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So i was painting some Chaos Warriors of Tzeentch and decided for a snowstorm/blizzardy theme as it fits my Warbands fluff.

I primed the model in white, which was also to be the majority color of the armor with some Ice Blue and silver touches added in.

My problem is that the models have ended up looking pretty flat because I don't know how to wash over something that's white without ruining the white itself.

Any ideas? I'll post up some pics when I get home from work as well.


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You need to add some highlights more than likely. Once we get some pics we can let you know more.

The problem with white is it is very hard to shade and highlight.....what you should have done was started with a grey based white, like Vallejo Sky Grey, and then work up to a pure white highlight.

Ashton

You could try a wash to shade the recessed areas and then clean up the main armour plates with your white again.
I did something similar with this White Scar marine; http://fromthewarp.blogspot.com/2011/12/white-scars-and-how-to-paint-white.html

So here's a picture of the block as a whole..




Then there's the command + random guy...



Then there's the cloaks and what I'm trying to do..




My problem is that the white just seems flat and hard to highlight. It should be known upfront that I'm a very novice painter, and this is probably at the higher end of the painting i've been able to produce. Any technical advice is appreciated for sure! ; But please break it down to noobie terms if possible. Im trying to simulate a trudge through deep snow onwards to combat.. but I feel like I'm failing pretty hard.



On the cloaks I started with solid ice blue over the white primer then dipped a wet brush in white and went upwards a few times. It's the only way I could figure out how to blend, but I'd like the blend to be more obvious. My first attempt at fading the blue to white was holding the model far away and spritzing it with white primer. While it worked to a degree, it also just looked like a mostly primed or faded model.

On the fur I used either brown or black, then washed in leviathan purple, then back over it in brown.

Its the crevices, they dont have shadow in them.

Luna.. how would you go about shadowing them if they were your minis?

Thunderfrog wrote:Luna.. how would you go about shadowing them if they were your minis?

Well, you have to go into the cracks and make shadows right?

Since you primed white, this can be messy work. You might be able to get away with just washing. I recommend trying some washes.

I would try a wash in whatever sort of shade colour you're wanting on the white (probably badab black or devlan mud for more clean or dirty plain whites), and then highlighting the white again. (maybe thin the wash out if the colour is a bit intense for your target effect)
By the way the new gw base white (Ceramite White) will undoubtedly be very useful in this scheme as its coverage is quite impressive (theyre out in a few weeks-I tryed a demo of them at a GW earlier today)

I appreciate the advice of using a wash. Normally what I've done.. (for my marauders thus far..) is take some chaos black and a good bit of water and put them together in a pot them brush the blackish water over the mini. It pools pretty well and it makes some details pop, I was just afraid to do this with a white model.

(The thing I do.. that IS a wash right? I'd hate to be using the wrong term all this time.)

Thunderfrog wrote:Luna.. how would you go about shadowing them if they were your minis?

I usually do one of 3 things ( since Im lazy I like to cut steps xD )

a)I mix vallejo black or smoke or both with tons of water to use as wash all over the mini. and take a tank dry brush and use the edge to re-pick up the highest areas with white paint.

b)Use oil washes + a tooth pick and poke an edge of a raised area and let liquid osmosis do its job.

3) I would have used gray undercoat and wetbrush the white on ( but this step seems too late )

Thunderfrog wrote:I appreciate the advice of using a wash. Normally what I've done.. (for my marauders thus far..) is take some chaos black and a good bit of water and put them together in a pot them brush the blackish water over the mini. It pools pretty well and it makes some details pop, I was just afraid to do this with a white model.

(The thing I do.. that IS a wash right? I'd hate to be using the wrong term all this time.)

That is a basic wash, I've done similar before with good results. But there are transparent wash type paints, theyre a lot like inks. Some people make their own using artists acrylic mediums to boost the transparency of their paints. Mediums can help you go even more transparent without the strange things that can happen when overthinning with water.

If you want white as the final color you should never start with white. You can't highlight white. You can only shade it.

You should start over from a gray base and work up to white as the final highlight.

If you can't do that, shade down the white with a wash of gray or black and then highlight with white.

Thanks all. Unfortunately, this is the first time I've really decided to sit down and do something about all the grey in my garage.

Sadly, there's no time to start over. Not now anyways, I need to finish this army in a month for a tournament with soft scores that include paint.

So I understand shading the white I think.. mixing grey or black paint with a lot of water and continuously applying the loaded brush to the cloaks and armor until the desired shadows appear.

Highlighting though.. Is that as simple as taking white paint, after the shadows are put on the model, and painting white over the parts I think need to stand out as white?

Also.. can someone let me know if I'm going the right direction in blending the cloaks from ice blue at top to pretty white at the bottom near the snowy bits? I just started with solid blue then brushed watery white on over and over. I still think its pretty stark where the white wash ended..

Highlighting though.. Is that as simple as taking white paint, after the shadows are put on the model, and painting white over the parts I think need to stand out as white?

yes.

Thunderfrog wrote:Also.. can someone let me know if I'm going the right direction in blending the cloaks from ice blue at top to pretty white at the bottom near the snowy bits? I just started with solid blue then brushed watery white on over and over. I still think its pretty stark where the white wash ended..

Thats the thing with watery white, it'll flow into the places that are supposed to be shaded and darker >.<

Haha, well I appreciate the help regardless of any self inflicted wounds.

It's my first painted unit and I'm kinda proud of it I guess and I will consider this a lesson learned about priming white when white is my desired final color.

Thunderfrog wrote:Haha, well I appreciate the help regardless of any self inflicted wounds.

It's my first painted unit and I'm kinda proud of it I guess and I will consider this a lesson learned about priming white when white is my desired final color.

There is still hope. If all else fails, pick up a micropigment pen ( sakura or staedtler )
and manually pen in the separating parts ( say between cape and the fur )

I think the thinned out black has potential, gw make a black wash called badab black, which is what most would probably use in this circumstance.
It might be good to paint the chainmail on them in a metallic and apply the black wash to those parts too, it can shade all those tiny holes rather quickly.

I'd wash them ALOT and then hightlight my way up.

indeed. throw a bucket of badab black on em and start layering plates from fortress grey up to white.

In my opinion, I think you ought to try maybe a 1:1 codex grey -white mix, so that it's a really light grey (preferably almost unnoticeable) then shade and highlight from there. It's very difficult to work with straight white, just because it doesn't get any brighter than that, ya know?

That's what I would do, but you can try washing it all down and highlighting, as long as you water down your wash and make sure it doesn't pool. Otherwise, your paint job will be splotchy (is that a word?)

Good luck

Splotchy is exactly the word. Im not good at fading yet and it's hard to do on the cloaks. I'll definately post pics after tonights washdown with badab. I dont have grey unfortunately... painting is new to me and my supplies are limited because of that. Like I said, this is my first painted unit ever.

It's funny. Not to go off topic, but as much as I oppose soft scores in a tournament like the one I'm doing this for, nothing has ever motivated me so much to paint my models either.

I still think painting should be the side show and let the best general get the big glory, but understand a little more where the fans and advocates of painting are coming from.

Whats worse is that I can't see myself using an unpainted warriors list after this 2000 points get painted, no matter how beardy it is. ( And I'm a beardy player for sure!)