Could use a tip from the experts :-)

The Kids got me one of the new finecast models, the Eldar Autarch, for Father's Day. I'd like to go with a Biel-Tan colour scheme with white and green.

Everytime I've tried to do white, it looks like I've left some undercoat on the model and it always looks messy. Now my plan is to base the model white, wash it with badab black or some darker colour (maybe an orc flesh wash even?) and then re-drybrush skull white over the model, and then fill in with Emerald/Snot Green and highlight with scorpion green.

I suppose another option would be to paint white areas bleached bone, then highlight skull white?

What do you pro's do?

What I usually do is base coat choas black. If you want a creamy white go bleach bone then skull white. If you want a good flat white go codex grey with a layer of skull white. Usually works for me. Good luck

Commander James of the Ul wrote:What I usually do is base coat choas black. If you want a creamy white go bleach bone then skull white. If you want a good flat white go codex grey with a layer of skull white. Usually works for me. Good luck

Who typed this?? We know it wasn't James!

@Mark
like 'James' mentioned you have to start with a base of a light off-white colour then work your way up. I too recommend bleach bone, others are fortress grey and some kind of light brown or tan. Lately I myself have been using Dheneb Stone from GW Foundation paints.

i've been painting my sanguinary guard in white since my blood angels successors are the angels encarmine, and your original assumption of white, badab wash, then white again is what i did, and i think it turned out great. some others seem to think they look good in the end as well, which is cool since i was using an older pot of white to go over it again; the basecoat was Army Painter's White. if you havent used their paint before, when you spray it on, itll look a little thick when wet; dont worry; it thins when it dries so you get all your detail back when its fully dry. its also a great way of letting you know when the paints dry rather than touching it and going oh crap, fingerprints.

When I've been doing white on my Ultrasmurfs I usually smurf them with Chaos Black or (more recently) Army Painter Navy Blue. The white parts (robes, purity seals, vet helms, etc.) I smurf with Astronomismurf Grey from the Foundation set. Then they get hit with Smurf White/Bleached smurf/whatever smurfs your smurf. I don't bother with layering and highsmurfing, I just hit it w/ a wash or Quicksmurf and it get all the definition I'm looking for. If I *WAS* going to do that (or could see colours to do so) I'd layer it up after the wash.

Whats Dheneb Stone like? Is that Space-Wolves Grey ish? I think I might go for that.

It's very light beige.

gluvzer wrote:It's very light beige.

Ahhhh kk.

So it's like a bleached bone sort of but designed for base coats? Is that what you used on your blood-angel like dudes Ryan?

My Lamenters are yellow, and I've been using straight Iyanden Yellow on black primer for those. The foundation paints are great on black. But for any white work I have to do I use dheneb stone for the base and work up.

For my white and blue marine army I used to work on but gave up on I used the reaper series paints. Bone shadow then Aged Bone highlighted with polished bone. I really like the colour result that came from that, but I didn't like the quality of the reaper line. Here's some older examples of the reaper results:

https://huntersofthewarp.forumakers.com/t159-gluvzer-s-projects

https://huntersofthewarp.forumakers.com/t90-tau-human-auxiliaries


But now I like: Dheneb stone, Gryphon sephia wash, dheneb highlight, then white highlight. It comes out a little beige, but you can gage your use of the white.

I'm going to throw in my hat with what everyone else has said, these are the progressions I would use:

Dheneb Stone - Bleached Bone - Skull White

Astronomicon Grey - Rotting Flesh - Skull White

More important than any recipe would be to thin your paint. The foundation is thicker than normal paint so needs more water. The white needs even more than that. The white should take at least 2-3 coats to get a good coverage or you will end up with that crappy chalky look. Doubly important on a centerpiece model like this

Stone -> Bone -> Skull it is.

I've noticed the consistency difference too, so thanks for the water reminder. I've been practicing my vine drawing as well and hope to do some vines surrounding a heart on the cape.

The next challenge will be incorporating the green, but I think I'll do it overtop the bone for the bits of the armour that'll be green. Is Biel-Tan more of a snot-green or emerald green? I really like the snot-green GW colour. It's very forest-green-ish.