Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Hey, I've seen Duncan's "yellow over black" vid, (though how he did the yellow in 2 thin coats is beyond me) but it hasn't quite helped with white. It always takes a metric crap ton of layers, even after basing with a pale colour first. I water it down quite a bit, but after testing a few thicknesses, watered to death is the only way for it not to get blobby on the model. But it just takes way too long to consider painting a whole army in it. Does anyone have any pointers on painting white quicker and still keeping its consistency at a smooth level?

I'm painting a Death Guard army in the original scheme and after I've based the white parts in Rakarth Flesh then layered with Palid Wych Flesh, I wash all over with a Sepia shade and then stipple the Palid Wych Flesh back on over the top, and add some Agrax Earthshade streaks down it, to give it a really cool grimy effect. In this case, do I even need a clean coverage of white beforehand? I sort of thought I needed a clean base first so the messiness of the stippling over the shade looks intentional, and was concerned that an unfinished base coat of white would show through and make the whole thing look unintentional. What do you guys think?

Thanks in advance

What white are you using? I've personally found Vallejo MC Dead White will give you a very good, smooth coverage in two thinned layers.

I'm using off-whites from the Citadel range. Rakarth Flesh as the base colour, which takes at least 3 coats, then Palid Wych Flesh, which takes a further 5+ coats. Having to go over the mini at least 8 times is killing me

 Tiberius501 wrote:
I'm using off-whites from the Citadel range. Rakarth Flesh as the base colour, which takes at least 3 coats, then Palid Wych Flesh, which takes a further 5+ coats. Having to go over the mini at least 8 times is killing me

Hmm, neither of those should be requiring that many coats. Rakarth Flesh has a fairly solid pigment, should go on in two coats, and a layer should never take more than one. The two things I can think of are that you may not be shaking your paints sufficiently, leading to the pigment clumping at the bottom, or that you may be thinning your paint too much.

I tend to shake the pot for roughly 10 seconds (just to make sure), but you might be right and I'm probably watering them down way too much. I'll try watering them down less and see how it goes. It's odd because the undercoat spray I use beforehand is Zandri Dust, which is hardly a difficult colour to paint over as it's fairly light compared to black (I use that as it's a sort of middle ground between the white and the green bits). Maybe I should use a different undercoat colour though

I really don't like the lighter Citadel colors like whites and yellows. The pigment distribution just isn't great for coverage without gaining a clumpy texture, at least in my experience.

 Luciferian wrote:
I really don't like the lighter Citadel colors like whites and yellows. The pigment distribution just isn't great for coverage without gaining a clumpy texture, at least in my experience.

Yeah that's what I've been finding with them. I think I've found a good enough consistency now. Sort of requires about one part paint two parts water

I've found a good way to build up whites, especially Death Guard off-whites, is actually to drybrush up from a darker base (I use brown, but green would do it). 5-6 successive drybrushes can be done in 10 minutes if you're quick, versus the hours it would take to go through the same gradient using layers, and I'd argue that a combintion of the fact it's DG and the fact you're washing it afterwards, a clean, neat base isn't that necessary.

This particular model might take the weathering a bit further than you intended, but the principle is the same; if you drybrush the off-white through a few mixes of brownff-white (Adding in more off-white each time, starting with neat brown and ending with neat off-white over 5-6 layers) not only is it ridiculously fast but it creates the illusion of a worn, pitted texture perfect for the Death Guard.



Hope that's of some use.

If you are going for a lighter final color...prime in white.