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what color to use, and what color to highlight if possible?

I wouldn't use inks on cloth... they are just too intense even with major thinning. If you mean the GW washes well that's different.

I'd probably base with Bleached bone, wash with Gryphon Sepia, then Devlan mud in the deepest recess areas, and highlight with bleached bone : white mix, then finally white.

I meant the GW washes

Liquitex makes white ink, GREAT stuff. It helps get white a lot smoother, plus it would allow you to shade and blend with ease.

Awesome thread - was thinking about starting a thread, asking the exact same question.

Now, a pondering; Would it be possible to add some kind of blue shading effect to the white, if i wanted the cloth to seem more like silk? To some degree, i feel the Devlan mud + Bleached Bone makes it look "older", where a light blue would make it look more "new"..

There was an article on the three whites in a white dwarf, it was one about painting tyranids. (it was the time of the 3rd Tyranid release).. I used the paint guide for the dire avenger helmets


cold white - fenris grey, ice blue, skull white
neutral white - astronomican grey, space wolves grey, skull white
warm white - graveyard earth base, bleached bone, white

I went to my FLGS and the GW man (a champ) showed me how to do it , and he painted a model for me (Gandalf from LOTR) and got me to try it too.

The key is, if you want a nice white, *don't use wash*. You can to change the hue, but not to speed up the process...


... the key is to slowly blend towards white, and put numerous thin layers on. My dire avenger helmets had 7 lays of thin paint on it.

@severedblue
Whoa.. That was just what i was looking for. I was thinking of making a black/white/gold theme for my new Eldars (once i begin collecting them, that is!), and was looking for something like that.

Anyways, it's noted down, and thanks alot for the advice!

You have to be very careful.

Minimise the amound of white on your models as , to do them properly, you have to put a lot of thin coats down - the more the better. THe GW farseer painted by the heavy metal team has 20+ coats on it.

The other trick a gentleman in my store uses is...

- spray lightly black
- spray lightly white
use milky white to cover the white areas.

He's doing that for all his boxed High Elves, and it gives instant shading; better than washes for white.
It's a much quicker and nastier job but if you want white quickly at least it's clean.


Best advice I was given is never paint pure white onto the model. It should be a watered down gradation mixed with something else, because pure white in that hue is quite unnatural.

Good luck.

Billinator wrote:@severedblue
Whoa.. That was just what i was looking for. I was thinking of making a black/white/gold theme for my new Eldars (once i begin collecting them, that is!), and was looking for something like that.

Anyways, it's noted down, and thanks alot for the advice!

Prime grey, paint white.

Then mix some grey wash with the white paint and thin it down. It will take a few coats but will work. You can also use sepia instead of the grey if you want tannish/brown shading rather than grey. Either color, subtle is the way to go- too little color is better than not enough since its easier to add more later.