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I have a problem. I'm trying to get a nice bright red with citadel paints. I use Mephiston red as a based coat - it looks great. I cover it with Carroburg Crimson. Still looks very red and begins to get some depth to it. Then I start layering up with Evil Suns Scarlet and that's where it goes wrong. Evil Suns Scarlet is a really nice bright looking red but somehow added on top of the other layers the effect looks LESS bright and LESS vibrant red than it did when I just had Mephiston. It's hard to explain but there's a kind of murkiness to the colour that is very far from what I want. And I just don't understand how this can be possible. Has anybody else had a similar issue and do you know what I could do about it?

Incidentally a while back Evil Suns was the only red I had and even though it's a layer paint I used it as a base paint and really did get a nice bright red.

Don’t start with a dark red, maybe base with an orange? I haven’t done so much reds but if you base with Mephiston red that is the colour that will permitted through your layers unless you re base.

It just base with a bright red like one of the new contrast paints.

Try Wild Rider Red? Think that's brighter than Evil Sunz Scarlet. Could you maybe post a picture of what's going on?

Also you could try some inks, like GSW intensity ink or mix an ink in with your paint which I have just learned you can do on another thread


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What colour are you priming with?

White over the bits you want bright. Then put your light reds over the top and feather it into the darker tones.

With reds I will almost always glaze either the mid tone or an ink over the whole area once highlighting is complete.
Reds will always become desaturated when you add light or dark to them, and the pigments are often pretty transparent, which is likely why your highlights are looking muddy instead of bright.
Try a glaze afterwards and see if that helps.

Agreed with the above, try a glaze of thinned down fleshtearer red to bring the saturation back up. You might need to add a layer or two of medium or alternatively matte varnish over the top to get rid of any shine, though.

Glazing the mid tone will bring down the brightest point if you cover it. You want to do targeted glazes between tones.

Especially flesh tearers red. To me that's a mid tone at best for bright vibrant reds

I've found mixing in some Vallejo florescent magenta on the final highlight for Evil Sunz Scarlet well and truly makes it pop.

I've generally found if I want a really bright red, I need to highlight up into the red-orange range. The old Blood Angels Red, or even further up to Fiery Orange, work wonders.

Never tried using magenta, florescent or otherwise, to highlight red. I'll have to give that a try and see what happens.

We often learn to start from shadow colours and work up to the mid tone then finally the highlights.

However, if you want a vibrant colour, it's usually easier to start with a bright undercoat (white, perhaps yellow though that will produce a more orangey red) then shade down from that. You could shade directly into the crevices rather than an all-over wash to avoid tinting the raised surfaces with the darker colour.

I have no experience with Evil Sunz Scarlet specifically, maybe if your shade colour is slightly blueish and the Evil Sunz Scarlet is slightly transparent orangish it's creating problems, since blue and orange are heading towards complementary colours? Or maybe it's a pigment interaction? Or perhaps just an optical illusion? Dunno.

You could try a coat of a clear paint/. Candy ink

mrFickle wrote:
You could try a coat of a clear paint/. Candy ink

If the OP has an airbrush, that would be an option, they're usually tricky to get right with a hairy brush.

Or even just using a nice bright red airbrushed over a preshaded model might give the desired result.

I don't really paint vibrant reds in my miniatures (tend to prefer the slightly desaturated look) but painting red insignia on historic scale models I like to use Tamiya Red over a white preshade.Their red is one of the best I've used through an airbrush, but it's alcohol based so I wouldn't try using it with a hairy brush.

Tamiya do also make a red spray can, but I have no idea how it compares to their potted paints. Maybe doing spraying that as your basecoat might work better than Mephiston Red, but I make no promises as I haven't used it.