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I am painting a griffon with white tail feathers. I was wondering whether there was an easy way to shade the feathers? I am guessing that my usual practise of nuln oil/earthshade washing is not going to work too well and was looking for any advice.

Thin down a grey to the point that it's a wash? Maybe thinner than a standard wash so it only pools in the recesses and leaves the outer bits white.

I've found doing my raven-feathered Eldar that adding in a blob of gloss into the mix works really nicely for feathers (and I'm fairly certain that most GW washes have an element of gloss to them as well).

Take another paint that complements the scheme of the miniature and dilute it with Lahmian Medium (or equivalent) and apply it as a wash using a small brush for better control.

For feathers, I think they pop more if you build up the color with dry brushing instead of relying on washes.

On the Reaper Bones Griffon, I started with a tan base, and then did an ivory dry brush, and a light pure white dry brush:

Depends on the feathers.

You can take a black wash and thin it down further so it doesn't make it look too dirty. I use a couple of drops of wash, 1 drop of Vallejo flow improver and a couple of drops of water to make extra-thin washes, can also add a bit of lahmian medium if you want.

You can do a couple of applications and then a light drybrush to bring it back a bit.

I agree on the Drybrush.
Washes work well on feathers that are darker, but for lighter colored feathers, you really should be drybrushing.

 Galef wrote:
I agree on the Drybrush.
Washes work well on feathers that are darker, but for lighter colored feathers, you really should be drybrushing.

Dry brushing is also a bit easier to control, where you can dry brush just the tips/edges of a feather easier than washing just the root.

I'd tinker with both, see what you like.

Vajilio (how ever you spell it) do a 'pale grey' wash, don't have pics up but used it on various Bretonnian models for the pegasus - white primer that then a light white dry brush and done.

As the name suggests its a pale grey wash, works very well directly over white without looking dirty

Personally, how i like to do white feathers, Paint them in fenrisien gray, a blue gray, wash in drakenof night shade, blue wash, then dry brush with Palyd witch flesh.


Probably spelled all those names wrong, but still.

Comes out with a nice white feathers with a dark blue shading/undertone.

I've got a Vallejo model grey wash for this kind of thing but it seems to have bits of dried dark grey paint floating around in it, so I haven't used it since I first tried. Maybe I'm not shaking it enough, or doing something else wrong

I'd possibly try putting a thin grey glaze/wash over white, and then giving a light drybrush of white over the top of that, particularly at the edges of the feathers/wings

 Polonius wrote:

 Galef wrote:
I agree on the Drybrush.
Washes work well on feathers that are darker, but for lighter colored feathers, you really should be drybrushing.

Dry brushing is also a bit easier to control, where you can dry brush just the tips/edges of a feather easier than washing just the root.

I'd tinker with both, see what you like.

If you thin your washes down a bit more like I suggested you can focus them a bit better.

I think you want to do both, use a well thinned down wash then drybrush to bring back the highlights.