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Is there some magic technique I am completely missing?

When I put down whites and light greys I thin 1:1 with water. I put down a base of mephiston brown or zandri dust. When I apply the paint I load the brush pretty full then rim the brush on the pallet. I apply with the tip of the brush. I end up putting down 3ish layers.

And it looks like utter rubbish.

It looks streaky and chalky and the coverage is horrid. It clumps in the details no matter how thin I try to go...looks like I dunked the part in vanilla yogurt except without the shine. The paint dries on the brush very fast and I risk getting flakes on the model.

I am to the point where I am starting to change the colors away from white unless absolutely necessary. I see lots of pics in the gallery where the whites look solid and smooth. I have to be doing something wrong.

Any suggestions?

Getting a good white means using a good white paint over a good light basecoat. GW's new whites are supposed to be decent enough. You don't want to water it down too much or yeah it just globs up in the details.

Try using a light gray basecoat. Multiple thin layers of a different white than whatever you're using. Also, don't use pure white on your model as anything but the brightest highlight. Use ivory or some other off-white and it will look much better.

Of course, while this will mean your white hopefully goes on better, it will always be a pain to paint in any large amounts.

http://fromthewarp.blogspot.com/2011/12/white-scars-and-how-to-paint-white.html

only thing that ever worked for me. First pic is example, second is how one of mine turned out, and I am NOT a good painter. But its nice and solid.

And a finished speeder.

You need to slowly build up the white over multiples thin layers using greys and building up to an offwhite. I like using a black basecoat, which will require more steps, but ends up looking much better overall, but using a lighter base will give decent results. I can't stress enough that you need thin layers. I know it's said all the time, but thin the paint to a milky consistency. The first few layers look really streaky, but keep building it up layer by layer. Keep adding more white until it is your desired tone. Your patience will pay off.

an airbrush will make short work of a white base coat regardless of what colour the primer.

by brush you will need to rely mostly on a white primer. pick the model up in your hand with a glove on and just take your time with a rattle can. short bursts, even coverage. keep going until the white builds up and is smooth. finish it with one or two thin layers of a brush on white. water it down a lot.

Seriously, look into the example I linked. Saves about 5 layers worth of time, and I think it looks just as good.

Try using a light gray basecoat. Multiple thin layers of a different white than whatever you're using. Also, don't use pure white on your model as anything but the brightest highlight. Use ivory or some other off-white and it will look much better.

I will look into other citadel base colors in the grey range and experiment, thanks! I've been using brown or bone/ivory up to this point but it makes the white look "dirty" until the coverage is solid enough.

I can't stress enough that you need thin layers. I know it's said all the time, but thin the paint to a milky consistency. The first few layers look really streaky, but keep building it up layer by layer. Keep adding more white until it is your desired tone. Your patience will pay off.

I've been thinning to 1:1 like my OP stated. I like to have enough liquid in the brush so that when I touch the tip down it will 'pool' ever so slightly and then I push the pool around the area I'm trying to cover. If I don't get this result then the paint will streak very badly. I'll take some leftover sprue and play with layers a bit.

an airbrush will make short work of a white base coat regardless of what colour the primer.

by brush you will need to rely mostly on a white primer.

I have an airbrush and compressor on my "eventually purchase" list. With the holidays comming up my wife/family gets upset if I buy anything for myself that isn't mandatory...like food and....yeah that's pretty much it.

For larger surface area projects I think an airbrush and/or white primers are key for "thin and even" application that getting with a brush would dive me insane. For smaller areas like an aquilla or shoulder pad icons I suppose I could still go with a can/airbrush first, then build the other colors around it??? Seems very difficult to do nice white detailing with an airbrush...but that is coming from someone who has zero airbrush experience.

Seriously, look into the example I linked. Saves about 5 layers worth of time, and I think it looks just as good.

I read it, thanks for the link! I basically got "white primer, thin layers of skull white" as the cliff notes. Again, I'll hit up some sprue practice and see how she goes.

I paint white over black primer, starting with grey and building up to pure white. It takes some time, but if you want it to look great, there really aren't any short cuts.

Here are two examples on my Chimperial Fist Captain. You can see the gradients in color working up the armor plates. As I said, it takes time, but it looks good. It may be too daunting to try and do across a whole army if you're in any kind of hurry, but it's clean and it's proof you can get a good white from a black primer. This was all done with standard brushes.

