"Fastest/Best looking white" Topic

I'm after a bit of help, if you'd be so kind :)
several of my customers have armies where the predominant colour is white.

I always paint from a black undercoat and shade up. The method I use is quite time consuming, going through several shades of grey to achieve a final crisp coat of white with shaded recesses. I use Winsor & Newton Finity paints for high pigment content, thinned with W&N flow improver.

Do any of you have a preferred method for painting white quickly while still achieving great results?

Any help would be much appreciated as it's becoming difficult to keep up with customer's orders!

Thanks

Yes . I do.. Primer the figures in white. It will take quite sometime to cover black with white. Then use a wash of light brown or earth tone to shade.

I have never used black as a base coat. Was taught to use white as a primer.

regards
larry h

or for a "cool" white, use a light blue-grey (Citadel Space Wolf Grey, Vallejo Game Color Wolf Grey, etc.). Thin it down a bit with distilled water and basically do a wash, let it dry and then go back over the raised areas with white.

Liam

Howdy! I prime my models using black, and I've found that GW's Space Wolf Grey, followed by white works very well. This give a natural highlight provided that you leave a bit of the grey around the edges.

Thanks,

Would any of you mind taking a look at the high elves on my website and giving me feedback on the white?

Please bear in mind the customer changed his mind on colour schemes several times resulting in 7 yes 7 repaints so in places the paint's a bit thick

Here's the URL:
propaintjob.com/page47.html

Thanks again

I second the warm gray basecoat then highlight white. I like Ceramcoat Dolphin Gray and Vallejo Sky Gray.

I have not as yet found a 'quick' way to get a nice crisp white. I painted a fair few number of 15mm Napoleonic Austrians in my youth and tried:

1- White undercoat - washed with thinned brown ink, coat of grey, white highlights
2- Grey undercoat - light grey highlight, thinned black ink wash, pick out white highlights

For 25-28mm there is no way to avoid building it up in layers. Though you can get different whites by adding in a little colour to the basecoat - a little green, or brown. Or try building up from a canvas type colour to avoid the grey-white effect. Washing on top of whites just makes them look dirty.

Definitely right about washing onto white. Bugger of a colour isn't it? Whoever invented it should be shot :)

Thanks for your ideas guys, looks like I'm stuck with layering, I'll just have to quote longer completion times on white minis

The best thing to do, and I've tried a lot of different ways is cell vinyl.

I keep going on about this but if you do one coat of Cell Vinyl Grey No.5 and then their white on top of that you won't see black through it. You could just use the white but you might as well do a little highlighting.

One coat of their white can cover black though.

If you want to base black, best thing to do it hit it with a grey and then a white. I don't have much trouble with vallejo whites over grey, and although it's a two step process, it's rather quick in reality and does add a nice first layer of shading.

If you want a warmer white, you can use an ivory first - or even a light brownish/yellow and then white.

Great guys. No problem with ivory whites just grey whites. To save me a lengthy search can anyone recommend a good supplier of cell vinyl and vallejo? Preferably to order online.

I know TheWarStore.com carries Vallejo.

The Vallejo "Foundation White" #002/919 will nearly cover black in just one coat, it's that solid a colour. I've never had to use more than two coats of it over any mistakes, er I mean base colours, that happened to have made it onto the figure.

Cheers

Thanks guys you're all stars, I really appreciate it. Off to get some cell vinyl and vallejo paints

Cheers,

Colin

Try Minimadd.com for Vallejo. Looks like his prices are up ($3.00) a little but I have seen him have very good sale prices and his service has been excellent. Got my last order in about 3 days.

Tracy