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Advise on painting white please


Phil D

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How do other painters get a smooth even coat of white on their minis? I use Scar White mixed at about 2-3 parts water to 1 part paint, haven't tried Lahmia Medium yet. The paint is about 18 months old but dosen't seem to be deteriorating, although it is a bit lumpy.

I usually paint an even layer of Celestra Grey as a base coat under the white but when I paint the white at this mix I get a streaky finish with the base coat showing through and a texture with ridges. I have tried thinning the paint further but find I still get a streaky finish which takes even longer to achieve! It seems that if I have a high point in the texture of the mini, I can't get the paint to stick to it, it just seems to wipe off as I apply more paint.

This hasn't been a major problem so far as I've been painting small details with the white and it doesn't look too bad, but I am about to start on some Sacrosanct Chamber and they have larger areas of white robes etc.

Any help will be much appreciated.

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Well, as a disclaimer I am not super experienced on painting pure whites, but the key is to avoid painting pure white. That is, use an off-white color as base and only use pure white as highlight color. If you base paint your robes or cloaks with pure white, you cannot highlight it any further, meaning you will end up with a finish that lacks all depth. Also bear in mind that big white (non-organic) surfaces do not take washes well either, you'll end up with a stained look.

So what I would actually try to do is start basing your white with the "darkest" color you would want to see in the recesses. Note that this doesn't actually have to be a dark color at all. If you want a warm white finish, then something like Rakarth Flesh base, followed by progressive highlighting with Pallid Wych Flesh and finally White Scar on the very highest of highlights. If you want a more neutral white then use Celestra Grey-Ulthuan Grey-White Scar. For a colder grey maybe something like Fenrisian Grey-Blue Horror-White Scar.

You'll have to experiment and you will have to learn how to blend or glaze some of the colors in to get those smooth transitions. Good luck!

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6 minutes ago, Weazel said:

Well, as a disclaimer I am not super experienced on painting pure whites, but the key is to avoid painting pure white. That is, use an off-white color as base and only use pure white as highlight color. If you base paint your robes or cloaks with pure white, you cannot highlight it any further, meaning you will end up with a finish that lacks all depth. Also bear in mind that big white (non-organic) surfaces do not take washes well either, you'll end up with a stained look.

So what I would actually try to do is start basing your white with the "darkest" color you would want to see in the recesses. Note that this doesn't actually have to be a dark color at all. If you want a warm white finish, then something like Rakarth Flesh base, followed by progressive highlighting with Pallid Wych Flesh and finally White Scar on the very highest of highlights. If you want a more neutral white then use Celestra Grey-Ulthuan Grey-White Scar. For a colder grey maybe something like Fenrisian Grey-Blue Horror-White Scar.

You'll have to experiment and you will have to learn how to blend or glaze some of the colors in to get those smooth transitions. Good luck!

This is indeed correct. You never really want to be using pure white. Tinted whites and grays work much better

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To add to what others have said above, for a warm white I'd start of with rakarth, give it an all over coat of flayed one flesh, followed by blending up through pallid witch flesh then pure white. For a colder white I'd use much the same process but going from celestra to ulthuan grey then on to pure white.

Another option is to start with a spray of Corax white (which is closer to ulthuan grey than any other colour) then use a very thin blue or grey wash mixed with medium to add your shading, and blend your highlights back up again.

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Hi Guys, Thanks for the advice (spelt correctly this time) I am painting the details, lightning bolts on SCE shields and so on which don't have recesses etc. for shading and look great in pure white. Also some details on the stardrake which I am finishing off and it's the problems with the stardrake that have finally driven me to ask for advice.

I have tried using nuln oil to shade on cloaks and it hasn't gone well so far so I will use the techniques you have outlined and see how it goes. It's always difficult experimenting when you want your army to look awesome right from the off, but I'll have to bite the bullet and try it.

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