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Hi everyone,

I'm making a Tau army and was thinking of painting their armor white, with the slacks/briefs being grey. Is the citadel white paint still sketchy/hard to use or has it been improved to where I could actually use it as a mainstay color?

I assume I'd also prime white as well than, I'd probably use a normal store bought white primer and not the citadel kind unless the citadel white primer is really good?

Thanks.

When painting white I've gone through two options in the past:

Prime White (Citadel Spray)
Shade from beneath with airbrush with dark grey
Touch up white
Apply washes in recesses (I use agrax)
Do detailing

Which ends up like this:


OR

Prime Brown (Vallejo brown primer)
Highlight clothe colouts as needed
Work up through Khaki, Bonewhite, White (Vallejo Game Air)
Do details

Which looks like this:


As you can probably guess I love white armour

That first example is perfect! Looks exactly like what I was thinking of doing!

Not quite sure what you mean by "shade from beneath". I do not own an airbrush though, would I just paint on the grey as on the clothing as you've got there?

I believe he meant exactly that - to add shading to the white armor, he sprayed grey from below the model (thereby only hitting the downward-facing surfaces), like zenithal highlighting in reverse. The grey of the clothing, then, would be painted separately, using whatever his normal method is.

You could achieve a similar effect by priming white and washing/blending in your shadows by hand, using light, then medium, greys, followed by cleanup and detailing.

Did you just use the word "viable" to describe a color?

Sigh... Dakka...


Anyways, yes, use white primer. If you're going to do the details in a slightly darker neutral color, I'd honestly consider just washing them. White can be made to look tan with a little bit of brown wash, for example, and it's a lot thinner than paints. That or base-coat if you really must, and then further bring it down by washing.

I would try and avoid using white paint as much as possible, regardless of its manufacturer. Just prime white and make everything else darker.

Yeah, Melcavuk hit the nail on the head here. Awesome minis, dude!

Atheos - There is nothing wrong with Citadel White, but you could save a few bucks and get a Krylon White Primer for half the price and still achieve the perfect base of white to work up from. As oadie said, you can do the same paint job without using an airbrush. What brand of paints do you prefer to use?

 Ailaros wrote:
Did you just use the word "viable" to describe a color?

Sigh... Dakka...

I did . Mainly because it seemed impossible to get white to a standard consistency of quality back when I tried to use it years ago. Took layer after layer and it would still look blotchy and just... blah. Thus it was.. unviable. lol

 StormBringer328 wrote:
Yeah, Melcavuk hit the nail on the head here. Awesome minis, dude!

Atheos - There is nothing wrong with Citadel White, but you could save a few bucks and get a Krylon White Primer for half the price and still achieve the perfect base of white to work up from. As oadie said, you can do the same paint job without using an airbrush. What brand of paints do you prefer to use?

I tend to stick to Citadel paints, I'm more of the gamer type and not very artistic so I haven't really ventured into other companies paints. The new paints seem to accomodate my lack of anything resembling artistic talent as well. lol

I've found that Tamiya white paint that's thinned down over a model that's been primed grey works for my Tau, they have a nice smooth coat that works perfectly with the feeling I'm tring to convey.

Vallejo Game Colour Ghosty Grey could be a friend here. It's almost white, bur it also has amazing coverage for such a pale colour and can quickly cover a surface, onto which you can paint your actual white with no real difficulty Or you could leave the ghosty grey and simply highlight it with white.

Vallejo also do a Pale Grey wash that does a really good job at shading white.

Thanks for all the recommendations guys.

I painted up some tabletop-level white tau last year - sounds like you're planning a similar scheme. I primed with a light grey then highlighted the armour with VMC off white and citadel skull white.

Came out looking this this:



Hope that's of some help!

I've always used the Master Reaper line of paints. I usually spray black just because I prefer black to white spray. I then paint using White Leather. Then for the darker colors I add a drop of Shadowstone Grey and Drifwood brown to the Leather White. Mixing the Grey and Brown can give a really neutral transition. Then add a couple more drops of each and so on depending how dark you want to get. By using the Leather white, you can still use Pure White as highlight points on the armor.