# Painting the elusive smooth and flat blood red!



## The Scarecrow (Aug 16, 2007)

Yes it is one of the most frustrating things painters can attempt, but I am determined to achieve it. I have on my previous blood angel (shown here) got a pretty bright shade of red, but on this one i cant seem to cover the orange basecoat, whils still keeping the paint thin.

This is the process:
1. aprox 2:1 macharius solar orange to blood red thinly painted in 2-3 layers
2. watered down blood red

I have painted about 6 or 7 layers of blood red over the orange and this is what i have so far (keep in mind that it is a basecoat so I havent wrried about being neat yet, the main objective is a solid coat):

Starting from the orange/red









That was a good 4 layers of watered down mix. This is the next stage which I am stuck at, I just cant get the red to look, well, red. It still looks orange to me, what do you think?


















Here is a pic next to a blood angel to compare the colour. Do you reckon it will turn out looking the same red if i start highlighting now?


















I am using quite thin paint, it is almost water thin because of the wet palet im using, but i think it should be getting better coverage still. If you're wondering why I use orange as a basecoat instead of mechrite red, it's because i thought it would get a brighter finish, but do you think that mechrite red would look the same? Because painting that as a base straight off would make the blood red a lot easier. Or even the orange and then mechrite red? What would be the easiest way to get the flat red result shown on my finished marine?

Thanks for looking guys, and maybe this will help some others paint the time consuming red k:

Oh and C+C on my painting is greatly welcome and appreciated


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## Baalirock (Oct 6, 2008)

Looks pretty smoothe to me! :mrgreen: Painting over the Orange basecoat has made your new marine look a bit brighter than your old blood angel, but I think it looks fine. Nicely done!


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## Slappywag (Sep 8, 2009)

I quite like the bright look of it. Maybe a darker wash would do the trick. It will still be bright but the shading would help a bit. 

You could have always mixed some colours for a slightly darker basecoat i.e. Mach. orange and mech. red...or even Blood red and Mech red. 

I personally would wash it a few times then back with the blood red and then lighter highlights by adding some orange to blood red and highlight.


If you have the models spare, have a practice using different recipes. 

It's good you're trying new things though. looks good keep it up



slappy


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## bitsandkits (Mar 18, 2008)

personally i would start by priming the model white,base coat it red two coats needed at the most, and then add the black in after.


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## Shadow Hawk (Apr 26, 2009)

I paint it dark angel green then apply a few coats of watered down blood red. Why I don't know but it works pretty well.


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## aardvark (Feb 19, 2008)

*Different brands, different thinners*

Have you tried other brands of red paint, or perhaps a red enamel base coat?

Also, don't use water - that just dilutes the paint so that the pigment isn't properly suspended. Get hold of some proper acrylic thinners. Tamiya X20 acrylic thinners work well with GW paint.

Brighter reds are always a problem for coverage. I'm doing Ork vehicles at the moment and need a lot of red. I've been trying all sorts of acrylic brands in different shades: Humbrol, Railmatch, Revell, Vallejo, Lifecolor and Tamiya.

GW paint comes out bottom of the heap, I'm afraid. Thick and doesn't cover well. I think Vallejo comes out on top, perhaps not surprisingly, with Revell a surprising 2nd. Vallejo do an equivalent for Blood Red in their Game Colour range. Bloody Red, I think it's called. They also do other reds in their general range.

If you go this way, be warned that Vallejo paints need their own-brand thinners or disaster - i.e. goo - will result.

Lastly, any red coverage will be vastly improved by airbrushing. Not to mention the time saving.


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## couger-w (Oct 4, 2009)

I like the paint job. I am always looking for new ways to paint the Blood angels easier and better
Found that on small troops starting with a black base coat then working up off that with a 50/50 black/red or Red gore first coat (dry brushed) then a 25/75 black/red thinned with water then a layer or two of Blood red thinned with water coat works great allows for shading areas easily and gives a solid colour with no brush stroke marks. Worked great on my termi`s








(W.I.P picture)


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## bitsandkits (Mar 18, 2008)

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/content/article.jsp?aId=2500038


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## Mr J0se (Feb 18, 2009)

i've found a very tiny brush helps, i always water down my paints,the brush size i use to basecoat my models is 18/0 so you cant see ANY streak marks from it, then apply a baal red wash and blazing orange highlights


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