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i'm working on a BA army and am having trouble drybrushing with blood red, it seems to thin and i get uneven coverage over the model. I'm painting over a base coat of mechite red with a wash of devlan mud. is there a way to thicken the blood red, or a company that makes a comparable color that's better?

vallejo, I think is better. Blood red is not a good colour to use for drybrushing. Seems too dark a colour to drybrush with, unless you're trying to save time and just bang them out. Why not invest a little more time and paint blood red instead, over a non-black background. Use one of the foundation paints for the first layer of colour. YOu don't have to use red, you could use a brown for a more complex final red colour, or even use the orange or iyanden yellow colour to add a brighter shade to the red. Then I'd wash with one of the new GW washes, which are excellent: again you could do a mix of brown or red or black, or any of the three. Then you could drybrush blood red, but far better to paint blood red, then black line the vents and joins, and then add thin orange highlights to exposed surfaces.

I have some grenadiers over in the P&M Blogs who have a red armour, which I painted red, added a red wash, and then highlighted with blood red, orange and then 50/50 orange and white. Looks great.

For the fairly dodgy Citadel option, you could always use the paint that has dried in the top of the paint tin. This doesnt work too well for drybrushing however, so to ensure that it isnt to wet, use an absorbent material such as paper towels to take out most of the moisture.

Overall however, I second Justin's suggestion for Vallejo, as they have a ludicrous selection of colours. Some of their colours can't even be seen by the human eye, they're that hardcore.

I've tried Vallejo's game version of Blood red and it just doesn't 'pop' as much as GW's and I went back to GW for red.

I think the problem it drybrushing with it, you can either try painting in layers or as has been suggested try one of the vallejo model colour reds.

Try overbrushing a couple of layers of it. Like drybrushing but don't remove all the paint from the brush.
The second coat should give the right affect but if it's really not working for you maybe try a different paint.

Multiple thin layers. If you want to drybrush, paint metal marines.

Or sell your soul to find some blood angel red spray. Ah, those were the days...

I've always had a problem with this color. I tried the Valejo version also and the only thing good about it is the dropper bottle. it's too "watery" for drybrushing.

The best way I've found to get red to show up good is to just use white primer or get a good coat of white first, then paint the red on over a white basecoat. Thin the red a little bit with some water to get it to cover in a more even tone, and then just paint a couple thin layers till you get the full color. I don't use any set mix, I just use a more wet brush, then dip it in the paint and dab it on the top flat part of the paint pot to mix the water and paint together (not the top of the lid, the flat part that goes around the inside).

So like for blood angels what I would do is spray with white primer, then paint on blood red, then use one of the washes like devlan mud for shading. If the wash darkens the flat parts too much, you can go back over it with thinned red again to build that spot up.

If you really really really want to drybrush with it, then what you can do is pour a couple drops out onto a pallette or something, and then let it sit for 10 minutes or so so it starts to dry.. then once more of the moisture is gone you should be able to drybrush with it a little better. But then you're only gonna have 5-10 minutes to paint before it all dies up

with red over machinarite red i do the following - machinarite red base coat. brown ink shading, machinarite red back over then a thin coat of blood red. you should need to dry brush at all.

For my Word Bearers I use Red Gore, followed by no less than 3 coats of red wash. I suspect a lighter color of red (perhaps the foundation one) and then the new red wash from the new wash line (being that it's matte rather than gloss, good for WB bad for BA). I imagine that should give a nice strong red.

I've done a couple methods for reds that pop.

For a bright red: Paint blood red, lightly dry brush with white, then use a couple layers of red wash over the dry brushing. ( the older red inks that were discontinued really worked well for this)

For a darker red with some depth just paint blood red, wash with flesh wash then highlight.

This was done over walmart flat white spray as a primer. It's a thinned blood red, one basecoat only. In the first pic, the leftmost one is just Blood Red, the rightmost one has been washed with Gryphonne Sepia.

The Second shot is the entire squad with sepia.

Over any color: Mechrite red foundation, Devlan brown wash, Red gore large highlights, blood red small highlights.

Works well for me.