Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

My space marine army is going to be pretty heavy on the white side and after painting a few Ive realized white is a pain in the ass to paint in mass amounts. So my question is, does anyone have good tips or tutorials on painting white?

Citadel spray gun is the way to go.

i have white helmets in my Sons of Medusa SM army, and i have found that thinning white paint a lot, and then painting 3 or 4 layers gets you a really nice looking white.

I am sure that an airbrush will also get you some good results, but if you don't have one/are not comfortable using one, especially for small details and the like, then thinning the paint to doing many layers is your better bet.

Pennywise wrote:Citadel spray gun is the way to go.

QFT
I just painted my honor guard set using a white spray. Calgar's cape and all the fine details look great. I highly recommend the spray gun. People complain about it, but if you're a casual painter, it works just fine.

If that's too expensive for you (which I could understand completely), try using multiple coats of thinned skull white on top of a coat of either bleached bone or astronomican grey, or whatever other light coat you want. I use Bleached bone because it sticks well to black and browns. Astro. Grey is great for terrain and skeletons.

If you're painting White Scars, the blood red will never come off a white coat, so be careful. I made a mistake on a shoulder pad, so I had to paint the whole shoulder red..

Also, if you plan on thinning the white, and you make it too thin,you can add some citadel gloss to it to make it a little thicker. The white should be a very heavy wash (way thicker than citadel's washes), sort of like...soy milk. ^.^

For thinning the paint all you do is mix in some water correct? Although a spray gun would be nice its a little to expensive at this point.

yeah, I usually just load my brush with water, then add the white paint, and make the mix in the top of the paint pot, so that i can always add more water or paint with out much worry.

Airbrush + Vallejo Model Air white = stress free white.

I went to Walmart and bought a can of Matte White.

Cost me $2.47.

I was able to paint 80 Space Marines (primary color is white) in one sitting. The finish on them was immaculate. AND the white served as a great base coat to paint the eagle Kim gold and the eye pieces blue.

I had enough left in the can to paint 10 Terminators.

True stress-free white.

Vet Sgt Ezekiel wrote:Airbrush + Vallejo Model Air white = stress free white.

I like this one...

codex grey > fortress grey > skull white works for me, since i dont have an airbrush and the GW white spray is hard to work with.

Spacemanvic wrote:I went to Walmart and bought a can of Matte White.

Cost me $2.47.

I was able to paint 80 Space Marines (primary color is white) in one sitting. The finish on them was immaculate. AND the white served as a great base coat to paint the eagle Kim gold and the eye pieces blue.

I had enough left in the can to paint 10 Terminators.

True stress-free white.

I would agree with this. Spray some sprue first though to make sure the finish is what you want (and that paint will then stick to it). I got some horrible white that was all glossy and dried to a creamy off white before - I was very happy that I tested it first before spraying what was essentially an entire army of models in one go

I agree with starting with a slightly darker color with good opacity and build from there.

What brand of white did you want; a slightly dirty/ weathered white (hint of brown), Cool/cold white (hint of blue)?
I use: Dheneb Stone -> Bleach Bone -> Skull White OR Adeptus Battlegrey -> Fortress Grey -> Skull White for the effects of above.
I tend to start from a black prime so this is what I do to get to a white, I found leaving a slight step in these colors near edges looks nice.
The final Skull White I put on thin and layered, applying the most near the middle or raised edges of a block of white.

Not for everyone and where possible I will prime white if what I need to paint is mainly white (Templar SM shoulder pads for instance).

Good luck.

what works for me is to first undercoat the area with codex grey.

If its a metal model, you can just paint the white over the metal, and it works fine.

alternatively, and this goes for any model, primer it white, then use skull white to touch up any splotches on the white spots.

Spacemanvic wrote:I went to Walmart and bought a can of Matte White.

Cost me $2.47.

I was able to paint 80 Space Marines (primary color is white) in one sitting. The finish on them was immaculate. AND the white served as a great base coat to paint the eagle Kim gold and the eye pieces blue.

I had enough left in the can to paint 10 Terminators.

True stress-free white.

I agree. Buying those spray paints > using GW flame gun/

Cheaper .
No need for compressed air.
No need for wash.

I just got some rust-oleum black spray paint. It looks good on the adapter from rhino to predator (you know the piece), but should I spray the entire rhino? I'm kinda nervous. I payed 25 bucks for the thing....

Have any of you used this brand? would you recommend it?

I use a heavily watered brush, and put down some dheneb stone and then paint white up from there. Usually only needs 1-2 coats of white, and comes out pretty nicely.

Of course, that's not that great for mass production or large surfaces, such as vehicles.