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Being relatively new to this game this might be a bit of a noob question, but why are white paints awful to work with?
I have quite a few different shades by Citadel and Vallejo and both just seem like the pigment grains are a bit too big (almost like metallics), don't have this problem with any of the other shades.
Are there any whites out there that people would recommend?

It's better to use an off white as the basis for white, then highlight with white! If that makes sense!
Light grey, such as Vallejo's 'Sky Grey' is a good base colour for white.
On it's own I don't think you'll get a white that has good coverage unless you do multiple coats, and even then it'll still look streaky.

Vallejo whites are my go to. I tend not to like citadel white but never had any issue with vmc. Whites do need lots of smooth thin layers to come up nice though so don't dismiss them without a little practice.

I tried a lot of whites before being happy, it’s a bugger to paint with. Green stuff worlds nuclear white is quite good. Also I watched a video on you tube of someone painting with FW white acrylic ink and I I got some and I would probably use. More than white acrylic paint. Because it’s an ink it doesn’t have the pigment issue you have described but still has good coverage.

Also look at the apothecary white contrast paint. Basically the best advice for painting in white is try lots of different approaches to see what works for you

Thanks all, I've ordered a bottle of white ink to give it a try

 maxwin wrote:
Being relatively new to this game this might be a bit of a noob question, but why are white paints awful to work with?
I have quite a few different shades by Citadel and Vallejo and both just seem like the pigment grains are a bit too big (almost like metallics), don't have this problem with any of the other shades.
Are there any whites out there that people would recommend?

From 'The Science of Paint' on Warhammer Community (emphasis added):

You know when we said colour is the art, and bases are the science? We weren’t telling the whole truth. Some colours have unique properties which make them difficult to pin down, with white paint being the most tricky to nail.

Pigment is made by grinding down chemical compounds. Each chemical compound has a minimum size it can be reduced to, with black pigment being the smallest, and white pigment – or titanium dioxide – being the largest. As such, pure white paint can appear clumpy or struggle to provide good coverage.

When we make white paints, we mix them with pigments of other colours to increase their coverage and smoothness, as pure white can lead to a bumpy or rough surface texture.

Thanks a lot Ghaz!
I'm guessing the ink will suffer from the same problem, find out in a few days

White ink is pretty good to use as it is thin and is opaque out of the bottle and can be thinned even further if you want to reduce the opacity which is good for brush painting and airbrushing. Thinning normal white paint ends up with graininess/chalkiness that you don't get with ink. And if you really want, you can mix white paint into ink to improve the flow of the paint which makes edge highlighting a joy with a normally annoying colour of paint to work with.

I have heard heavy body acrylic titanium white is excellent due to the consistency as well but I've not tried that.

Games workshops corax white is pretty good

Thanks for the comments, my order of Liquitex Acrylic Ink just arrived and I'm already converted, goes on smooth and even when thinned down doesn't turn grainy.

For what it's worth Lordblackmanethe2nd it was Corax white I was using when I decided to post this question

 maxwin wrote:
Thanks for the comments, my order of Liquitex Acrylic Ink just arrived and I'm already converted, goes on smooth and even when thinned down doesn't turn grainy.

For what it's worth Lordblackmanethe2nd it was Corax white I was using when I decided to post this question

Glad you got some good advice. I also have had terrible times with corax but there are people out there that have taken the time to learn how to use these paints well and get excellent results. I expect Lordblackmanethe2nd Is one of them, I am not haha

When using white, never use white.

The science of white is complex. But suffice to say our eyes will call something white if it is white compared to the surrounding colors.

So when doing white, the first thing you do pick if you want a warm, cold, or neutral white.

Cold Whites are bluish.

Warm Whites are yellow/brownish/tannish or pinkish.

Neutral Whites are grey, which trend towards blueish but there are some fairly neutral greys.

So "pure" white should only be used for extreme highlights, everything else should be some kind of shade of "off white". Your eyes will tell you it's white, even when it is greyish or blueish or tan.

Vajello Ghost Grey is my go-to for whites. I only use whites to highlight panel edges. Does this look white enough?

They are pretty white
Though I'm not trying to paint white objects, I was trying to push the bright parts of these chrome pipes to 'sell' the effect more, but definitely a +1 for the ink.

Um, yeah. I would say that works pretty dang well.