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How frustrating!

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?prodId=prod780908&rootCatGameStyle=

I bought this awesome model in my lfgs the other day, as painting chaos and vostroyans has become some what boring.

So i set to work on it, trying to copy its exact colour scheme, as in my armies i have never really worked with the colours black and white much, especially the crisp white. But after 3 attempts i still cant get the perfect white, despite trying different layerings of paint.

So i set this frustrating question to you people of dakka, how do you get your whites whiter than white?

Many layers (maybe op to 10) of watered down skull white. Let the layers dry before putting next one on.
There is no quick way for doing this. But hey it could be worse... If you try yellow, that color is a real pain to get crisp.

what colours underneath the white do you suggest? and by watered down skull white, do you mean get it to a wash consistancy and just glaze it on?

White primer and a 60/40 mixture of paint to water in an airbrush works wonders for a crisp black. I use a double action brush with a regulator set to about 10-15 PSI and set the gun to a nice even mist. I work the gun like a would a rattle can of spray paint until the model is evenly coated and generally add a few more coats as needed.

Water it down to a milky consistancy. Thats the best way I can describe it, put a drop of milk on your fingertip and have a look. It will be white in the middle put almost transparent at the edges.

Since the rest of the model have black shading, I would use a black primer. The chainmail for instance would benefit from a black primer. The white areas are small compared to the rest of the model that need a darker shade.

Edit.
or do as mstersmith says, but then you will have to basecoat the rest of the model black to get the dark shade. It really depends on which way you like to work from... from dark to light or the other way around.

cool thanks for the advice guys much appreciated! just to ask a quick other question about a problem i came across, how do you avoid visible brush stroke marks in the paint? will the white washes stop the strokes from showing up?

Everything I have seen/read for painting white tells you to layer, layer, layer, and layer some more.

If you are working from a dark primer color you'll need to slowly transition from the dark color up to white through a series of grays . From the looks of the shadowed areas of the model, I'm guessing that is what the painter for that model did. It looks like there might have even been some (a very little) gray/blue layer work in the lower layers as well.

About the brush strokes, if the dried paint has brush stroke marks in it that means that the paint is far too thick. Watering down your paint to a 1:1 ratio of paint to water will help with that a great deal. Washes will also help mask/eliminate brush marks as well.

Ok thanks a lot! this is all really helpful, im not a pro painter, but im progressing, and this is why i enjoy my little projects as i learn a lot Keep the ideas flowing, and tomorrow i will start again and see if i can get that white im after !

I did my Order of the Sacred Rose Sororitas, years ago, with the following:

Primered Black

Base coat of an Armoury light grey that was pretty close to SW grey leaving black in the deepest recesses and hard edges of their power armour

Several layers of thinned white leaving bits of the light grey showing for depth of color

Worked pretty well, as it gave great contrast between the black deep in their armour joints with a clean final white.

One trick I did use throughout, although I don't know if it really helped was to thin my white paint with white artist's ink.

Oh, and have one pot of cleaning water for JUST the white. No other colors. It doesn't take much pigment to show up on a clean white finish.

All that said, I'm not tackling another white-armoured army for a very, very long time.

Vale,

JohnS

haha, thank you for your help i agree about the using another pot of water for the white, as i found out when my water was grey, and so was the colour by the end of it >.>

Quick and easy way is prime white then choose a color for your shadows...black = badab black wash...brown = devlan mud wash...yellowish = gryphon sepia wash...then, drybrush bleached bone and finish off with a highlight of skull white. Good luck.

Oh, and always use a fresh pot of water each layer you place. A clean water jar = clean colors.

for the sharpest brightest whites I use liquitex titanium white or P3 morrow white for the brightest white highlights.
you can even mix a little pearlescent/metalized in very small ratios into it to add to the brightness.
If your using semi-transparents then put a layer of the shiniest silver paint you can find under the white.

And as others mentioned contrasting colors helps it pop even more

I have found using the foundation paint astronomican grey works very well as a base coat for white.

atropos907 wrote:for the sharpest brightest whites I use liquitex titanium white or P3 morrow white for the brightest white highlights.
you can even mix a little pearlescent/metalized in very small ratios into it to add to the brightness.
If your using semi-transparents then put a layer of the shiniest silver paint you can find under the white.

Ooh! Those are some really good ideas!

I really hate using thin layers of white on black primer asa well. I have fount the best way to to do it is to do these layers
black
codex grey
fortress grey
white
white (if needed)

Layering it up from greys just seems to work a lot better for me than trying to layer whites on white up from black. Havent tried astronomicon yet though.

If your curious for starters they have 3 things that make it look that perfect.

1.) A light box
2.) Painted on white primer.
3.) The most important of them all.....PhotoShop!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I've had the greatest success painting white over a black basecoat. Sounds crazy, but it comes out looking cleaner, cripser, and "whiter". I have tried going from a white basecoat, but it tends to make the white look to "warm" and yellowed/grey'd out.

Speaking of grey, I have seen no difference between black directly to white and black to grey to white, so do whatever you feel more comfortable with.

Buy Vallejo primer

step1: apply it

step 2: sit there and wonder why anyone would use GW paint and go through the trouble of
adding more water , and needing 10 coatings.

step 3: you are done. total time spent on painting crispy white? 1-2 mins.

LunaHound wrote:Buy Vallejo primer

step1: apply it

step 2: sit there and wonder why anyone would use GW paint and go through the trouble of
adding more water , and needing 10 coatings.

step 3: you are done. total time spent on painting crispy white? 1-2 mins.

Agreed with luna on this one. I only used GW paints in recent years for metallics and have found recently that reaper is beter.

I usually start with white and work the shadows instead.
I learned from the guys at Brushthralls and it seems to work fine.