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The last 2 GW whites I bought ceramite and white scare seemed to be thicker and quickly formed large globs is there any way to know if it's the pot is in bad shape before you buy it or is there a way to extend the life of these paints?

Ceramite white is one of their "base range" - the replacement for the foundation paints. Heavier pigment density, so therefore a thicker paint formulation.

They intend you to use them as "Base","layer", "shade", etc.

I've not used any of them personally. The price point per pot just wasn't in my price range.

Ceramite White is rubbish. I've got a solid selection of the new GW paints, and it's not like the others - it's a globby near-unusable mess. Grab some vallejo or army painter instead.

I had a pot of ceramite white that dried out as well. I imagine you could put a few drops of retarder and thinner in the bottle to slow it clumping up and drying out, but then it probably won't cover as well either.

If you transfer it to a different pot it'll probably last longer, but I've never really seen the point in doing that unless you really LOVE the paint. I'd rather just buy a paint that comes in a different pot from the beginning to save money and time.

White is one of those colours I rarely ever paint directly on to a model with a hairy brush. I might spray pure white as an undercoat or airbrush it on.

Don't get me wrong, I use white a lot, but it's almost always mixed with another colour or as a highlight, not as a hairy brushed base coat.

Because of that for a while now I've just been using Vallejo Model Air's white. I find it to be pretty much the consistency I like for hairy brush painting anyway.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Azazelx wrote:
Ceramite White is rubbish. I've got a solid selection of the new GW paints, and it's not like the others - it's a globby near-unusable mess. Grab some vallejo or army painter instead.

My Ceramite White was fine when I bought it, I used it maybe half a dozen times and it was fine. Put it on my shelf for a few months and came back and it was almost solid. I probably could have saved it if I tried but I couldn't be bothered and just binned it, I'm sick of fighting with GW's paints drying out.

Mine isn't dried out, and I put some medium in there to loosen it up a little, but frankly, it's still globby, and just bad paint. Not worth the time.

I only bought it on the strength of how good a few of the other base colours are. I'm a huge fan of the current reds.

GW whites are dire.

Ceramite white used to be a part of my process, but I've ditched it for Vallejo Game Colour Ghosty Grey. It's an almost white.

That then gets covered with Vallejo Model Colour White, which is the best, most vibrant white I've ever used.

That ceramite white wrecked one of my W&N S7 brushes. I think it might be white in general though. Some chemicals in there which ruin hair. Not had a problem with drying out, but the consistency of it is clumpy,not that i use it anymore.

 Azazelx wrote:
Mine isn't dried out, and I put some medium in there to loosen it up a little, but frankly, it's still globby, and just bad paint. Not worth the time.

I only bought it on the strength of how good a few of the other base colours are. I'm a huge fan of the current reds.

I never really had any problems with it being globby until it dried out. It does dry fast so you have to watch for that, but I really liked it when I first used it, right up until it dried in to a thick paste and I couldn't be bothered trying to fix it because of how quickly it happened.

White is often a troublesome paint. Vallejo Game Colour is the best I've come across.

Ceramite White is pretty good, it's just a good idea to add a little bit of water to the pot every time you use it to keep things flowing.

Ceramate White is poop, but I think White Scar is pretty decent. A little bit of matte medium added will help smoothen it out if it's a bit "chunky" and it doesn't mix well when shaken. I wouldn't use the white base anyway. I'd use Celestra Grey and highlight it with white. It's hard to highlight straight white and make it look good.

My Ceramite White and Celestra Grey were both unusable right from the time I opened them. I just got back into wargaming with about $100 worth of Citadel paints and most of them are going to be in the trash within a Month of purchase. I like certain things about the paints, but they arrived half dry and the rest are drying up almost instantly. Most of the paint is pretty decent, but the shoddy pots completely ruin it. It probably sells them more paint, as people replace dried up paints, but I just bought mine three weeks ago and several are already dying before my eyes. The metallics and shades are excellent. Everything else isn't worth the price. I am using some Reaper paints and they are much smoother and more consistent. I also have quite a bit of experience with Vallejo from my past. I wish I had gone straight to the brands that work before wasting money on the GW stuff. Ceramite White was like a lump of Jello when I opened it and even thinning with distilled water hasn't made it work that well. To add insult to injury, I have to strip a set of Dark Angels tactical marines because it globbed up on the shoulder insignia while drying. I have never seen paint do that before. I will try to get my hands on the Vallejo white, although the Reaper white seems to be working much better than the Citadel too. It has been a very frustrating return to my old hobby..

