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Hi Guys,

Just started my ultramarine army and got myself some Sternguard.
I am having a bit of trouble with the shoulder pad trim and helmet.
No matter what I do I just cant seem to get s solid coat of white and by the time ive put 3/4 coats on the detail starts to go.
Does anyone have any advice on paints/base colour/ order etc?
Any help would be much appreciated.

I'm struggling to at the minute with.white. I hear airbrushes are good for it but as you seem to be starting out, correct me if I'm wrong however, all I can suggest is to do what I don't have patience for- water the paint down and do them one coat at a tine, keeping the gradient as smooth as possible.

For example, maybe start with a white spray, base Celestra grey, then a 1:1 mix of Celestra and the next grey up, maybe Ulthuan, then on to pure Ulthuan, then 2:1 ulthuan:Skull wjite, then.maybe 1:1, then maybe 1:2. Then White for final highlights.

Working up from black primer I use Celestia grey, then two thin coats of Ulthuan grey and highlight the edges with White Scar. They're nice paints to work with and it's perfect for shoulder guards and little 'U' symbols.
The helmet technique I use is a bit different; again, black primer, but then Dawnstone, Nuln Oil wash, Ulthuan grey, leaving the wash in the recesses, again, White Scar highlight.

First off dont use GW white. Use vallejo or army painters. Much more pigments in it.

IIRC from when I did mine, I used space wolf grey (I think) with a white dry brush. I'm not sure what the modern equivalents would be. The "grey" I used is really a very pale blueish-grey. I also paint my Ultras darker then the norm, so there is more contrast to help things pop. I did take some work to get a result I liked, I remember that much.

Yeah im jut starting out so its all a bit confusing for me. Im priming black because i like the blues to come out darker to give a more aggressive look. So Prime black and then go over with some grey and then white? Sounds good in theory to increase the lightness layer by layer.
thanks for all the help guys

saaywhu wrote:
First off dont use GW white. Use vallejo or army painters. Much more pigments in it.

I thought Ceramite White was a pretty good white with a lot of pigment to it? I had some success with it especially with painting over darker colors and getting good coverage. The old Skull White used to be really chalky. Ceramite and Leadbelcher are the 2 colors at my local GW supplier that are usually sold out.

This may sound strange, a good way to paint white is to use it quite watered down, more watered than you may think.
get a nice application of the watered down white loaded onto your brush then run it across some tissue paper, this removes alot of the liquid and leave a nice coat of pigment, it requires several thin coats, but due to absorbing a lot of the liquid into the tissue, these thin coats dry really fast, This is how i do white shoulders myself, it was something i picked up from a NMM video i watched quite a while ago (guy was painting sanguinors armour NMM but he used his white like this for the wings) i will see if i can locate the video.


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similar to this, but not to this extent of water/paint ratio
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSOt8QINtK0