Step by Step on a Warhammer Miniature

Transcript*

Intro

Hey there, it’s Paul from Loisirs vers le soleil back at it again.

Uh this time I’m going to be talking about a topic that’s sort of near and dear to my heart and that is the topic of painting white. The color white or the shade white. Uh because it is one of the most frustr frustrating things. I’m getting frustrated now that I’m stumbling on my words. The most frustrating thing to paint when you’re brush painting. Uh it’s trivial if you’re not, but when brush painting, incredibly annoying. And to prove or at the very least explain why it’s annoying, uh we’re gonna have Nathan come on here and explain why.

So Nathan, take it away. So I forgot my line. Uh, so don’t use white on the models directly cuz it’s a clear transparent cut. Well, it’s a shade, but if you do it, you have to do multiple layers and then if you put too much, it’s going to look really messy. Nathan is one of our fellow employees. So, thank you, Nathan. He’s also a very good Warhammer painter.

So, if you have any sort of general painting questions, water-based acrylic painting questions, ask him anything. He will respond. And he is again very good. Not only is Nathan an incredible painter, he is also incredibly correct. And that is rule number one, or sorry, tip number one.

Basic Guidelines

It’s not really a rule. These are guidelines. But yes, he is correct. Never paint the purest white you can find direct from the bottle onto the model itself. Just don’t do it straight up. You got to build up to it. As Nathan said, they are translucent by nature. White paints are also the thickest typically. That’s why a lot of people typically complain when they open their white bottles.

Uh doesn’t matter if it’s enamel, acrylic, lacquer, right? They’re like, “It’s so chalky.” That’s just the nature of typical white paint. Some are uh thicker than others, right? Citadelle in particular is quite thick out the bottle, very chalky. Uh other brands are sometimes a little bit more smooth, but there is a discrepancy there between the darker colors and the color white or shade.

Exceptions

One of the two exceptions to this would be plane painters, specifically airline plane painters, because I doubt military aircraft enthusiasts paint their kits white. It’s really just going to be airline painters. And the second are car painters. Car painters, not carpenters, by the way. Uh yeah, so I feel like those are the only two exceptions. Maybe possibly you can argue Gundam Painters as well, but they do so much panel lining and painting on the side that uh honestly uh don’t count them.

Don’t count them. So really, it’s just these two that are exceptions to not painting white directly or the purest white directly from the bottle to the actual kit themselves. Uh these are the only two exceptions because they spray paint a lot. Uh they use a lot of cans because both of these surfaces, whether it’s a car or a plane, they have a lot of continuous curved surfaces, surfaces that are terrible to paint when you’re only brush painting.

So, this isn’t really an issue if you’re a car or a plain painter, unless of course you’re a masochist. Uh no shame, by the way. [laughter] If that’s your uh fix, then you know, good for you. But again, if you’re a masochist and you brush paint your plane or your car, uh, good for you. But you will also encounter the white paint issue.

Painting White on Black Primer

Let me show you what Nathan and I mean with this random shoulder pad from a space marine that’s primed black. Now, all paints when thinly applied are naturally quite translucent, but white takes it to a whole another level. As colors are typically affected by the plastic or the primer or both underneath. Uh but white again is genuinely just a shade. So when thinly applied which you should do to preserve all the details from you know prevented from being buried and like essentially makeup.

Um and if you want to see the details still you have to apply it thinly. But the consequence to that is that it’s going to look like this. This is only after coat one. Thin coat number two. And because of its translucent nature, whenever you’re brushing it on, uh, a full-on pure white like this will, uh, become more obvious that you brushed it on, if you know what I’m saying. brush strokes will genuinely start appearing even after it’s dried, which is incredibly annoying,
especially when you’re painting curved surfaces such as a shoulder pad or massive flat surfaces or both. Um, an airline fuselage could be both big, long, and curved.

So, yeah, it’s going to be a problem. That’s why I called you guys a masochist for painting or brush painting a plane. Please don’t do that. Don’t do that. Save your sanity. Don’t do it, please. For me, this is exactly what Nathan and I are talking about. You can’t tell the difference from the first coat to the second coat. Kind of. Basically, it just got a little whiter, but honestly, the primer is still visible. In fact, there’s that little streaking going on in the middle where it unevenly dried.

Yes, a medium can help mitigate this, but it dries for far longer, and the same result will still happen. Um, so yes, I’m going to compare this to blue just to show you what I mean in that two thin coats is all you need to get from the primer to the main color of your choice except for blanche. White is such a nightmare. Even yellow can get it done on the second arguably second coat. Sometimes people do a third on yellow, but really it’s almost there. For white, it’s not even close. You’re going to need at least two to three more coats.