White paints are notoriously problematic. I was given a pot of the OLD old (but no quite ancient) Skull White (hex pot with the black lid) that had the consistency of cheesecake. Water, stirring (the combination repeated, ad nauseum), more water, and vigorous shaking got it back in working order.

I fear you'll have at least some trouble with any white paint you use, but your description makes me think that the GW whites are even more troublesome than many of the alternatives. If you're strapped for cash, just beat the out of the paint and hope for the best. If not, replace the pot and never look back.

so no matter what white you get from what ever company, its going to be chalky and chunky, this is just because of the way white pigments work and how white paint works, there is not getting around it.

MY ADVICE, for what thats worth, never use pure white for anything other then the highest highlight on a piece of gem like or glass surfaces.

Use a color called Palid witch flesh, its an off white, runs much smoother like any of the other paints, and you would not be able to tell its not white unless some one told you.

 Backspacehacker wrote:
so no matter what white you get from what ever company, its going to be chalky and chunky, this is just because of the way white pigments work and how white paint works, there is not getting around it.


Use a color called Palid witch flesh, its an off white, runs much smoother like any of the other paints, and you would not be able to tell its not white unless some one told you.

Couldn't disagree more with the underlined. Vallejo Model Colour White and Reaper Master Series Pure White both work wonderfully. As long as you thin them to the right consistency and apply them with the requisite care (as with any paint) they'll go on like a dream, just have to do a few more layers than with other colours.


Pallid Wych flesh only works if you want a particular kind of off white and as someone who paints white a lot, it's clearly not white even without being told.

There are all sorts of off whites out there, these are just the ones I have in my collection:

Vallejo Game Colour-
Ghosty Grey which is a very cold not-quite-white
Glacier Blue is (surprisingly enough) a blue tinged almost white.
Wolf Grey is somewhere between the two.

Vallejo Model Colour-
Ivory is a slightly Creamy off white.

 sockwithaticket wrote:

 Backspacehacker wrote:
so no matter what white you get from what ever company, its going to be chalky and chunky, this is just because of the way white pigments work and how white paint works, there is not getting around it.


Use a color called Palid witch flesh, its an off white, runs much smoother like any of the other paints, and you would not be able to tell its not white unless some one told you.

Couldn't disagree more with the underlined. Vallejo Model Colour White and Reaper Master Series Pure White both work wonderfully. As long as you thin them to the right consistency and apply them with the requisite care (as with any paint) they'll go on like a dream, just have to do a few more layers than with other colours.


Pallid Wych flesh only works if you want a particular kind of off white and as someone who paints white a lot, it's clearly not white even without being told.

There are all sorts of off whites out there, these are just the ones I have in my collection:

Vallejo Game Colour-
Ghosty Grey which is a very cold not-quite-white
Glacier Blue is (surprisingly enough) a blue tinged almost white.
Wolf Grey is somewhere between the two.

Vallejo Model Colour-
Ivory is a slightly Creamy off white.

Ill give you that, Vallejo colors are better.

I meant comparison to other paints, white is always going to be chalky, respectively to their other paints from the same range.

That said, you wont really be able to tell palid whitch flesh from white unless you directly point it out, or say it, and if you put it next to a dark color, IE a dark green, red, or black, its going to look a hell of a lot brighter, and you wont know one way or the other, unless again, you say, hey this is not pure white.

Im talking only GW paints, since most of the time thats what people who are still new to painting end up working with first, especially if they are doing 40k stuff haha. So assumed he was using only GW stuff

Agree to disagree on the Wych flesh, I wouldn't be fooled, but then pure white is a huge part of my DIY colour scheme.

The second part of my post was more a 'to the room' kind of comment as a not using pure white.except as a highlight has come up before, usually with Celestra Grey being mentioned; sorry if it felt targetted.

All white acrylics for models from any brand are complete garbage. I was struggling painting white with: Vallejo, Lifecolor, Citadel, Revell... all crap.Even Tamiya. I followed a couple of tutorials for painting one, one included coats of gray before apply the white, but still the result is a gak paint job.

I am willing to try P3 white colors. Can you guys let me know if they are ok?

