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So, I've been wanting to paint my dark eldar white, and have scoured the web for guides. I've run into many conficting views some people say to prime in black, while others say to prime white. Now, my question is what do you all think is the best way to paint white and how do you go about doing so? I hear people use alot of grey to get up to white.

certainly prime white, your just making your life harder than it needs to be priming black.

For a simple white you could prime white, baddab black wash then white on raised areas.

For truly bright whites, prime white. For warmer whites, prime gray and then work your way up the gray scale to white.

Also, you can get warm whites by priming white, then using a VERY diluted wash of sepia or yellow/orange then highlight with white again. For colder whites wash with blue or gray.

What would you suggest for an winter themed army? Also, any suggestions for colors that would compliment the white, to use on details?

For a winter army, you may want to wash the white with blue, and then paint over the majority with white again. Gives it a cold hue.

Would there be an exact way in doing this? This is going to be my first paint job so some step by step from people who've done it before would help. Thanks!

my novokh, (pics soon) are marble color, but for straight white armor i'd alter what I used for marble. I'd use atronomican grey, then 1/2 1/2 astronomican grey and skull white, then highlight with white.

Have to agree with Aerethan, base it white, add some glazes (2 colours, a warm color for highlighted areas, and cool colour for shadows) then start layering some white highlights and you're done. For more detail add more layers and finish with a very diluted glaze. Find a colour that compliments your colour scheme and add it to the shadows of the white, this creates depth, also warm colours makes things look convex, cool colours make it look concave, use this concept in your shadows and highlights to give depth to the model, white can look really flat and can hide curvature without use of this warm/cool concept.

So it seems my best bet would be to prime white, wash with a color depending if I want a warm or cold white, and then highlight once again with white. I am missing any more steps?

That sounds about right.

An example of washing over white with different colors for different effects:

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/261541.page

just highlight from there and you'll be on your way.

Cool I'll go buy some white primer and get started maybe post some pics later. Thanks for all the responses and for putting up with my noobie questions.

Everyone's new at some point White can be challenging for some beginner, but so long as you know what process your doing (which now you do!), you'll be fine. Looking forward to the pics.

2 cents even though I'm late to the party.

Paint in thin watered down layers. White can get really blotchy looking with too few coats and if it's thick enough to cover in one or two then you're probably going to get visible brush strokes in your paint. I used seven layers on my apothecary to get the look I wanted.

If you run into problems post some pictures up and ask for advice. There's a LOT of people out here who are very willing to give constructive feedback.

Warpseer wrote:Everyone's new at some point White can be challenging for some beginner, but so long as you know what process your doing (which now you do!), you'll be fine. Looking forward to the pics.

I was never new at anything. I was born this awesome at everything.

/narcissism

Thanks for that bit of advice, Martian_jo. I'm still new to this and didn't know about thinning my paint. Also what would be a good blue, or grey, to use as a wash, to give a nice cool white?
I guess I'll ask the same for a warm white maybe devlan mud or sepia?

GW's Astronomicon Gray is a great color to make a wash with.

I dilute my paints with a 10:1 water:Flo Aid mix to break surface tension.

Aerethan wrote:GW's Astronomicon Gray is a great color to make a wash with.

I dilute my paints with a 10:1 water:Flo Aid mix to break surface tension.

Where would I be able to buy some Flow Aid? I've done some google searches and I can't find a store around me that sells it. I went to a Micheals today and they didn't carry it, is there anything I can substitute it with? Also do I simply put ten drops of water and one of flow aid straight into the pot, mix, and then apply? Sorry if I ask too many questions I just want to be sure of everything I'm about to do.

You shouldn't wash, you should glaze. they use the same wash mix, except with a wash you use excess paint to flow into crevasses, with a glaze you apply only enough paint to tint the overall colour. Like using colour filters in photoshop. Also, they have flow aid at michaels, the brand they carry is liquitex, black and green label in the paint medium section next to the paint thinners, don't bother looking online. Basically, Liquitex is THE company for paint mediums. I use a few pure gum "mediums" for oils and stuff, but everything else is liquitex. Their matte medium and flow aid are very high quality for the price in my area. If you are in a pinch though there are hundreds of household products that painters have used over the years. Window cleaner is probably the only one I would actually use and I actually know of successful painters who use it. If using window cleaner use less than the above mentioned dilution (15-20:1)

I agree on using Liquitex products such as Matte Medium and Flo-Aid, as well as Slo-Dri. The matte medium has specific uses, but I add at least 4 drops of Slo-Dri to every new paint I buy, and depending on each bottle between 5 and 15 drops of Water/Flo-Aid mix(10:1). This allows me to have every paint ready to be airbrushed without further diluting, and if I need it thicker, I either add Matte Medium or wait for a minute or two for some of the water in the paint to dry up(it's a fine line between perfect and waiting too long, an art not a science).

