"Painting white." Topic

I'm working on my first squad for Infinity (Aleph Steel Phalanx) and while the first couple of figs turned out OK, I'm having trouble working on the white armor. No matter how many coats I lay down, it still looks smeared on and sometimes chalky. Any suggestions on how to avoid this?

Try this:

Prime with medium gray.
Do a heavy dry brush with white.

Doctor Faust's Painting Clinic

how to paint cool white:
YouTube link

how to paint warm white:
YouTube link

What paints are you using?

Rich has it down!

It largely depends on the paints you are using. Prime the model black. Then use a heavy pigmented paint like the "base" colors from GW or Cel Vinyl Cartoon Colors to get the grey parts.

I use Cel Vinyl and I'll start with a Gray 10, then highlight with Gray 5, then use Gray 1 for a less bright white.

For something like Infinity guys you might want to start with Gray 5 then Gray 1 then white.

What Pictors Studio said!

I recently had good experience with GW foundation white. It takes 3 layers over black primer. No thinning, but I do wipe excess paint on brush on the palette. Took 3 coats for a good & non-chalky coverage. That's for Space Marine shoulder pad. I imagine with Infinity figures' small surfaces it'd be easier.

Make sure the previous coat is completely dry before you lay the new one.

I used to be very bad at painting white. I put a blob of thick paint, then trying to cover the uneven part when the blob is still wet. Never end up good!

Then I use a glaze of light blue (light blue grey + Lahmian Medium).

Of course, prime white is a good shortcut.

I've actually changed from using grey to using pigskin yellow for a base, then highlight with half cream, half yellow. Second highlight is a pale cream. It looks really good.

I have pics, but Photobucket is down right now.
A professional painter friend of mine looked at them and said he really liked it and would most likely change the way he paints white.

I can't understand the logic of painting something black when you want it to be white – that just compounds the problems the OP is having, getting smooth opaque white. Although you may need several coats you need to by laying down several thin coats to slowly build up opacity without adding thickness to the paint. Putting down an over thick coat in the hope it will cover may result in that smeared on look.

Make it easy on yourself and use Foundry paints.

"I can't understand the logic of painting something black when you want it to be white"

Because you never want something to be all white. Nothing is actually white or any single colour but has different shades. If you start with gray then gray is the darkest you can make anything to start with. Shadows are in the recesses and they are the hardest thing to reach. Spray it all black and you have your darkest shade at the bottom.

If your first coat can't cover black then you're using the wrong paint.

Try loading the brush and lay paint onto the sections with minimal brush strokes. Let it dry and after about 30 seconds do it again. Often i think we can be too fiddly with laying on paint, that is what causes chalky and rough paint texture. Paint will shrink to the surface as it dries, but often i think the blobby-ness of a good layer scares people prior to it drying, so they apply it in little brush strokes, causing uneven drying, hence chalkiness :-)
The best way to cover a large section would be to get a good blob on, then spread the blob to the section edges, then let dry.
Blob it!
Eventually matching initial blob size to section size becomes second nature.
Am i getting off topic.,.,,,,

I Dont have a picture of the aleph i did, but in this nomad pic i got a kind of neat effect highlighting whites with yellow, though its not technically a highlight, it simulated light, maybe blues could be cool on aleph:-)
I use apple barrel type paints :-P

Think a combination of the methods above.

Obviously white is easier to do if the undercoat is white but as said if you are undercoating the rest black then thats tricky. Think the 2 methods are:

1. As Rich alluded start with a medium grey (My choice is something like GW Foundation Astronomican Grey or Codex Grey) then build up lighter layers with greys then adding in white until you get it pure. You can dry brush if you want speedy but on smooth sculpted area I find still looks too chalky. Patience is the key

2. Undercoat black then re-undercoat white areas with couple thin coats of any white such as GW or Foundry. Then start with a much lighter grey as it will be more subtle. But you could look at this as self defeating. It does need less coats overall though.

Here is the Westwind Dark Ages Druid I did white if that helps. This had a black undercoat

Stew

On a side note, one of the best ways to avoid a 'chalky' finish I have found is the use of retarder. I keep a 5% solution of retarder in a large dropper bottle handy when I'm painting and use it to thin all paints pretty much all of the time these days.