I've just used 2 thin coats of Celestra Grey when I've wanted to apply white to an area, followed up by 2 coats of Ulthuan Grey - both are much smoother paints that can then be amplified with highlights of White Scar if you wish to, since they aren't flat out white. Kinda makes Ceramite White a pointless paint in the Citadel range imo, since Celestra Grey is a base paint too.

Reaper Master Series, white leather. Best white on the market in my opinion. I swear by it.

 chromedog wrote:
Ceramite white is one of their "base range" - the replacement for the foundation paints. Heavier pigment density, so therefore a thicker paint formulation.

They intend you to use them as "Base","layer", "shade", etc.
I've not used any of them personally. The price point per pot just wasn't in my price range.

i feel like all the paints are about 3 to 4 bucks for the same amount.... what paints are you using?

 sockwithaticket wrote:
Agree to disagree on the Wych flesh, I wouldn't be fooled, but then pure white is a huge part of my DIY colour scheme.

It probably shouldn't be a huge part. Pure white looks unnatural because in the real world white is almost never that bright. There's almost always some amount of tint or shade, whether it's from shadows, dirt/stains, etc. And if you're doing edge highlighting as the "standard" GW style making the base color a pure white takes away your ability to do any highlighting. You almost always want to use an off-white shade for the base color and save the pure white for the very brightest highlights.

 sockwithaticket wrote:
Agree to disagree on the Wych flesh, I wouldn't be fooled, but then pure white is a huge part of my DIY colour scheme.

The second part of my post was more a 'to the room' kind of comment as a not using pure white.except as a highlight has come up before, usually with Celestra Grey being mentioned; sorry if it felt targetted.

IM FEELING SO TARGETED AND TRIGGERED RIGHT NOW!!!!!!

Nah man its all good, if im wrong correct me if im wrong.

 Peregrine wrote:

 sockwithaticket wrote:
Agree to disagree on the Wych flesh, I wouldn't be fooled, but then pure white is a huge part of my DIY colour scheme.

It probably shouldn't be a huge part. Pure white looks unnatural because in the real world white is almost never that bright. There's almost always some amount of tint or shade, whether it's from shadows, dirt/stains, etc. And if you're doing edge highlighting as the "standard" GW style making the base color a pure white takes away your ability to do any highlighting. You almost always want to use an off-white shade for the base color and save the pure white for the very brightest highlights.

Unless you want something that looks like it was painted white, in which case painting it white isn't necessarily a bad idea (then perhaps weathering and shading it as needed).

AllSeeingSkink wrote:

 Peregrine wrote:

 sockwithaticket wrote:
Agree to disagree on the Wych flesh, I wouldn't be fooled, but then pure white is a huge part of my DIY colour scheme.

It probably shouldn't be a huge part. Pure white looks unnatural because in the real world white is almost never that bright. There's almost always some amount of tint or shade, whether it's from shadows, dirt/stains, etc. And if you're doing edge highlighting as the "standard" GW style making the base color a pure white takes away your ability to do any highlighting. You almost always want to use an off-white shade for the base color and save the pure white for the very brightest highlights.

Unless you want something that looks like it was painted white, in which case painting it white isn't necessarily a bad idea (then perhaps weathering and shading it as needed).

This as well, IE for banners, i purposely use pure white, because i want it to look painted on.

AllSeeingSkink wrote:
Unless you want something that looks like it was painted white, in which case painting it white isn't necessarily a bad idea (then perhaps weathering and shading it as needed).

Even then you don't want a pure white. When I said that pure white is rare in the real world I was including things that are painted white. No matter how pure the original white you paint something with is you're still going to have dirt, shadows, etc. Painting it pure white on the model is going to look unnaturally flat and bright because those dirt/shadow effects don't translate to a 28mm scale model. So you always use a subtle off-white with pure white for the highlights at most. Your eye will "read" it a a pure white object because you automatically compensate for the shading in interpreting the "real" color.

And yeah, you can weather and shade, but that's a completely backwards way of doing it. If an off-white shade is much easier to get a clean coat with then why would you spend a lot of time painting large areas of pure white and then add weathering or shading that brings it back down to an off-white? That's a lot of work for no real gain.

 Peregrine wrote:

AllSeeingSkink wrote:
Unless you want something that looks like it was painted white, in which case painting it white isn't necessarily a bad idea (then perhaps weathering and shading it as needed).

Even then you don't want a pure white. When I said...

