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I've started working on a CSM army, specifically a Word Bearers warband, but...

Red. It shows up fairly vibrantly in these pictures, which is frustrating, but looking at them I can see the primer underneath. It seems like no matter how much or how little I thin my paints (or how many layers I do), the red shrinks towards the edges and refuses to cover the center.

Is there something I'm missing? I've heard red is hard to get good coverage with, but this is ridiculous.

Yeah, red, yellow, and white are pretty much the worst. Honestly, the best way I've found to get good red coverage is spray or airbrush. If you slop it on, you have brush strokes and detail loss. If you thin it down too much, it takes a zillion coats to get it right.

If getting a cheapo AB from like, harbor freight or some such is out of the question, best bet is to keep up the light thin coats, but maybe don't prime in black. Try a red or white primer instead. Eventually, the coats WILL cover it all, just use targeted brush strokes. Good luck!!!

Zillion coats approach is tops. If you want a red army, that's your best approach.

Another idea, undercoat your models white, glaze them with GW'S glaze red and then paint 'em in a thinned coat of your colour of choice.

It works wonders, and it's always one level.

Ways to get even red on minis:

1) airbrush. a bit spendy and most people wont have this tool.

2) red primer first, like army painter. expensive primer but helps a ton to get an even smooth red.

3) base in a redbrown color first, like vermin brown (or whatever the new color is) then do 2 or 3 thin coats of red over it.

Army Painter do a good spray primer coat for red. Also as mentioned red requires layers but try not to load your brush down(don't thin it down too much) and when brushing it on spread it out evenly .


Eavy metal tutorial below :

http://taleofpainters.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/tutorial-how-to-paint-like-eavy-metal_25.html

try GW khorne red. no coverage complaints at all. and if you thin it with a medium it can have good transparency too. GW really got it right with that one.

I just painted my first full red mini. It was the mail-order limited cpt I did him up as a BA cpt. I started with mephisto red base slighted thinned I, washed in crimson shade and I blending out the armour in evil suns scarlet layer and the old blazing orange for extreme highlights. Came out a treat one of my best painted models I think.

Post up you paint list may help.

Ps. I also under paint, it helps colour schemes with high transparence, spray model black then spray White as a dusting from above, slightly angled forward, rotating the model to get a dappled costing of White as if the White is sun light falling down onto the model.

I am about to start doing some test models for Blood Angels, these are the 4 methods I will test out to see what is best;

Method 1
Fire red base
tank brown + scarlet red shadows
italian red highlight
Scarlet red final highlight
red ink wash

Method 2
Black Primer
German Red Brown Primer Zenithal 1
German Dark Yellow Primer Zenithal 2
VMA Red basecoat
VMC Amarantha Red zenithal

Method 3
Black primer
German red brown zenithal
Fire red base
burnt umber shadows
light red zenithal

Method 4
Scipio's glaze idea

Those seem to be the most common ways that I can find to do it (I will be using an airbrush), so I want to find what works for me.

I use Halford's red oxide primer:
Early stage -


Finished model -

I'm getting good results for red and yellow by painting a mid to light grey first and 2-3 layers.

(I'm using coat d arms and army painter paints)

Use a 50/50 mix of Abaddon/Chaos/Undercoat black (I use the old foundation Undercoat Black) and Mephiston Red. ITs a dark/greyish red but works wonders for building up to brighter layers.

I've had good experience with Armypainter pure red primer. 2000 pts of good experience.

It is very bright but you can use washes to tone it down after.I use the dipping method so I chose a bright red primer. They have a darker red primer too.

I finally settled on a red I like for my Blood Ravens after much experimenting. Sadly this involves painting almost completely unassembled to prevent overspray which is a pain but worth it I find.

1. Prime Vallejo polyurethane white primer with airbrush
2. Basecoat with Minitaire Nebula or Angelic red (I forget off hand) using airbrush.
3. Highlight from above with VMA light red using airbrush.
4. Shade from underneath with VMA hull red using airbrush.
5. Wash all over with Secret Weapon ruby wash.

I'm not a great painter, getting red to look good by brush is doable but so much easier with an airbrush.

 Scipio Africanus wrote:
Zillion coats approach is tops. If you want a red army, that's your best approach.

Another idea, undercoat your models white, glaze them with GW'S glaze red and then paint 'em in a thinned coat of your colour of choice.

It works wonders, and it's always one level.

This works nicely like Scipio says. You can even add a step of light grey shading (really nice with an airbrush) before the glaze if so inspired. It is quick and effective.

I have to admit, these responses are kind of disheartening I was hoping I was just missing some obvious trick...
My budget is pretty limited, so an airbrush isn't really an option, nor is buying more paints. I appreciate all the responses, but some of them aren't helpful for that reason.

 Zognob Gorgoff wrote:
I just painted my first full red mini. It was the mail-order limited cpt I did him up as a BA cpt. I started with mephisto red base slighted thinned I, washed in crimson shade and I blending out the armour in evil suns scarlet layer and the old blazing orange for extreme highlights. Came out a treat one of my best painted models I think.

Post up you paint list may help.

Ps. I also under paint, it helps colour schemes with high transparence, spray model black then spray White as a dusting from above, slightly angled forward, rotating the model to get a dappled costing of White as if the White is sun light falling down onto the model.

All my paints are Army Painter - the only red I have is Pure Red (I also have Blazing Orange, and quite a few others that aren't applicable.) Should I be basecoating with a darker red first and then brightening it up with layers of pure red?

 Scipio Africanus wrote:
Zillion coats approach is tops. If you want a red army, that's your best approach.

Another idea, undercoat your models white, glaze them with GW'S glaze red and then paint 'em in a thinned coat of your colour of choice.

It works wonders, and it's always one level.

I'm nowhere near patient enough for zillion coats, I'm afraid. I'd much rather pick a different color scheme than stick with one that I can't stand painting. I'll be sure to try that tip, however... is a glaze a wash? I have Army Painter's colored washes, red included.

I've got one Army Painter paint and I don't use it. very bad coverage. I've tried Army painter spray and I found it very hit and miss
A GW Base red will cover white undercoat just fine and even cover black
on my BAs I based them with a dark redy brown over a black undercoats and blended up with Maphiston red