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Hi Fellas,

So, I'm finally nearing the end of my long march with my first drop pod, and I've hit a snag - namely getting a smooth finish on my white armor panels.
Annoyingly, white is a colour I feel reasonably confident about painting - though my track record is FAR from perfect, I thought I had two reasonable techniques down - smaller surfaces were based white, then I used multiple thin layers of layer paint to get a smooth finish, bit of very dilute nuln oil in the recesses and job's pretty much a good 'un.
Though devised when I was a much less experienced painter, for bigger armor panels, like on tanks, I'd start with celestra grey, nuln wash, then drybrush up to ulthuan grey then white scar.
(Examples of both of these are below)

Started on my drop pod with the latter technique, but after losing patience with edge highlighting, I opted to drybrush a lot of the highlights on the black, so my whites (which were already not looking awesome, got a little messy. I decided to remedy this by doing the 'many thin layers' finishing technique I mentioned in my first method, but it looks like the paint has coagulated in weird ways, and left an uneven surface, on top of drying unevenly.

Am I doing something stupid?
I've never really painted anything this size (or at least, never painted it black), so I'm pretty sure my old logic isn't holding up. I've got one drop pod left, and I'd really like if it went a bit smoother than this, so any tips are Very appreciated. I know painting white is one of those classic tricky bits, but I had thought I'd mostly gotten it down.

Thanks for looking, and if anyone can help me I'd be super grateful!

(PS. To smooth out the drybrushing, I used a wash of nuln oil, and now my drop pod (also did this with my land raider, to similar effect) has a funny finish all over. Is there anything I can do to get rid of that?)

Sometimes, the paint gods just arnt with us. A technique we remember as producing one result later produces something else, be it the paint batch, temp/humidity in the room, strength of beer enjoyed in the previous hour, or the planets just are not quite aligned right. Dont be discouraged.

Do you have an air brush (or a friend with one who will help)? The white on those pods would be a cinch to mask off. Sand down as best you can. Then a simple black base followed by a gentle coat of white, more opaque in the middle of the panels, would really finish them off in style.

I find that white has a habit of separating in the pot, unlike other colours...

what size brush are you using?

Brother Castor wrote:I find that white has a habit of separating in the pot, unlike other colours...

I don't think I've got anything wrong with my paint... or at least, not the white paint, anyway! It looks healthy enough, though I've had crumby white paint pots before for sure.

skchsan wrote:what size brush are you using?

Nothing too massive, at the moment I've got a pilfered humbrol brush from an airfix set that's a good large-medium that's served me pretty well for larger surfaced stuff like this.

Sunsanvil wrote:Sometimes, the paint gods just arnt with us. A technique we remember as producing one result later produces something else, be it the paint batch, temp/humidity in the room, strength of beer enjoyed in the previous hour, or the planets just are not quite aligned right. Dont be discouraged.

Do you have an air brush (or a friend with one who will help)? The white on those pods would be a cinch to mask off. Sand down as best you can. Then a simple black base followed by a gentle coat of white, more opaque in the middle of the panels, would really finish them off in style.

Haha, reassuring(?) to know - unfortunately no airbrushes, I might just try to soldier on. By the same logic as black (ya can't go any darker with black, so it's pretty forgiving), I imagine I could just soldier through? (Once I've made it white, I can't get any lighter?

If all else fails, I guess I'll try and paint some battle damage over the top? It might not mesh with the cleaner look of my army, but hell, I reckon no drop pod that ever landed looked pristine anyways...

If youre having difficulties bringing the white out with your level of painting (not to be offensive), I'd try a lighter primer next time.

Bringing a good white out on top of black requires tons of color/paint manipulation which comes with experience and not instructions.

If the paint has already built up too much, I'd strip it and start anew.

Depending on what sort of finish you're going for, I've had very good results from stippling Vallejo's foundation white over a light/medium grey and even sometimes dark gunmetal. The finish isn't particularly smooth but captures the look of white paint on metal *very* nicely in scale and doesn't glob up the way that 10 layers of paint would. If you're absolutely dead-set on a pearly, smooth effect then an airbrush might be your best bet. There are plenty of tutorials on airbrushing white with all sorts of shading techniques and materials. It's not a necessity, but it certainly makes the job a hell of a lot faster if you paint in batches.

I've found that Ceramite White separates in the pot and will not mix with just shaking. It must be stirred. It's also useful to squirt a little Lahmium Medium into it with an eye dropper. For White Scar, be sure to shake it well before use.