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So as I grow more "proficient" in painting my minis (i.e I don't screw everything up anymore) I've come to realize that I don't know how to shade white. More specificly, I'm currently painting terminator helmets white, and I'd like to know how to get that grey-blue shade as good as possible. Tips?

Im looking for that exaxt same effect.....
For my sons of orar

You could do it with a black/blue wash. Mix some asurmen blue with badab black, undercoat white, wash with the mix, repaint the white, repeat to desired effect.

Alternate (how I'd do it, as it gives me some more control than washes) paint the helmets a dark grey, build up to greyish blue, build up to a very light pale blue, build up to white.

White is a color that you need to built up to, I would start with a brown and add lighter layers over it leaving small amounts of the last color showing in the areas you want to be shaded till you reach a solid white.

I just wash the the white with asurman blue, then highlight it in white.

Ive been working on exactly the same for a little while now, and i think iv almost cracked it.







I start with:

- black undercoat
- airbrush on Deneb Stone
- wash of Dev mud and Black (thin)
- airbrush black/Stone into the very deepest shadows
- airbrush bleached bone on light serfaces
- highlight with white

Hope that helps

sickening wrote:White is a color that you need to built up to, I would start with a brown and add lighter layers over it leaving small amounts of the last color showing in the areas you want to be shaded till you reach a solid white.

I would say this is fine, only the OP is looking for blue-tinted shadows. In which case I would say use this technique, but start with a blue-grey colour instead of the brown.

Sorry, should have put a blue filter in the list. A wash of asure blue oven the stone colour and leave out the mud/brown wash.

Or start with Shadow Grey and work up through Space Wolves Grey to Skull White...

GW's homepage has an excellent article on how to paint white helmets with darker colored bodies:
http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/content/article.jsp?catId=cat440172a&pageMode=multi&categoryId=400035§ion=&pIndex=2&aId=4400107a&start=3

Shading white is tricky. I think one of the keys is having a large midtone area of nearly but not quite white so you can have pure-white highlights. I've found using bone/tan colours to shade helps keep the white white. It so so easy to end up with something looking blue or grey when using these colours to shade. I once used lilac to shade while but that was on a unicorn so not sure it would work for general application. Hits_the_spot has shown a lovely example. If you are really set on blue go with a blue grey like shadow grey as a basis. it will need a lot of lightening though.