Also, I'd caution that GW "washes" are actually glazes, in that they change the hue of the entire area covered, not just the deep recesses. An example: http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/235872.page

Here you can see that the "washes" have changed the entire color of the metal, instead of simply shading the recesses like an ink does.

frankjones11 wrote:So, I've been wanting to paint my dark eldar white, and have scoured the web for guides. I've run into many conficting views some people say to prime in black, while others say to prime white. Now, my question is what do you all think is the best way to paint white and how do you go about doing so? I hear people use alot of grey to get up to white.

I prime both in black and white. To get a crisp white its easier to prime in white or gray.
Here is my 2 test sentinels. I had no idea what army scheme i was going with so i did winter camo and catachan jungle


Then people made fun of whats a green sentinel doing on snow so i redone it ( not shown in this photo )
The white one is finished under 40mins, the most important part is finding the perfect wash.

SmogHousePaintingCo. wrote:You shouldn't wash, you should glaze. they use the same wash mix, except with a wash you use excess paint to flow into crevasses, with a glaze you apply only enough paint to tint the overall colour. Like using colour filters in photoshop. Also, they have flow aid at michaels, the brand they carry is liquitex, black and green label in the paint medium section next to the paint thinners, don't bother looking online. Basically, Liquitex is THE company for paint mediums. I use a few pure gum "mediums" for oils and stuff, but everything else is liquitex. Their matte medium and flow aid are very high quality for the price in my area. If you are in a pinch though there are hundreds of household products that painters have used over the years. Window cleaner is probably the only one I would actually use and I actually know of successful painters who use it. If using window cleaner use less than the above mentioned dilution (15-20:1)

Could you elaborate a bit more? I'm a bit confused. So, I could use the same mix recipe that Aerethan posted but use only enough so that it tints the armor? Also I've primed some models white, I plan to go get some supplies tomorrow and to dilute the Astronomicon Gray. Is it possible to glaze and wash on the same model, or should I take care of the crevasses some other way?

You can do both, but they are different things. A glaze will tint the white a different color, for that use GW washes. A proper wash will seep into the recesses to create shading, which a glaze can sometime accomplish as well.

What he is referring to is mostly technique. You don't want to slather watered down gray all over the model to shade it. You want to specifically paint it in the recesses.

GW's labelling has caused many people to confuse washes with full on Dipping, which is mostly what people use the GW washes for. They cover the model from head to toe with the wash, then highlight it(or sometimes not).

GW "washes" are actually glazes, they tint the surface area.

Yeah the matte medium is a lifesaver. I make a lot of my paints from scratch, so I buy the stuff in mass. One cool way to use it is to fix up scratches, nicks or dents. Just put as many layers as it needs to look proper and repaint. I've tried every localish brand of medium and unless you want to pay 24.99 for 100ml the best brand is liquitex. If it were any more transparent I would say it is the best. Do you get any discoloration from the liquitex flow aide on your whites and yellows? I found I get a little bit of a tint change if I add too much for blending.

my whites are all unaffected. I only have one yellow paint at the moment, and it is an amalgamation of several different yellow paints(I just don't use it often enough to consider buying more of them yet).

Okay I'm starting to understand this a bit more so I'd use a GW "wash" to tint my armor, at the moment I'm thinking about using Asurman to get a cool hue and either Sepia or Delvan mud for the warmer hue( not sure which way I want to go right now). Then use the watered down grey specifically for the cracks and recesses, then from there use thin layers of white to highlight the raised areas. Am I understanding this right?

frankjones11 wrote:Okay I'm starting to understand this a bit more so I'd use a GW "wash" to tint my armor, at the moment I'm thinking about using Asurman to get a cool hue and either Sepia or Delvan mud for the warmer hue( not sure which way I want to go right now). Then use the watered down grey specifically for the cracks and recesses, then from there use thin layers of white to highlight the raised areas. Am I understanding this right?

Yes, however I find GW washes to be most ineffective in staying in the recesses. As they generally still tink the whole model no matter how much I try.

Well, if you use the GW washes, the gray wash won't accomplish much other than mixing up the colors and looking off. I'd do either/or, not both.

If you want a warm white, dilute Sepia down a bit, do a test model and see how it turns out, then try one with thinned Devlan, and thinned Asurman. Then try one with a gray wash. That gives you 4 starting points to choose from as you see fit. That's what I would do when deciding on a paint scheme, always make a few test models.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Oh, and Luna lieks mudkipz!

Okay, how should I apply them should I just brush it on the entire model or only on a few select area? What should I do to add some more detail to the model or should I just move on to using my other colors, for the eyes and edges of the plate armor, once the the model has been washed and highlighted?

Yes I do, its very cute >.<

frankjones11 wrote:

Well, from what I understand I'm better off using the GW washes to tint the armor and use something else to actually wash the recesses.

Well if you insist on sticking with GW stuff, arethan can help you more.

Personally not only do I dislike GW stuff, they tend to reject my other brand's materials as well.

However, if the blend and shading in my white sentinel is what you like, and you want it done in 1 min compared to 5-10 mins with GW stuff, let me know.

Do the test models and post pics of them. Then we can give more pointers on where to go from there.