Painting Blue on Black Primer

And the blue I’m going to be using is from Ionic, the blue. That’s with a silent P, by the way. And the white I used was satin white from Atom. Here we go. Priming or primed black. The Space Marine Captain. I’m going to be painting him blue. Thinly applied. And it’s going to be two thin coats only. See, just in this first thin coat. Yes, it is still affected by the primer largely, but it’s already starting to take shape. The color. So, we’ll paint that. We won’t paint the full figure for this video. So, I’ll let this dry. This is a space marine.

After one thin coat, the blue is very visible, but at the same time, if you look hard enough, the black primer is still very visible, but that despite that, the blue has already taken form. And it’s not going to take long for the black primer to be completely invisible. And that’s basically only just one more thin coat. And let me show you.spread it around. Again, two thin coats. Shout out Duncan Rhodes. If you don’t know who that is, he’s a legend within the hobby community, but specifically for Warhammer, hence why we have the Two Thin Coats paint line and brand. Uh, it’s all from him. If you don’t know, he’s funny. Yeah.

And a really good guide. This is Sir Space Marine Captain after two thin coats and it’s dried. Look at it looking blue as heck. There’s still some black primary influence, but only in the shading of it. You can’t actually tell. And obviously, you can tell by the surroundings, but really, if you’re just focusing on the armor, you can’t really tell that you primed it black unless you have another Space Marine right next to it that’s been primed white. Grey actually won’t be a lot noticeable, you know, a lot more noticeable. But white when it’s primed and tooth and coat applied, um, is yeah, they’ll be a little bit noticeable.

Um, there is a shade difference between the brightness of the blues, but otherwise without any comparison, yeah, the guy just looks blue as heck. [laughter] Pay no attention to the uh black primed plastic surrounding it. I’m talking about just the blue. Now, let’s compare it to the white. [laughter] This is two thin coats. And uh yeah, [laughter] it’s dried, too, by the way. So yeah, please do not paint pure white directly on top of your prime plastic.

Building Up Your White Paint

Uh go build up to the blanche. What do I mean by building up to the white that you want? Well, it’s like this. It’s actually very simple. On the left there, we have the gray example. So you would have uniform gray or something along those lines as your base color, your main color.

And then once that’s dried, two thin coats, you uh apply a light one coat, just maybe one coat of a lighter grey, which will bring it up a notch in terms of whiteness and brightness. And then finally, just a light edge highlighting or dry brush, depending on how you want to do it, of the white, but no more than that. Do not apply it onto the massive surfaces where the sun will hit. No, just literally edge highlight it and you will notice a really good improvement. Same thing but with the beiges, right? This is more towards skin. If uh you’re painting um like Akaran, for example, actually the space marine. Akaran’s a Scottish dude and he was fairly pale uh in the space marine game. Yes, he was a character in Space Marine. Uh so yeah.

Um to paint his skin, I would first start with something like amber skin along the skin tone here. Uh and then once that’s dried, I’d put one maybe two thin coats of urban buff, which is a light beige. And then just edge highlighting near the cheek bones of satin white. And maybe the chin, maybe where the eyebrows are. That’s about it. And the optical illusion uh when you’re viewing it from two to three feet away makes it look really really pale regardless of which option you choose.

There’s even a third option. Grabbing a primer doesn’t have to be gray, right? So snow and tundra is a wolf gray, a bluish gray, arctic gray sort of color, but it doesn’t even have to be this color. Wraith Bone from Games Workshop boom is a popular choice to start white with. Um, regardless of which hue you choose, you will end up with a white by just following what I said. Starting with a darker color, uh, and then doing a little bit of a step up, a gradient step up from that color and then finalizing it with either a fine highlight or a dry brushing of the white itself. But never ever paint pure white direct from the bottle uh, and by itself uh, onto the plastic. Please don’t. Please, please. So,

Painting the Face – Amber Skin & Urban Buff

I’m painting Amber’s skin on Akaran here, which is a Space Marine Captain. You can name him however you want, but if you want to go official, his name is Akaran. And yeah, I’m just I’m going to do two thin coats of this guy and then two thin coats of the other color. Maybe just one, who knows? But then an edge highlight of the white. Now, I’ll be applying Urban Buff, which is the beige color.