Yeah I know what you meant, and it's good advice for newbies to not automatically paint something they think is white with pure white.... in the end it's an artistic choice which some people make intentionally and not by accident.

For example, you might want the stark contrast.

Or you might have other parts of the model that are slightly off-white and so you want to increase the separation between the off-white areas and the white areas.

Or you might want a more cartoonish look.

Or you might want it to look like a marking that has just recently been painted/white washed/etc.

And yeah, you can weather and shade, but that's a completely backwards way of doing it. If an off-white shade is much easier to get a clean coat with then why would you spend a lot of time painting large areas of pure white and then add weathering or shading that brings it back down to an off-white? That's a lot of work for no real gain.

It's not completely backward. It depends on the particular circumstance. I wouldn't try building white up on top of other colours with hairy brushing just to weather it back down, yeah, that would be a bit of work for little gain. But I have in the past just primed white, go over it with a heavily thinned white hairy brushed on and then weather it down. It would be more work to paint it an off white over the white primer and then try and bring the edges back up to a pure white.

With military vehicles I'm often masking off the area to do the markings, so I just airbrush it with pure white and then it gets weathered along with the rest of the model.

Often the filter, oil wash, powder, etc that I'm using to weather the white is the same I'm using for the rest of the model to tie together the colour palette of the model, so starting with an off white and then weathering it ends up too far off.

 Peregrine wrote:

 sockwithaticket wrote:
Agree to disagree on the Wych flesh, I wouldn't be fooled, but then pure white is a huge part of my DIY colour scheme.

It probably shouldn't be a huge part. Pure white looks unnatural because in the real world white is almost never that bright. There's almost always some amount of tint or shade, whether it's from shadows, dirt/stains, etc. And if you're doing edge highlighting as the "standard" GW style making the base color a pure white takes away your ability to do any highlighting. You almost always want to use an off-white shade for the base color and save the pure white for the very brightest highlights.

Well you tell me based on a couple of examples:




I also do the shading after painting the white (shock horror).

Personally, I think I should be using largely pure white in that scheme. It's an effective part of the high contrast, super-clean style I like for my marinesand often draws compliments

 sockwithaticket wrote:

 Peregrine wrote:

 sockwithaticket wrote:
Agree to disagree on the Wych flesh, I wouldn't be fooled, but then pure white is a huge part of my DIY colour scheme.

It probably shouldn't be a huge part. Pure white looks unnatural because in the real world white is almost never that bright. There's almost always some amount of tint or shade, whether it's from shadows, dirt/stains, etc. And if you're doing edge highlighting as the "standard" GW style making the base color a pure white takes away your ability to do any highlighting. You almost always want to use an off-white shade for the base color and save the pure white for the very brightest highlights.

Well you tell me based on a couple of examples:




I also do the shading after painting the white (shock horror).

Personally, I think I should be using largely pure white in that scheme. It's an effective part of the high contrast, super-clean style I like for my marines and often draws compliments

While it is very clean and well done, I agree with Peregrine that an off white will suit better than the flat white you have done on these; that high contrast overwhelms a lot of the detail on other parts of the model, and looks comparatively odd next to all the parts that have highlights. Shame really as the rest of the model also looks fantastic.

But hey, each to their own about how best to paint a mini, especially regarding their own collection. However, such a technique that you employ using flat out white is not one that I see often. Well, of the white I see at all, of course - a lot of people seem to avoid it like the plague until they learn it's really not that hard to do.


EDIT: I believe the purpose of Ceramite White is to base areas of a model you undercoated in a dark colour that you want to be a bright colour, such as yellow; I saw this in Warhammer TV's latest tutorial on Deathwatch Veterans, where Ceramite White was laid down as a base for Yriel Yellow for an Imperial Fist shoulder pad. Don't ask me why they didn't just use Averland Sunset, but I assume that's the purpose of it.

 sockwithaticket wrote:
Personally, I think I should be using largely pure white in that scheme. It's an effective part of the high contrast, super-clean style I like for my marinesand often draws compliments

Looks good to me!

As long as it's something you're happy with it, that's the main thing and IMO your particular army looks awesome and any opponent that complains your models are too white is either a insane or a snob who doesn't understand not everyone has to agree on their view of what's "correct". It's painted better and looks better than the vast majority of armies you see in the wild. I'd be happy happy to play against that army and also would be happy if my own army looked that good.