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As per the title, does anyone have tips for painting white over dark background colours?

I have a number of models that I've primed black and now want to put some white down and all I get is a streaky mess.

Does anyone have any tips for painting white over black primer please?

Thanks, in advance.

Thin paint and patience.

As an alternative, give it a coat of Astronomican Grey first. The Foundation Paint covers rather well.

The key to this is use different paint to GW. I use Decoart Americana. Thuin it a bit, and use Grey Sky and highlight Titanium White. Covers in one coat, and is opaque.

Steelmage99 wrote:Thin paint and patience.

This

Juvieus Kaine wrote:

Steelmage99 wrote:Thin paint and patience.

This

This. Paint it with some kind of grey first, making sure that you thin the paint out enough with water so that it's smooth. You then spend the next 9 decades painting layer after layer of thinned-down white paint, again making sure that it's smooth.

As a Black Templars player and painter, I feel your pain.

As another alternative...

Use a 'grey' primer. Specifically: Vallejo's Grey primer.

It lets you do Black and White a little bit easier.

Everything stated above plus i have seen alot of people use another trick. Dont paint white.

Serously, make it a slightly off white, which will be easier to paint, and still gives the illusion of a white surface, especially if highlighted with pure white after.

Another thing you 'could' do is get hold of an enamel white. Oil tends to cover much easier than acrylic. It's perfectly fine to paint oils over the top of acrylics, the only problem is you can't really paint acrylic back over the top of oil until it has had a lot of time to dry and harden (can take up to a year to dry out fully). However if you weren't planning on painting over the white then you shouldn't have any problem with that

Lots of coats. The undercoating with grey thing also helps a bit, but you're probably still going to have to use at least a couple layers of white.

Smacks wrote:Another thing you 'could' do is get hold of an enamel white. Oil tends to cover much easier than acrylic. It's perfectly fine to paint oils over the top of acrylics, the only problem is you can't really paint acrylic back over the top of oil until it has had a lot of time to dry and harden (can take up to a year to dry out fully). However if you weren't planning on painting over the white then you shouldn't have any problem with that

You can varnish over the oils so you can then paint on top.

Depending on the model, I'll start either with a grey or something like enchanted blue (the latter is rather nice on Eldar stuff).

Undercoat white, then paint shadows in the recesses.

Requires a steadier hand, but is much, much less tedious and the end result looks better.

Re-undercoat any non-white areas with black if you want.

Astronomicon Gray is a godsend. 3-4 coats at the proper consistency gives you a smooth layer of relatively neutral and very light gray (even directly over black) that you can highlight up to pure white or simply cover with a few layers for a completely white surface.

SilverMK2 wrote:

Smacks wrote:Another thing you 'could' do is get hold of an enamel white. Oil tends to cover much easier than acrylic. It's perfectly fine to paint oils over the top of acrylics, the only problem is you can't really paint acrylic back over the top of oil until it has had a lot of time to dry and harden (can take up to a year to dry out fully). However if you weren't planning on painting over the white then you shouldn't have any problem with that

You can varnish over the oils so you can then paint on top.

I don't think it would make any difference. Oils are supposed to be left for quite a few months to dry out before varnishing. Slow drying layers always have to go above fast drying layers. If you try to put a fast drying varnish over the top of slow drying oils that are not fully cured, then it might cause the varnish to crack or flake.

I think a more elegant solution would probably be to use a quick drying oil medium to speed up the drying time.

scarletsquig wrote:Undercoat white, then paint shadows in the recesses.

Requires a steadier hand, but is much, much less tedious and the end result looks better.

Re-undercoat any non-white areas with black if you want.

Found this to be the best technique!

If you plan to have your model with a majority of white or lighter colours, work from a white undercoat to the darker colours as this makes your life simpler and easier to paint!

As a note, I also paint a thin layer of white over the undercoat to smooth out the sprayed undercoat.