Lightening this up completely. Now, you don’t have to apply it all throughout. Just keep it towards where the sun will shine. So, that’s literally his entire bald head, uh the bridge of the nose, obviously the eyebrows, a little bit of the cheekbone there. Just a dot or two, maybe a line. There we go. I can squeeze the brush in. keeping the eye holes untouched and just the brow of the lip cuz the rest of it will be a beard. But otherwise, that’s it. Keep it light. And then we’ll build onto this just a tiny bit more.

It’s already dried because I applied so thinly in the top of the head. And then we will just fix it with the final highlight of white. Now, Captain Akarin here is looking pretty pale. As the beige is now dried, we will now apply the final white highlight onto the eyebrows and the cheekbones and the nose. That’s it. Just a tiny bit right there. And then just on top of the nose right there.

And just a dot where the mouth is right there. That’s it. Maybe on the ear. That’s it. Let that dry and it’ll be a lot smoother. Trust. Trust. So, this is Captain Akaran. And uh basically, I only have 15 minutes to film them, so he’s not perfect. I also didn’t paint the ocular implant on his eyes there, making him look severely incomplete. But at the same time, uh this is basically the gist of it. incredibly pale where the sun hits the top of the eyebrows and the nose and maybe a little bit of the cheekbones especially. That’s where the white highlights should be. The white looks more stark on camera than it is in person.

But at the same time, this is it. Also, there’s brown right there at the bottom half of his face. That’s because he has a beard. Uh, so I painted him brown there. He’s a little bit of a red head, I believe. So, yeah, there it is. And never paint pure white, especially for skin. it just looks like you’re painting a ghoul. That is unless you are painting a zombie or something. Uh, that’s a different story.

White Being the Main Colour

Tip number three, white is too strong to be your main color. Let me explain. So, I primed the shoulder pad with white primer from Vallejo. 28010 is the code. Put that on your website. It will appear. and our website down below uh contains all our real-time information including the inventory. Every item that appeared on this video will be down there.

Anyway, so yeah, what do I mean by it’s too strong? So, it’s kind of like um White is that uh main character that uh let’s say you’re a writer and you wrote yourself this super powerful protagonist or side character that’s super powerful, but then halfway through the story you realize, wait, this guy can just solve everything. He’ll literally destroy the plot in like 5 seconds. I need to get rid of him quickly. And uh whether temporarily or not, I got rid of him. fans may not like it. They may moan and complain, but I’ll get rid of him. Um, and this is something that happened in a very popular manga/anime. I will not spoil in case you’re watching, but he comes back later down the line. Still super powerful.

May maybe even more powerful than previously when this person disappeared temporarily. Now you’re like, damn it, I have to bring him back. But he can still solve the plot in 5 seconds. I need to make a plot so convoluted [laughter] that it kills this character and to this day your fans hate you for it and it’s so controversial. If you know, you know. [laughter] Um, yeah, this is what it’s like to use pure white as your main color is my main point. Don’t because you have nowhere to go. you are artistically shooting yourself in the foot. And what do I mean by that? Um, again, if you are an airline painter or a car painter, this doesn’t apply to you. There is a third option there and that is uh White Scar Space Marines players.

You guys are an exception as well because you guys paint pure white all the time. But if it’s not those three or a fourth, which is an intentional paint job to be pure white with a little bit of shading, if not one of those four, do not use pure white because you can apply a black wash on this, a gray wash, right? But to bring back the details because it might be a little too dark, you’re going to have to use pure white. And that’s just the same color. That’s it. You painted your ceiling. You yourself have been limited by your choice of paint. You see what I’m saying? You made your own cage and you’re trying to escape the cage, but you gave away the key. And the key is that you shouldn’t be there in the first place. [laughter] You shouldn’t have been there in the first place. So, please do not use pure white as your main color unless you’re one of the four that I just mentioned. It’s not worth it.

Painting Armour – Grey Wash on White Primer

So again, this is an armor piece. An armor gets dirty and beaten up. Let’s just say it’s dirty, right? Dirty. So you’re going to use some sort of gray wash or contrast paint just for dirt. So I’m going to be using apothecary white here, right? So I’m going to be putting that all over. So it’s a gray. Just spread it around. So, this will go into the recesses while making the rest of the paint job darker. Yes, the white will still shine through in a lot of the places, mainly on the apexes of the curve, but at the same time, it will darken it enough to where you’re like, “Okay, yeah, it’s dirty.”

So, just do it like that. Just keep spreading it around. So, here is Apothecary White completely dry. And to be honest with you, it looks the same as the other shoulder pad we painted earlier. All right, the one where it’s two thin coats of white on top of black. It look virtually identical. Now, let’s flip it back. We’re going to hit this with a dry brush of white cuz really, it’s all we can do, right? Yeah, you can argue if you washed it black, then you can hit it with a dry brush at gray, but that’s so dull. Nothing really will change. That’s just dark colors and dark colors.

