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last year when I started I wanted my space marines to have white and ultramarines blue on them but could not get white to look flat so I gave up...
one year later two days ago I tried too paint my Apothecary white with shadow grey (my new colour scheme being shadow) even with a the
improved skill in painting over the year I still can't get white flat or to look nice at all... so I asked about at my Local gaming center and they told me that many peaple have differant styles.

can you give me some tips on how to paint white...

i tried undercouting with white before the finished coat still did not look nice...

I use Astronomicon Grey first, and then use several light coats of white over that. It takes time, and you need a lot of coats, but it eventually comes together.

Thanks! also i tried Astronomical Grey but only applied two, three layers of white.

Overcoat it with flat finish.

Use vallejo paint.

Saves you money and time and health

Hahah.

Seriously, painting white - there is no magic fix, it takes work to get a consistent finish. I've used Vallejo, GW, art-store acrylics, they're all the same. You just need to be patient and use multiple layers.

I've been doing bleached bone and then just drybrushing layers of white over it until it looks good. I end up with a just off-white and then highlight the hard edges with a line of thicker stark white. I think it comes out well and pieces I've done like that have been the ones in particular that people have complimented.

The basic the basic consensus is to you an off white or minor white and then gradually build it up. Using straight white is a BAD IDEA. unless you're glazing over it or painting some sort of magical or hyper color theme.

4-5 little thin coats of white will do it best

Lunarman

Extra coats, definitely, you can also try not thinning your paints as much, and also painting in long strokes instead of short motions. Dont paint over an area you recently painted, get into the habit of moving to dry areas when you realise that you're just slopping paint around, even slightly.

Yep i use extremely watered down GW white in multiple layers and don't usually have a problem. Just never let the paint thicken or you'll get instant 'glooping' which is more noticeable with white as it picks up natural shadow more than any other colour due to it's radiant nature.

I use watered layers of Dheneb Stone (usually 2 layers), then 3 layers of Skull White over it, watered down.

Thinning the paint is the most important part though.

Based off many responses in this thread, we don't seem to be agreeing on what "flat" means in reference to paint.

Flat means not shiny.

But flat, when painting white, might also mean "not lumpy" or "not grainy" since that's usually a problem when painting white or near white colours.

In that case; many and thin coats.
If not shiny; use matte varnish.

I think GW skull White is matte if that's what's meant by flat. Otherwise lots of thin watered down coats if it means lumpy yeah.

For some reason, every army I've painted has been a light color, either White (Sisters, White Scars), or a pale yellow. Gutton for punishment I guess.

I've found the 'best' way to do it, as has already been mentioned, is lots of layers. It takes a while but it works.

1) Prime white.
2) Mix up an 'off-white'. I mix up my own colors, but its usually mostly white with a tiny bit of yellow and brown. A mixture of bleached bone with some white would probably work.
3) Water it down, somewhere between 25% paint with 75% water and a 50:50 mixture.
4) Start applying. Keep adding coats until you think its enough, then do one more.
5) Carefully wash creases with severely diluted blue or brown, dependent on the other colors in the armies scheme.
6) Highlight with pure white.
7) Be sure to finish the model with Flat or Matte

Heres an example of an Exorcist. Its not Golden Daemon or anything, but it works. The pic isn't fantastic, but does ok for a cameraphone.

Thanks for all the responses, I have tried some of these Techniques and they all look much better than my original technique.

greenplanet wrote:Yep i use extremely watered down GW white in multiple layers and don't usually have a problem. Just never let the paint thicken or you'll get instant 'glooping' which is more noticeable with white as it picks up natural shadow more than any other colour due to it's radiant nature.

Agreed - thin paint, multiple coats. I start with white undercoat, then badab black wash, then drybrush thinned skull white, then deliberate layering of white on armour plates etc.

If you want to get it really white and really flat then nothing beats airbrushing.

I've had miniatures that I thought I had painted white, but when compared to airbrushed models I discovered that they were dull and not really white at all.

Of course if you don't have an airbrush and don't plan on getting one, then this information is probably more annoying than helpful.

On the other hand... if you needed to paint flat and white to save your life then an airbrush would be the best way to do it.

All of the advice in this thread approaches the problem in the wrong way, by treating white in the same way as other colours... as something that needs to start from a dark base and get progressively lighter... when really, you want to be doing the exact opposite of this or it will take forever.

White doesn't have take a lot of coats and a long time to get right, when all you need is a single coat and the right technique. Here is what you do:

Undercoat white.

Leave the undercoat clean white and then *carefully* paint off-white shadows of a colour of your choice into the recesses. Light grey, light grey with blue hint, and light brown are the best choices. It depends on whether you want a warm, cold or neutral tone to your white.

Choose a shadow colour that is nearly white to start with (you should barely be able to tell the difference between it and white), then make it increasingly darker as you add successive and smaller layers of paint in deeper and deeper areas.

Effectively, you have to "reverse highlight" the whole area. Tricky to do, but not as time consuming as the alternative if you have the skill to pull it off. I have seen many pro painters use this technique on their whites. You don't need to use blending or anything complicated like that, just simply, very neat layers using exactly the same principles that you use for highlighting, only applying them to the deepest parts of the model instead of the most raised parts.

It should go without saying, but I'll mention it anyway - water down your paints when doing this. It will make it much easier to get the paints into the recesses accurately. Use a tiny brush.

This technique is much quicker and better than trying in vain to get multiple coats of white to actually look white and still have a perfectly smooth surface. It's also less frustrating because you're not waiting for 5 thin coats of white to dry and then *still* not having the model look properly white.

Reading this thread, finding it very helpful as I am soon going to start painting my White Scars army ( for now they are shiny and grey )

I think I'll be sorted for painting, but what about washes and other decorative things? Anyone know how you should treat them differently with white?

Sam__theRelentless wrote:Reading this thread, finding it very helpful as I am soon going to start painting my White Scars army ( for now they are shiny and grey )

I think I'll be sorted for painting, but what about washes and other decorative things? Anyone know how you should treat them differently with white?

Dilute the washes, and drybrush pure white after the wash is dry. Be sure to not wash large open areas (like tank panels) as it'll look funky, carefully apply the washes to creases instead.

I prime with black, then have one layer of fortress grey followed by two to three coats of thinned, but not watery paint. You want to get a decent amount of the colour on your model, not just a slight white glaze. I usually find that continuously washing my brush every time I load up on more paint is a necessity, it just helps to prevent the paint from drying out - and that is a must. Otherwise, just be patient.

I always prime my white areas with dheneb stone then use lots of thin layers of white on it. You MUST let the previous layer of white completely dry before adding the next, it takes time to do white right. Yellow is the other pain in the neck color for the same reasons.....

I seem to be the only one that does this but here goes. I use a light blue as a basecoat for white. I use Gamecraft paints so don't know what would be the equivalent for other companies. It is called powder blue and is a very light skyblue, I find that if I get an even coating then the white covers well.