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Alright, so, I'm a pretty experienced painter, having been painting figures of many different sizes for years. I used to use GW paints pretty exclusively, but I've since switched to Vallejo Game Color. However, I'm running into some problems, and I'm not quite sure of the cause. As you can see in the photo, I've been painting the white of a DA exarch helmet, over a base of grey. However, the white is turning out really streaky, with obvious brushstrokes (you can see it in the photo). It's creating a really unpleasant texture and unevenness to a helmet that I'm trying to make look really smooth! Is this a problem with my brush, or my strokes? Or am I doing something with the paint? I'd like to fix this, I've tried painting it with GW white as well and had the same problem. I've never really had to paint areas this large of pure white.

I use the GW white and i had the same problems. A way to improve is to water down the white and apply many thin layers. On top of that you can use the watered white to leave some transition from grey to white as additional shadow details.

You probably need to thin (more) and apply several light layers

Flow aid (or dish soap) and a drying retarder. It's annoying to wait for, but it seems to work out better in the end.

I added a bit of water to the mix (I haven't done that with whites, usually) and it worked like a charm. Took two coats, but, turned out beautifully smooth. Thanks!

For my IG's snow camo I use GW's basecoat Celestra Grey, followed by VGC's Ghost Grey. I thin both of these with water and do two layers of each - over black primer - and the finish is alot smoother than what i see in your picture. And despite it being grey, it looks so close to white you wont tell the difference untill you put white next to it.

Generally, when painting white, it's better to paint to a 'bright grey' and not white. To get a solid white - that looks smooth - would take forever on a full unit, let alone army.

I don’t bother with multiple thin layers of white. Often I just ended up with a splotchy uneven color.

I recommend painting with a progression of lighter and lighter greys and then highlight it with a pure white. I use gw’s celestra grey, ulthuan gray, with white scar high lights. The paint still needs to be wet enough to flow.

Good luck.

I've had similar problems with Reaper's Dragon White lately. Although, since my IG use a white-based snow camo theme, I usually just spray paint all the parts white while they're still on the sprue, with the exception of the tracks. Then I paint over the white as needed.

I'm using coats of VGC Stonewall Grey followed by light coats of pure white, the pic above was with my original method. I'll try to get a photo of what the new method looks like. Much smoother.

Honestly Vallejo is gak. I've bought 4 colors from them and they all cover like water, or chaulk up. I've used Wally World paints to much better effect.

Large white areas are pretty time consuming from my experience. Warmashine Cygnar stuff comes to mind. When I paint larger areas of white I water down the white to the point were it doesnt cover anymore and goin with 10+ layers to finally get a smooth and covered area. White is just not the colour you want to paint large areas with but if you "have to" and want a pure white finish go with many layers. Once finished it's awesome looking.

 KingmanHighborn wrote:
Honestly Vallejo is gak. I've bought 4 colors from them and they all cover like water, or chaulk up. I've used Wally World paints to much better effect.

Different strokes for different folks, but most of the professional painters (professional enough to pay their bills with it) on CMON and elsewhere include Vallejo in their recommend brands.

Prime white. Not gray. Especially for brightly colored models like eldar. Otherwise, prime in the lightest block color on the model.

Out of all of the VGC I've used, I've only ever had the problem described with white, as you have. It was, right out of the bottle, chalky, clumpy, and thick. I pulled out the dropper tip, stuck in a toothpick, and have it a good stir. I then added some premixed flo-aid and again stirred well. After that it works fine.

I painted my C:SM army a white and gold look and after ruining about 5 marines in trying different techniques, I found the only way to get a nice clean finish was to undercoat skull white, go over with badab black and then 1 or 2 layers of skull white again, I would also sometimes go over darker spots with bleached bone then skull white.
I heard of lot of people recommending to build up from white from various grays and would REALLY love to see it actually done because it looked terrible in every attempt I made.

I find army painter spray white gives a lovely sheen, almost as if the plastic is coloured rather than painted.