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So I'm trying to get that sweet candy red for my 30k t sons and I think I found a way but need a few questions answered.

First how well do washes go over enamel paints?
How well will acrylic paints go over enamel paints.
What can I use to thin out enamel paints to clean an airbrush.

The technique I've seen that produces a nice candy red is as follows...

1 - base in gold
2 - shade with druchii violet
3 - apply gemstone red, or tamiya clear red, or other choice.

As to washes over typical oil enamels, they'll run for the edges a bit more, if I recall, but they shouldn't have much problem. I remember repainting marines in my early days from previously oil-enamel paints and getting the acrylics to stay was... fun.

Oooooo I totally forgot about the gem red.....that might be interesting. Do you have ant photos or links to this technique you described?

https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/701007.page

That one's not quite the same, but there's a few test shots from different combinations in there.

I saw it along the way a few months back, and I've tried googling for it but I have no luck. You'll see in that one the Gloss Nuln Oil really brings up the shine on the candy red.

I've been doing my Khorne daemon engines in a candy red / gold paint scheme.

All the paint work is done with a patriot 105 airbrush.

I prime gloss black (stynylrez)

Full coat of Metal Color Chrome



Full coat of Metal Color Gold (full on C3PO look)



Badger Ghost Tint Red (but pick your clear red of choice)



Finished everything else with a regular brush




You can pre-shade with metalics under the candy coat for some effects, but I hadn't practiced it enough to experiment on the rather spendy FW Kytan.


Edit - Forgot a few answers...

I'm not a huge fan of enamel paints through my airbrush as I'm a filter vs external exhaust guy.

Washes over candy coats will remove the shine and really impact the look of the finish. I don't have a great photo example of this on my Juggernauts, but I did an agrax wash around the panel edges and it's very notable as it knocked the metallic effect way down. I did not wash the red on the Kytan at all because of that.

Step 1: Give the enemels a full 24 hours to dry.

Step 2: Varnish and give that another 24 hours to dry.

Step 3: Continue to paint as usual with no worries, but be sure to varnish again when done.

Gunze Sangyo Gloss Clear Red is my preferred clear red. It has better self leveling characteristics than Tamiya clear red (which is not bad by any means). Gunze Sango's "Tire Black" is great for tires and any other black rubber objects.

 Backspacehacker wrote:
Oooooo I totally forgot about the gem red.....that might be interesting. Do you have ant photos or links to this technique you described?

My fantasy dark elves' armour was painted with GW's red gemstone paint over silver:


Absolutely no airbrush required. Undercoat black. Base Leadbelcher (or equivalent). Edge highlight Stormhost Silver (or equivalent). Paint Spiritstone Red liberally all over. Recess shade Druchii Violet (but you could use Nuln Oil or Agrax for a less purplish look).

 Duskweaver wrote:

 Backspacehacker wrote:
Oooooo I totally forgot about the gem red.....that might be interesting. Do you have ant photos or links to this technique you described?

My fantasy dark elves' armour was painted with GW's red gemstone paint over silver:


Absolutely no airbrush required. Undercoat black. Base Leadbelcher (or equivalent). Edge highlight Stormhost Silver (or equivalent). Paint Spiritstone Red liberally all over. Recess shade Druchii Violet (but you could use Nuln Oil or Agrax for a less purplish look).

Yeah that looks fine on small parts of models, but when you are trying to paint whole models like that it looks absolutely atrocious as the paint doesn't settle in even layers and you just clog up any details.
OP if you have an airbrush get some clear red to put through it, it's the only way really to achieve the effect you are after, you can't take shortcuts when trying to achieve candy metallic colours as there are none that come close in terms of quality when compared to what you can do with an airbrush.

What I'm trying to do is daemon prince armor plates, just as some information.

I ordered some candy read from alclad II which looks just top notch, but again, airbrushed on, which I don't mind doing just it's just a lot I gotta tape off just because of the under side chest plate of the Daemon price is in such a crappy spot.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
What I'm trying to do is daemon prince armor plates, just as some information.

I ordered some candy read from alclad II which looks just top notch, but again, airbrushed on, which I don't mind doing just it's just a lot I gotta tape off just because of the under side chest plate of the Daemon price is in such a crappy spot.

for smaller regions you can get away with brush painting the clear red, thats how this guy was done



this is airbrushed black, then a mix of gold/brown as a base, airbrush highlight gold, bit of silver added as a further highlight - the red is then applied by brush over this - the base pre-shades it, took about three coats.

rest is then painted by hand

That's the effect I'm looking for, like I said I have some alclad candy red coming in I wanna give a try, but I guess the gak is really toxic when being sprayed so gotta suit up.

I brushed that one as I wanted the gold pre-shade to be the golden areas, could have masked it but would have taken an age, or repaint over it.

Thats Tamiya clear red, which isn't amazing to spray as it stinks, on larger panels or flat panels spraying looks a lot better

if ur gonna use enamel paints with the airbrush, careful its killed my friends airbrush cause he didnt clean it immediately after use

Might I suggest Vallejo candy red airbrushed over a silver base with gold zenithal highlight and a blue zenithal low light.

I'll post pics of my 1k sons WiP as soon as I can get one with the red over the highlights.

Update got that cherry red

Not too bad on the candy effect.. you might want to give it a gloss agrax wash to give a little depth and boost the shine if you want that.

Sauragnmon wrote:
Not too bad on the candy effect.. you might want to give it a gloss agrax wash to give a little depth and boost the shine if you want that.

Nah does not need it, it's really glossy but does not show im images

Looks good, nice and bright

Alright, I couldn't find it and I needed to redo some Khorne markings on my Chaos force.. so here's a dose of it.

VMC Gold, light edge wash with Druchii Violet, Gemstone Red.

I was debating evaluating Blood for the Blood God as well.. I might do that elsewhere.

Bit late but Tamiyas Clear Red would have done this. It’s what Forgeworld use according to their modelling master class books.