"Painting White Uniforms With Contrast Paint?" Topic

I absolutely detest painting white uniforms, especially on 28s. On 15s I can just do white with a sepia wash and get a good effect. That really doesn't work for me in the larger scale. I was thinking that maybe contrast paints would give a good effect. I have some Teutonic knights coming up and would like to try out a different method, anyone have a good "recipe" for white uniforms with contrast paints?

I paint base white, wash with a transparent Payne's gray and, after it dries, a final white dry brush

I tried the GW Contrast paints for white – while they are great for other colours, I found the white disappointing

I did my Teutonic Knight with plain old Tamiya flat white

Wraithbone, Apothecary White, highlight Wraithbone then White Scar.

If you want a more "brown shade" vs gray use Skeleton Horde.

Some Contrast Medium can help as well.

I recently had to paint several dozen white figures. I primed with a very light gray, then did a heavy drybrush with white. It looks pretty good to me. Sorry, I don't know anything about contrast paints.

Contrast paints don't work on figures without a lot of texture. So big flat shields, big flowing capes, etc. they just give you a crappy coat of color.

I just finished painting some Spanish figures for the AWI. They are wearing white uniforms. I primed them in white, then painted the uniforms white, them gave the uniform a light gray wash and they look fine. touched up with white where the wash may have been too thick in a few areas.

Looks like contrasts are out. White with a grey wash will probably be the way to go. Thanks for the help guys.

Rather than work up from grey, try a cream or sand colour and highlight up from that.
I did try Apothecary White on my 28mm AWI, paint a white undercoat, shake well, apply, then white highlight. Not brilliant but okay.

Have any of you guys ever seen a live "white" sheep? They aren't what the paint companies call "white". I use Ceramcoat Light Ivory and it looks real good.

I had a lamb as a 4H project when I was younger, yeah more of a taupy or yellowed bone color. Definitely not white.

I'm sure white sheep are a different shade of white than White uniform coats.

Matte paint dries with a microscopically rough texture. When you apply a dark wash over such a surface, the dark pigment sticks in the microscopically rough texture, darkening everything. Try giving the white paint a coat of Pledge Floor Gloss, straight, full strength. This will create a microscopically smooth surface. Then apply a dark wash: the wash will only accumulate in the folds and recesses of the miniature, leaving precious little on the flatter surfaces. Cheers!

Glazes or transparent stains or heavy washes over white will give you a pale shade of the glaze color, and won't really look like white with shading.

The traditional solution is to use a much thinner stain, so thin it barely leaves any color, then build up layers. I never have had the patience for this.

So I do paint white, stain with my shading color, then drybrush white to lighten. If for detailing you do blacklining or directed color washes, do this before the drybrush white step.

You mention sepia wash. This will give a realistic warm but dirtier look on white. For a less gritty look, my favorite is pale blue which looks more clean. Pale gray, or pale blue gray, is in between, more neutral. I've tried bone or offwhite which is theoretically perfect, but at tabletop distance the shading disappears. Going the other direction, black shading is cold and dirty looking; I use for fantasy undead but not living subjects.