Originally posted on July 20th, 2010 before we had the fancy paints we have now and I learned a new painting technique!
Painting white uniforms or clothing has been a challenge for me in the past as I did not want the uniforms to be white! Hunh? In other words, I wanted my figure's fabric to look textured and realistic with shadows and highlights. I have achieved that effect easily with other colors by starting with a base of black, and then wet brushing with the base color to get the desired effect. Then I would highlight with a lighter color. Unfortunately, starting with black did not get the results I wanted until I stumbled on a painting guide for "Gandalf the White" on the Games Workshop website. As I primarily use Games Workshop paints, it was perfect for me and I like the result. You can see the completed Gandalf above.
Since I am painting the British Foot Guards (sorta, I really need to finish them before the French Dragoons come), I took some quick pictures to show how I am painting the coveralls white.
After priming in black, I paint the pants with a base of GW's Bestial Brown.
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Highlight with Skull white - Tah Dah! You may notice that I have not done the straps of the figure with this painting technique. I wanted the straps and lace to be "whiter" and stand out more. For this, I just use Skull white in several layers until I get the desired look.
Remember the first rule of painting - if you make a mistake, just paint over it!
Below are some French Napoleonic Troops from Wargames Foundry that I painted that illustrate the technique:
I avoid Black undercoats for mainly white uniforms as it requires many layers over the black to get to white but for dark uniforms, horses and native tribesmen I often use a black undercoat. If I'm in a hurry I just dry brush black undercoat with grey for black items. James of Quantrill's Toy Soldiers
ReplyDeleteI agree. The technique I use now for “big” areas of white is to start with a white or grey primer, followed by a dark grey to lighter grey, etc.
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