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Hi,

I am in the process of painting a white templar army. I use airbrush only for basecoating and creating shadows. I have finally found my way to work to pure white from black with (for my level) OK shadows, highlights, etc.

1. Basecoat Black
2. Highligh with pure white
3. Blend the white areas into the black with a midtone coat of a light grey.

But here's the problem: I use vallejo pure white ("dead white") as the brightest color and even though i dillute it heavily it still comes out chalky and makes transitions look flaky. This is not uncommon I guess and since i go with grey over the white it is not a huge problem. But I still wonder if there are less flaky pure white colors out there? Or any tips to avoid the flaky look?

Thanks!

Never use pure white outside of highlight. You're going good from priming black and work its way to white, you need 2 mid tone grey in there, then highlight to white.

I started prime black, heavy drybrush Vallejo german grey, light drybrush GW eshin grey, codex grey, adminstratum grey, highlight skull white.

Airbrushing, ideally, you should use a light grey or white base, preshade down with dark grey / black / brown / whatever, then redo the grey-to-white transition as filter coats. If you're going to use oils (very recommended) go lighter than you might normally, as the oils will filter the tone back down.

For airbrushing large areas, I still think Tamiya paints are best (you want some greys and white, and plenty of thinner).

Thanks guys!

I tried using off-white grey tones but i prefer the look of pure white for a fresh clean look. Grey always looks grey to me, beige is always beige. Also I found that the off-white colors have similar issues with slight flakyness. Even in a 50-50 mix. BTW I use Vallejo Air.

I'll update this thread with a picture later.

Your Titan looks awesome, no doubt, but especially the white decals make it clear for the eye (or maybe only my eye) that the body is not white.

I might give Tamiya colors a try, a shop nearby sells them.

Hi Klaus,

I've had the same problem with air brushing white (or any paints that seem to contain a bit of white) so can appreciate your frustration here.

I've tried a few different brands of white, and they all exhibit similar performance. I don't know if its something to do with the pigment used to create these paints, but when I'm air brushing white over something, the transition is never as smooth as other colours. The best one for me was actually a thinned down P3 Morrow White.

However, the best tip I found on this was from one of Buy Painted's YouTube videos where he said to never go this way when air brushing (going from a darker colour to white). I think it was a video where he was doing a force sword with the usual transition of dark blue to white, and he explained you get a much better result if you get the white base down first, then shade down.

I found this takes more control to do properly, as you have to make sure you get the shadows in the correct areas, but this has helped me get better transitions from white to a shade colour.

So in short, I'd recommend shading down from white, rather than trying to highlight up to it.

Hope that helps

White (preshade with sky grey, relayer with sky grey/white mixes):

(Pic taken long before I got decent photo lighting; it's slightly (to my eye) yellowish. In the flesh it's blue-shifted slightly.

Klaus von Groehm wrote:
Thanks guys!

I tried using off-white grey tones but i prefer the look of pure white for a fresh clean look. Grey always looks grey to me, beige is always beige. Also I found that the off-white colors have similar issues with slight flakyness. Even in a 50-50 mix. BTW I use Vallejo Air.

I'll update this thread with a picture later.

Your Titan looks awesome, no doubt, but especially the white decals make it clear for the eye (or maybe only my eye) that the body is not white.

I might give Tamiya colors a try, a shop nearby sells them.

If you want white "white" then the best way is to start with white primer, but not overly cover all the model, let some of the grey plastic in crevasse as shading, work your way from mid tone grey to white. Carefully use ink or oil for high contrast crevasse, fix any mishap with chipping weathering effect. Winter dyne has a quite nice example above.

If you have an airbrush I'd just prime it white or an off white, do a bit of preshading, then hit it with a few airbrushed layers of off white followed up by a layer of pure white (if you like that pure white look),

If you're not using an airbrush, I'd still follow a similar regime, paint it white or off white, hit the crevices with a shade and then do some nice thin layers to blend any transitions and then hit the edges with a pure white highlight. By starting with a white primer you reduce the chance of it going chalky.

or hairy brush painting white I've been liking enamels more and more. Still start with an acrylic white basecoat/primer, but then use an enamel for your shading so you can blend the edges and filter your shade colour over the rest of the model using white spirit.

Klaus von Groehm wrote:
Thanks guys!

I tried using off-white grey tones but i prefer the look of pure white for a fresh clean look. Grey always looks grey to me, beige is always beige. Also I found that the off-white colors have similar issues with slight flakyness. Even in a 50-50 mix. BTW I use Vallejo Air.

I certainly understand what you're saying, but I think that in order to solve your issue you are going to need to experiment more with non-white options. Pure white as anything more than a highlight can be very problematic. I've pretty much stopped using it altogether for anything but the highest of highlights. My favorite non-white whites are colors like Celestra Grey in the Citadel line and Wolf Grey in Vallejo Color. Very similar cool grays. P3's Menoth colors are good for warmer whites. The trick to fooling the eye that they are white and not beige or grey is to start light and work lighter.

I find mixing some retardant (Vallejo) in with the white helps avoid chalkiness.

Sorry, was gone for a while. FYI here's what I am doing now (basecoat stage prior to highlight and wash, gakky phone cam). I am happy with the brightness of the White and grey shade. Going from black allows me to leave dark shadow areas ... dark, I can still go and edge highlight in white as well.

In the photos the white looks more grainy than it does in real life but I am still annoyed by the grainyness of the white. It would be so much easier with a smooth white that I can use to highlight instead of adjusting with the Grey over White.