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Can it be done? And if so how? I found a collection of khorne chaos space marines (30 berzerkers) in car boot sale, they however are sprayed black and I want to paint them white, how would i go about this?

I normally paint over black.

Vallejo Game Colour heavy blue grey as a base. Covers nicely over the black.

Add white (VGC dead white) to it and layer up. 3-4 layers is normally enough for a nice transition. Do not go to pure white.

Use more white (just off pure) for edges, and pure white for very extremes.

That's for a 'cool' (blue/grey) white.

You can go for a colder white by using VMC blue grey as a base and going up through something like VGC wolf grey.

You can do warmer whites by running through something like Panzer Aces Light Mud (it's a very opaque bleached bone colour) up through to VGC Ivory, with added pure white (VGC dead white) for edges and extremes.

A lot of the Tyranids in my gallery were primed black (bought 2nd hand) and I just sprayed straight over them with white primer to get the white basecoat I needed to paint the bone colour on them. Not ideal but it works.

You could also strip them, but I personally am not a fan of stripping unless the models are so thickly coated in paint it's going to cause me problems OR if it's a display model that I intend to paint awesomely.

Absolutely possible. Just need a bit of patience and to go about it the right way.

Basically build up from Grey. I start with Vallejo Game Colour Stonewall Grey, then VGC Ghosty Grey, then P3 Morrow white and then Vallejo Model Colour White. 3 - 4 appropriately thinned layers of each (maybe a couple more for the basecoat and you'll get a very good white over a black basecoat.

Edited to add pictorial example:

Spyro_Killer wrote:
Can it be done? And if so how? I found a collection of khorne chaos space marines (30 berzerkers) in car boot sale, they however are sprayed black and I want to paint them white, how would i go about this?

woah you should strip them first then spray them white. Are they plastic or metal?

You might be able to get away with spraying white primer right over the top? Would save a lot of time, rather than adding layers of white over black.

However, if you stick with the black primer, just use something like Celestra Grey over the top. It will cover nicely, and give you a nice base to work up from.

I usually go Celestra Grey - Ulthuan Grey - White Scar when doing white detail on black armour (Death Company etc.)

^ Agree with him, try and squeeze some white primer over it. Hold the can pretty away and do thins layers and see what it looks like if it will dry. If its looks like the current primer on there is thick. Adding layers upon layers or Celestra Grey and then white won't make it any better,