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I would like to paint some purple grey knights but im a little unsure how to do this iv got three different idea
1. undercoat using army painter alien purple spray, shade with black and re- highlight with alien purple
2. undercoat using army painter plate mail spray and shade with gw leviathan purple to give it a purple hue ?
3. undercoat white then wash with leviathan purple ?
any other ideas welcome

Option #2 will give you a very different effect than the others. Do you specifically want a metallic purple? If so, your method should work well enough, but I've never been terribly impressed with ink/glaze/wash-tinted metallic basecoats. Personally, I'd recommend finding or mixing an actual metallic purple, instead.

If going non-metallic, I think painting the entire model with purples will give more attractive results than purple washes over white. Paint>wash>repaint won't give you a ton of depth, but it'll be fine for the tabletop, if that's all you're looking for. Something to add a step or two of highlights beyond the midtone will improve the look, though. Just be wary, as many apparently purple paints turn quite pink when lightened with white. You may need to either find a lighter purple pre-mixed or add a touch of blue to restore the proper hue, should you try to lighten your paint (haven't used the Army Painter's purple, so I can't be sure if it'll even be an issue).

Personally, I mix all of my purples from blue and red, as it avoids the pink-ing issue and allows me better control of the relative warmth and coolness of the color, which comes in handy for shading and highlighting. By manipulating color temperature, you can actually shade and highlight purple, in effect, without adding any black or white. Even if you do use black in your shade, I'd suggest using it sparingly - a straight black wash won't look nearly as natural on purple as a darkened purple wash, nor will a purple and black mix look as natural as a painted shadow as a purple and blue-black mix.

I do prefer the non metallic route but maby undercoat white and use lich purple or the new equivalent as the base but I'm not sure what to use to highlight or shade it with ?

What about this?:
Spray black, paint purple(Xereus purple) and leave black in recessed. Highlight with a lighter purple(genestealer purple) and use purple wash(druchii violett) to create additional shading on the armor?

This is what i'm doing for my slaanesh marines.


I'm not an experienced painter but i have used greys and bone color to lighten up red.
This could probably work on purple too without turning it to pink. (Have never tried it on purple so needs to be tested.)

I really like the look of the purple and gold but i want the purple to be bright and I'm not sure if the gene stealer is to pastel like for what I want :(

There used to be a metallic purple sold by GW. Can't think of the name of it, but I'm sure it's all expired anyhow. That was a decade plus in the past.

Well I popped into my local gw store this morning and got naggaroth night for the base and xereus purple for the highlight and genestealer purple for the extreme highlight then I'm going to wash it with leviathan purple to try and take away some of the pastelness of the genestealer purple and see how it goes

There is a line called Miniature paints which I know makes ared and blue and green metalic paints. Might be a purple. Only problem is that they need to be appplied over white undercoat as they are very thin.

You could also base coat white or metal, do shading, then overcoat with Badger's ghost tints. They've great saturation and are easy to control.