oil:GW Guilliman Blue

 

Vallejo Pale Grey Wash:GW Drakenhof Nightshade

 

Lightest: Vallejo Pale Grey Wash:GW Guilliman Blue

 

Personally, I would really only consider doing the bottom two of those across pure white for a bluish shade.

 

Some other potential colors you could look at:

-Secret Weapon Minis Sapphire Wash (darker blue-black color)

-SWM Storm Grey Wash (darker blue-grey color)

-SWM Cool Grey Wash (lighter blue-grey color)

-SWM Blue Wash (medium blue only)

-Make your own wash with Payne's Grey, which is a quite dark blue-grey color, and generally quite thick as a standard art acrylic, so it will take quite a bit of diluting with acrylic medium and possibly some wash medium or something that will help it run into the recesses by breaking surface tension more

 

As far as getting it exactly like it is depicted, you may be right in your description. I can't really tell for sure, but that also looks like the base color is Ulthuan Grey or some other paint line's just barely "not white" grey color.

 

Hope that helps some, or at least gives some ideas.

[appiah4]

That actually was quite helpful Blair. A shoutout to all others as well. Ill let you guys know how I fare.

[Bartali]

They way I'd do it is:

 

Paint white

 

Wash only in recesses

 

Dry brush white to re-cover any wash that goes beyond the recesses

 

I'd strongly recommend gloss varnishing before applying a wash. The smooth surface helps the paint naturally run into the recesses. If you're using an acrylic wash, add a drying retarder to make and clean up/blending easier.

Matte varnish the mini back again after.

 

I'd second Bryan Blaire's recommendation for Payne's Grey. I use it (in oil paint thinned with white spirit/turps) for my washes on white.

[appiah4]

Here's a quick progress update:

 

1. Blue/Black shade mix just didn't work with Asurmen Blue/Badab Black wash mix; Asurmen is too dark, the black only makes it worse, even after settling into the recess the blue it leaves on the edges is too strang.

2. Shading black, then shading blue didn't work, the blue shade on top of black really didn't change anything much.

3. Shading diluted blue: This looked the worst, splotchy.  In hindsight, I shouldn't have diluted the shade with water but I had no acrylic medium at hand..

 

Ultimately, I gave up on this.  While I love the way a good cool white looks, I can't seem to get it to work.  The next time I get around to try this, I will definitely either go for Payne's Grey (not sure which brand has this color..) or get Reaper Grey Liner for this task.

 

For the moment, I reverted to a warm white, so I basecoated Dheneb stone, shaded with diluted Devlan Mud, layered with FolkArt Taffy (warm bone), layered with FolkArt Warm White and it looks good to me.  I'll do the final highlights with FolkArt Titanium White, and post the end result here.  I feel bad about failing at this endeavour though..

[Bryan Blaire]

Never feel bad or like you "failed" at painting something, especially when trying something new. ;) You experimented and found a single way that didn't work for you. Without that kind of experimentation, you can't learn and we can all still learn.

 

I'm not surprised the Asurmen Blue + Black wash didn't work, the colors together are way too dark. Definitely need a lighter blue, like Guilliman Blue, and I prefer the lighter grey in the mix as well.

 

As far as what brand has Payne's Grey, it's a pretty standard artist color, so should be available at most art stores and probably even most major hobby stores. If they sell art canvas, chances are they have it on hand in some form, whether it be in acrylic, oil or other medium (like watercolor). To use it as a wash/shade, you are going to have to dilute it way, way down, most likely, and add something that breaks the surface tension so that it flows better. I've seen several suggest a small drop of dish soap. Personally, I don't do this, I prefer to stick to acrylic mediums, so I'll add a flow improver plus drying retarder, along with a lot of matte medium to make a "wash". I don't have a real formula for this, since different colors/brands already have different properties, so that's one place where I just try as I go until I get it where I want it. I usually mix into 36 ml mixing pots with screw-right lids, that way I can keep my mixes for later.

 

Another way you could potentially get a cool white is to do an incredibly thin black line in the deepest part of the recess (personally I wouldn't go darker than around GW's Eshin Grey color, instead of black). Then you can use slightly diluted Guilliman Blue as the shade like you normally would, then clean up and boom, you should have a deep, dark recess with a cooler blue coming out of it.

[appiah4]

I know itt's been a while, and I was off painting and busy with other hobbies, but here's how my experiment with painting a warm white ultimately ended.

I'm quite happy with it, and I guess I'll just keep going with this for my Sanguinary Priests. Thanks to everyone who helped. I should get this finished within the week, then I will post the finished model in the BA forum

[Bloody Legionnaire]

I was just about to start a thread about painting white and noticed this one =P

I'm just starting up Legion World Eaters from BaC and I'm trying to figure out white myself. For vehicles I'm not sure how I'm going to do it but for infantry I'm planning on recreating what this guy has done. https://eternalhunt.wordpress.com/category/world-eaters/ It's appears to be pretty simple process and I really like the finished product he has. I'm debating how much of my new airbrush I should use since I'm not super experienced with it yet. 

IMO white does not necessarily have to be "built up" from grey to white high lights the way most gamers paint. As long as you can get good shades to bring out the detail, white is so light a color it will naturally highlight from light just shinning on it. A lot easier to achieve good effect on small minis than it is with vehicles. IMO Forgeworlds models have a really good look to them and I don't think they build up their layers. They just weather really really well to add depth. 

Back to actually painting white, I do not recommend using a sponge/foam and dabbing paint on. I tried it today on my practice model and it was a bit of a fail. 

[appiah4]

His style pretty much reflects the source material, i.e. Forge World.  Weathering can add a lot of depth and contrast to a white model and that link you have is a good example of that. If that's the look you are shooting for, it will certainly look good.  However, a clean white without layering does look rather flat..

[Bloody Legionnaire]

So for you guys who are of the crowd that starts with a grey and then does a final high light in white, what color do you recommend for that first grey color?

I'm considering airbrushing my legion World Eaters with a light grey color and then high lighting with the airbrush in white and I really don't know what would be a good color to start with. I have Citadels Ulthuian Grey but I've noticed it seems like the grey is too close to white and you can't tell the armor is high lighted. 

[winterdyne]

Try using vallejo's grey PU surface primer, then add a touch of white PU primer to do airbrush highlights at the primer stage. Works pretty well.

[Naminé]

I use black undercoat, Revell's 'light grey' as my first layer, a nuln oil wash and then start layering up the white.  For infantry models this is usually 4 layers, for bigger models its at least 6, for vehicles it's somewhere between 8-12.

[Guiltysparc]

That looks kind of similiar to the way i do the white on my 30k world eaters.  I detail my white process in my project log, its very simple.  base spray of corax white followed by a thinned down nuln oil wash which basically makes the model an slightly off white, drybrush the whole model with ceramite to get the highlights.

 

Lots of pictures of how this look on infantry, dreadnoughts, and even a drop pod.

 

http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/318084-the-singing-nails-a-legio-xii-project-log/

[Bloody Legionnaire]

Guiltysparc, those look great! Simple yet effect paint scheme. I've gotta find a way to do that with an AB  =P

[Guiltysparc]

Guiltysparc, those look great! Simple yet effect paint scheme. I've gotta find a way to do that with an AB  =P

 

Thanks!  I've sort of discovered that the best way to paint black or white is to actually do slightly off color.  For white, a very light grey with white highlights looks good.  For black, a very dark grey with the black in the recesses looks good.

 

I would think with an air brush you could achieve the same thing, maybe even easier?  You could spray the whole thing with the very light grey and then highlight with white.  For me the hard part is making sure my wash recipe produces consistent results when i refill/make more.