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Just as the topic says, with what colour do you highlight white?

You can't highlight whiter than white.

The best way to do something like this is to make the base colour an off-white, tinted very slightly blue/grey/yellow/whatever, then highlight it up to white.

You don't. You work from shade up. Try basecoating a white area with fortress grey and then buildiing up the edge highlights to white, softly (ie gradient them up) before putting a final harder line on. The trick is to have a light enough base that it 'looks white' without actually being white.

There are several recipies for white - but they boil down to 3 basic type; warm, neutral, or cold.

'Warm' colours are towards red, so brown/yellow shades are in there - try working from khaki or bleached bone up to pure white. Good for bone / parchment.

'Neutral' colours tend to be in the middle of the spectrum, or grey in hue - greeny/browns and greys to provide the tint. Good for 'painted' whites, stone. Try working with fortress grey up.

Cold colours are towards the blue (purple actually tends to look warmer depending on how red it is). Try spacewolf grey and work up from there. Useful for ceramics / marble.

In all cases to get a good white, you want the colour to be pretty desaturated (greyish) so don't be afraid to add a little pure black / white mix to keep it from being overpowering.

I very nice easy way is using this little beauty.



I paint my area white, then a few thinned down coats of this wash which adds the shaddy and then add white to the raised up areas and gives a great effect.

Winterdyne gives a nice summary of options. For my whites, I usually basecoat with Astronomicon Gray (a light, neutral to cool gray foundation paint), then drybrush/layer/hardline (depending on the surface being painted) with Skull White.

Another option is to paint white, wash lightly with a black or blue shade, then re-highlight with pure white.

I once heard to use a really thin blue wash, then turn the mini upside down. It gives some shading to white armor and the like that you can later highlight.

Gloss varnish

I'll echo the others and suggest highlighting up from something off white. You can also wash the base coat of white with a thinned down wash (Think like a 1:10 balance) if re painting it isn't an option, which it usually isn't.

Maybe apply a layer of glowing, radioctive Radium as your top highlight? The only thing lighter than white paint is something that generates light itself so....

Does anyone else miss Elf Grey? That used to be my base for most whites. Fortress Grey seems a bit darker.

I know Coat d'Arms still produces all of those colors (colours?), but who wants to pay shipping to buy a pot of paint?

pzbw7z wrote:Does anyone else miss Elf Grey? That used to be my base for most whites. Fortress Grey seems a bit darker.

I know Coat d'Arms still produces all of those colors (colours?), but who wants to pay shipping to buy a pot of paint?

Astronomican grey works the same for me and my HE figures.

Scottywan82 wrote:
Astronomican grey works the same for me and my HE figures.

I shall have to give it a try.