 Orock wrote:
Seriously, look into the example I linked. Saves about 5 layers worth of time, and I think it looks just as good.

that technique will work just fine. if you can get your wash consistency just right you could even do a full on wash over the white and not have it look ugly. putting paint only into the recesses gets very tiring after awhile. if youre going to paint all the recesses doing it with inks is probably the easiest.

i agree it will look just as good. blending up from grey... lol, f that.

what does work fine if you dont want a pure white is either a tiny bit of grey or blue mixed into your base white, shade your recesses then do a quick line highlight of pure white. done.

Here is a very easy method I recently discovered:

It consists of 1 Basecoat, 1 Wash and 1 Highlight, and gives you a nice shaded white finish.

Essential preparation:

1. Get some matte medium (from Michaels, any art store or online).
Mix Nuln Oil (Badab Black) half-n-half with matte medium.
Add a bit of water (preferably with some Flow Improver). A few drops (8-12) will do, if you mix in the Nuln Oil pot.
Keep in mind that matte medium is white BUT it dries clear.

This preparation might seem overwhelming to some, but it makes AAAALLLLL the difference.
You might think; "Oh, man. Matte Medium? That is like for Pros! I really don't paint enough to warrant that".
Shut up! Just trust me and get it. You will not regret it at all.

2. Get GWs Ceramite White base paint.

3. Get Vallejo Model Air White.

Painting:

Basecoat with GWs Ceramite White.
Here we are making the best use of the coverage that the GW Base paint provides.
This coat doesn't have to be perfect. Just be as neat as you can be bothered to be. Some streaking is ok.
If you are painting the entire (or the majority) of the model white you can just spray a white basecoat on.

Wash with your Nuln Oil/Matte Medium mix.
Because we have mixed with Matte Medium it doesn't taint the model as much and it flows a lot better.
The amount of wash you need......I can't tell you. You really need to try it on a model and see.
The wash will look white and kinda pale, but it will dry black.
Don't let the wash gather on large flat areas (it will make your work a LOT easier later). Just run the brush over the area one more time to move it a bit.

Highlight with the Vallejo Model Air White.
Here we are making use of the qualities that Vallejo Model Air provides.
Since this is a paint made for airbrush use it is thin, but with the same intensity of colour that we are used to.
Now you highlight the white leaving the shaded areas untouched.
Do not slopper this white on. As the paint is rather thin it tends to run all over. Just put a little bit on your brush and highlight.
Start with the extreme edges, and cover more and more until you like the result.

Thats it.

feth everything about white primer, and painting white.

Seriously, i have a million and one white paint schemes i'd love to try out, but will never even dream of trying. That color is such a wretched pain in the ass to paint. It's just as bad as lemon yellow.

I find ceramite white to be nothing too special, just like any other white, it takes a lot of thinning down to get a smooth coat, then it takes about 3-5 coats for good coverage. For an actual white thing on the model, I would prime grey,paint a really light grey leaving the mid grey primer in the deepest recesses, wash black (or blue or whatever tint you like), then go over again with the light grey, then highlight in 50-50 the grey and white mixed, then in pure white. There would be very little actual white on there.

You want really really thin paint, then to remove the majority of it from the brush onto a paper towel so that the its not dumping whole drops onto the model, rather just a thin controllable coat. let dry and repeat.(so thin that drying is so fast that if you picked up another model the first would be dry before your'e done on the 2nd. )

Today I tried out Testors Light Ghost Grey on uniform grey primer. The coverage was really smooth and solid. Granted it was straight from the pot. I am going to mix it with various amounts of VMA white and thinning.

Try using a thinning agen also. For a long time I went with the good ol' fashion water thinning but have just started using the GW Lahmium medium. There are other products out there like this if you don't want to use the GW stuff but I have noticed my paints goin on much smoother since I have made the switch.

BANE?Get ready for Batman jokes right about...now.

I've always had these issues with white, particularly citadel whites. Vallejo is essentially the same results, clumpy, waxy paint.

I've had better results with Tamiya acrylic white, nice smooth finish every time.

Lucazi wrote:
Try using a thinning agen also. For a long time I went with the good ol' fashion water thinning but have just started using the GW Lahmium medium. There are other products out there like this if you don't want to use the GW stuff but I have noticed my paints goin on much smoother since I have made the switch.

I've got some vallejo airbrush thinner I can try out. It seems to dry up faster than water though. Is that natrual?

Cave_Dweller wrote:
I've had better results with Tamiya acrylic white, nice smooth finish every time

So noted. Thanks!

Over Imperial Primer I'll base with Celestra Grey and then layer on successively lighter whites (Ulthuan Grey, Pallid Wych Flesh, etc...)

I find after the base and the first layer paint, dry brushing on the remaining layers has had decent results for me.