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Got some test models with a gold basecoat and am now experimenting with trying to get the "candy apple" effect I've seen on other Thousand Sons models. Any suggestions on how to get this effect without an air brush? I've already tried a red ink and a mix of Vallejo Air Red and Air "Bloody Red", but haven't gotten the effect I wanted; ink is tricky to do and pools a bit much in the recesses (obviously), while the Air paints need multiple coats so the brush strokes aren't visible, but by that point it's a solid red.

Arcanis161 wrote:
Got some test models with a gold basecoat and am now experimenting with trying to get the "candy apple" effect I've seen on other Thousand Sons models. Any suggestions on how to get this effect without an air brush? I've already tried a red ink and a mix of Vallejo Air Red and Air "Bloody Red", but haven't gotten the effect I wanted; ink is tricky to do and pools a bit much in the recesses (obviously), while the Air paints need multiple coats so the brush strokes aren't visible, but by that point it's a solid red.

Multiple thin coats. It's going to be time consuming either way (gold base w/ red plates, or red base w/gold accents). Try working with a heavy pigment red paint (Reaper HD, GW Base Colors, P3 Khador reds) if you can find one.

Another trick might be to find a base red that goes on opaque, then paint over it with the desired red color. That should cut down too many paint layers.

try tamiya clear red X-27 over the gold.

have used the Tamiya red, you can do it, but for pities sake don't, just about works on marine sized models, if you paint them panel by panel - you can't afford to have any overlap in the layers or you will see it - ok for fine detail just about, larger areas bigger than a shoulder pad look terrible

The only way to really replicate this is to use proper transparent colours, and the Tamiya clear red mentioned above is an example of that.

You don't want to use heavy pigment paints, as this will not give the 'candy' effect. A candy paint job is basically a transparent colour over a metallic base, so you're on the right track with a gold base coat.

The Tamiya clear colours, and Minitaire Ghost Tints (if they're still available) are the sort of colours you will need, though anything that states 'transparent' should give a similar effect.

The caveat here is that they are an absolute paint to try and paint on with a brush! I have tried and failed several times as even a slight difference in thickness of the paint coats will alter the depth of the transparent colour. Airbrushing them is super easy and is what I've ended up doing when I needed this colour.

So with brush painting, you will just have to try and keep the coats as even as possible. The transparent paints have a very different feel to normal acrylics, almost a bit 'gummy' or syrupy, so I would recommend practicing on something first.

Good luck with it, but don't be disappointed if you are unable to replicate this type of finish with a brush, as it really is a made-for-airbrush technique.

Best bet is find someone in you local group who has an airbrush and get them to base coat the models for you

pre-shade the metallic base with the airbrush as well as you have no way to control the shade of the candy layer over

gold under red works, but actually the Tamiya one looks best over silver, it does need thinning or its like painting with PVA.

brush work is ok for stuff like CSM armour, where you spray the gold or brush the gold trim on first, then block infill the areas panel by panel

Ah, sorry I didn't think candy apple meant metallic red, just bright glossy red. I did a bright glossy red back in early SoB with just red and the old old Citadel red ink, but good luck finding that.

You could just buy a metallic red paint. Reaper has several IIRC, and I know Vajello has a candy color range, though it's usually in larger bottles for automobile painting.

if you want a non-metallic glossy red, just paint a normal flat red the way you want it and apply a gloss varnish, pick the right one though to get the high gloss look

If you want the true metallic candy apple, most cases of them I have seen for "Tizcan Ruby" (The Thousand Sons Pre Heresy Metallica Red) are as follows..

Gold - Retributor or other
Shade - Druchii Violet (to add depth)
Cover - Spiritstone Red, or similar.

Ok.. The question is do you want a "Red-Gold" Lacquer Metallic look that a lot of people mis-call candy-apple red or are you talking the classic car paint 20 coats of lacquer done in Tijuana that looks like liquid red and has a color that none can compare?

Either way you are working in transparent colors.

Metallic Gold-Red is right where you are at. Just work up with a Translucent paint. There are many out there and some you can pick up at an art store too.

Now.. if you want a REAL Candy well... you have to do it the same way it is done at full scale. LAYERS. You start with a flat base in a medium to medium light gray. You then have at it with VERY THIN layers of your gloss translucent red paint. About six or seven layers with a gloss top coat and you will have a paint that appears to have 'depth'. Much of which will be lost on a 28mm model.

I'd try the Citadel Translucent Gloss paints. They are actually surprisingly good. Thin it down and do your glaze coating technique.

Im curious now. I might try Blood for the blood god technical paint then 'ard Coat technical to see if that will work.

I occasionally use Tamiya clear red by hairy brush, I find applying it in relatively heavy coats works best, that way you can keep a decent portion of the model wet at one time, what you don't want is it to partially dry while you're still painting. However it doesn't work great for anything other than small panels.

For large panels/models I revert to using Tamiya clear through my airbrush.

Tamiya do also make their clear red as a spray can, I've never tried the clear red specifically, but I have used other Tamiya sprays and they've not disappointed me yet, they do really nice coloured sprays. So maybe give that a shot if you can't afford an airbrush.