For there to be some sort of contrast, it has to be dark and light, right? And your only choice right now is to hit it with the exact same color it was previously on the spots where the sun shines. And that would be the edges and near the center there. So here we go. Just light just to bring back some sort of warmth that’s already coming back. Just a little light dry brushing. Now granted, again, no shade to you. Pun intended. [laughter] But if this is your intended paint job, why are you still listening? I already told you.

Then you’re good, right? But if this is not what you intended, then you shot yourself on the foot essentially because this is basically as far as you can go. Yes. Yes, you can go even farther with this, but really you’re just going back to square one with the original color that is the white. That that’s it. That’s all you can do. There’s no sort of artistic variety, nothing. So, here we go.

I’ve retained the sort of highlights there while keeping the shade at the bottom. So yeah, that’s it. That’s all you can do. That was so boring, guys. I fell asleep. Please do not paint white. You’re going to bore me. Oh, that sounds so arrogant. Please, I’m not. [laughter] Anyway, just please don’t paint white. It’s for your own good.

Glaze Medium

Use glaze medium. Yes, this is a hidden sort of bonus fourth tip. Instead of using water, which is a double-edged sword, glaze medium or any mediums that’ll be war paint stabilizer for army painter, Lahmian Medium for citadel paints, etc., etc. And those sort of auxiliary mediums can be used on either one so long as they’re all water-based acrylics. So, you can use them on tooth and coats, for example. Uh, anyway, why water though? Why would you neglect water? Wild water.

Again, it’s a blessing because it is cheap. You can go from your desk to the sink and back to your desk in like a minute just filling up your cup with water. That’s about it, right? Um, but the downside to water, the curse is that it dries too fast. Uh, in this particular discussion, white in particular, uh, that drying part is very noticeable. Uh, open your cap for the water bottles.

Oh, sorry, for the white bottles. Right now, um on the rim when you open the cap, you’ll notice these sort of dried white particles that look like pebbles, like gray or black pebbles. Um that’s because white and just bright colors in general, but white especially are chunky. Either either chunky or too thick out the bottle. And this is just the nature of making white paint. They’re all going to be like that. uh regardless of newer engineering and whatnot, even ionic and atom paint which have self-leveling technology built into it [snorts] will all be like this. So to mitigate issues especially on flat surfaces or curved surfaces or flat uh uh massive curved surfaces, use mediums, please, please. [laughter] I want your paint job to succeed. And

Paul’s Conclusion

uh this is just the way to go when you’re dealing with pure white. And that’s all the time we have for today because this video is now 25 minutes long. [laughter] I’m so sorry, Mr. Editor. My bad. Anyway, uh yeah, this is Paul signing out. But before I truly do sign out, I’m just going to announce again once again that we have an in-person painting class. Yes, a painting class in store. You get to see not only the store, but you get to have an inclass in store. So, that’s going to be such a cool experience.

I’m kind of jealous, but I’m staffed, so I can’t be part of it. Anyway, uh this class will be headed up by Adrian Pech at War Glamour Minis. Uh that’s his Instagram handle. And this class will take place on April 18th at 11 a.m. April 18th at 11:00 a.m. Sign up links will be down in the description below. Uh he is a Golden Demon bronze recipient for large scale miniature painting. He’s kind of insane, a very good painter.

So yeah, you guys are in great hands. Uh the class itself comes with the free mini and obviously the class. Um plus within the class, you get to use his own paints. So you don’t have to bring your own paints. You guys are good. Uh don’t worry about the paints at all. Uh anyways, thank you guys so much for watching.

And uh yeah, if you like what you saw here and you want to see more, please consider liking and subscribing. And we hope to hit 20K. That’s like the goal this year. Last year was 10K, now it’s 20. a little bit more unrealistic as it’s a larger hurdle. But hey, who knows? Some people say that getting from zero to 10k is harder than zero uh 10k to 20. I don’t know. I don’t know if that’s true. Anyway, bye-bye.

About the Author:

Paul Catindig As someone who’s been building model kits since he was 8 years old, Paul is very knowledgeable and adept at model kit building! When he’s not building or painting kits, he spends his free time cooking, playing video games with friends, or at a restaurant patio somewhere. Hopes to make his very own movie one day.

*Video by Paul Catindig
Video Edited by Daniela Castellano
Transcript generated by youtube
Edited by Angelo Castellano