Hay everyone :)
I need a tute on painting a nice clean, clear white.
can anyone help me? :huh:
I looked on Jakob Nielsen's site and couldn't find anything, and the same on Chestofcolours, cool mini, etc.
If it helps Im doing white on one of my mini's hair and I want it to look Good not just half arsed because its for a comp, I may also do this on my Heroes and villains entry :)

Help is much apreciated :D

Pip Pip :)

This is my suggestion, after a hell of a lot of trial and error and numerous minis that have had all of their detail obscured by multiple layers of paint!

-First of all, go from a white undercoat. Try and make this as smooth as possible, if necessary use multiple watered down layers of white.

-Use a badab black wash. I usually go for a general coat all over, then a second coat in order to emphasise the 'crevices'. Don't worry about being messy for this one, the important thing is coverage.

-Next, the drybrushing phase. I think this is the most important to get right. Use repeated, very light, drybrushes of skull white. Its very important at this point not to leave too much white on the brush, or you might get a 'blotching' effect (I've got this on several of my marines where I've been impatient!) This might take 5-6 coats at this stage.
This is why it is important to get a smooth white basecoat initially - the drybrushing will emphasise any imperfections in the painting surface and make it look irregular. ideally at the end you should get a generally slightly mottled white surface, and if you haven't gone all 'Hulk smash!' with the drybrushing the black wash in the crevices of the model should still be visible.

- 'Whitewashing' phase. Its possible to not do this, but I find it best to get a very clean and pearly white. Use successive coats of watered down white using a normal brush. The ratio should ideally be around 1:1, but experiment to the point where the paint is being applied more like a runny pool of water rather than an adhesive (sorry if that sounds like a bad description, my vocabulary is pretty dried up at 1am :D ) Basically you're aiming to 'fill in' the patches in the white using successive coats.

Hope this helps, its the method I've found best to get a consistent white. But, there are other methods (such as building up from foundation grey for instance). i think the best thing you can do is test different ideas on some test minis and see which you prefer!

It's not a clean white, but I used the following technique for my blue-white Megarachnid and other colour washes can easily be applied to make different tones.





1) White spray undercoat. I did two light coats to avoid bubbling or running.
2) Wash with Asurmen Blue. Avoid any big flat areas you want to keep pure white.
3) Light drybrush of Skull White. Repeat once or twice, paying attention to texture.
4) Whitewash with watered Skull White, concentrating on smoother and flatter areas.
5) Line deep recesses with Badab Black wash, and tidy it with some thin whitewash.

:ph43r:

Sorry to go OT, but what is that awesome model? I was planning on painting up some Starship Trooper Arachnids for the Megarachnid, but I think that looks a lot closer to the description!

Also, have you given any thought to what rules you would use for them?

Sorry for the OT!

:ph43r:

I use a Codex Grey or Space Wolf Light Grey for the base.
1st Top coat of Skull White
Wash of heavily diluted Black & Dark Brown Inks (1:1) (sorry not GW colours but I'm sure you know the colours)
2nd Top coat of Skull White & Methril Silver (3:1)
Highlight with Skull White.

I guess I should have put this in the tuts forum...

http://z15.invisionfree.com/The_Great_Crus...?showtopic=1083

I've got a thread in the Xenos section... it's a Starship Troopers Assassin/Mantis Bug, using parts from both and a little GS to follow the canon descriptions... :D

I cooked up some Tyranids stats for them, all melee and no ranged. Scary stuff.

I've cracked it!!!!
thanks for the help guys but I've got the white I was after by studying a model of Jacob Nielsons, Im very happy with the end result :)
I will be makin a tute for it and hope it helps anyone else out....
thanks again.

Pip Pip :)

oooh I get it. So this guy, this Jacob Nielson? He struts in here, walkin round like he owns the place. Yeah, I seen his type before. And anyway, he comes up with a new way of painting white? And you're all "Oooh! oooh! Jacob Nielson, Jacob Nielson!"

Well, I don't need ya. I've said it before, but this time I mean it - we are THROUGH mister! You can take that fancy assed Jacob Nielson with you, And don't slam the door on the way out! And don't you come cryin' back to ye mamma, all "but oh he left me! he was only using me mamma!" when that Jacob Nielson goes off with whatever new young hot thing comes walkin his way.

Don't say I didn't warn ya!

Yeah, be careful of hanging around people that win swords for a living... :unsure:

He won't love you, you know! He's incapable of love!

I try warn him, but he no listen *shakes head sadly and goes back to mopping the floor*