# Painting white helmets, any tips?



## Kilgore (Sep 19, 2008)

In particular I want to paint my termies and vet's helmets white but so far have just made them look a mess. I have them undercoated and have tried washing them after a layer of skull white, this left them looking dirty. Any tips would be welcome. 


I have the Citadel how to paint marines book, which is no help (if I wanted to look at pictures of Ultramarines I would open the codex).

I tried to search but came up with alot of threads that were not specific enough.


----------



## squeek (Jun 8, 2008)

You may find these tutorials useful, if not I am sure one of the people who paitns white alot will be along soon.

white armour
white armour again


----------



## Gobbo (Jun 4, 2008)

I'm sure the tutorials posted above already say this, but paint then mostly grey then go over them with skull white. Then once dry do a few very fine lines of black in the shadowed areas. I also use green or red for eyes with white helmets just as they show up a little more.


----------



## Exodus (Nov 12, 2008)

I use black undercoat then using a layering tecknique using codex gray over black then bleached bone then a final layer of white witch comes out bright.
Then paint eyes red/ yellow/ green to contrast


----------



## Vaz (Mar 19, 2008)

Easiest way is Chaos Black, Codex Grey, several thinned coats of Bleached Bone, and then Skull White on top of that.

Skull White is a hard colour to paint. Try mixing a bit of Ardcoat/Gloss with the first layer, then keep painting on pure skull white from your base.


----------



## asianavatar (Aug 20, 2007)

Curious Vaz, how does the ardcoat/gloss mixed with the white for the first layer help?


----------



## Kilgore (Sep 19, 2008)

Some great tips, thanks everyone. I was doing it the wrong way round, ie starting white then trying to shade.


----------



## Vaz (Mar 19, 2008)

It gives it a shininess. I'm talking a very small amount - maybe 10-90 Arcoat/Mix.

It gives a smoother finish than using a slight bit of Washing up liquid, and sets it off nicely, without looking lacquered. Instead of upping the amount of coats as well, you can actually increase the amount of ardcoat, to give it smoother, slightly shiny finish.

It's not everyone's liking, but in a brightly lit area, gives them a slight 'glare' or something, but it sets them off as being clean, rather than a matt, albeit clean, white colour. I don't tend to do that on something basic, like Guardsmen, when cleanliness isn't important, and Dress regs go flying out the window - but for Marines who spend a lot of Care on their equipment, it gives a darn good effect.

But make sure you don't do too much, or else you look like you're painting vinyl/lacquered marines, and you might as well do your white, then paint Gloss over the top. Practise with it on something out of the way - I did it at first on Helmet Stripes, but now, I'm going through the process of doing that on Marines, or at least I will be when I return home.


----------



## Syph (Aug 3, 2008)

I did a tutorial on this a while back:

http://www.heresy-online.net/forums/showthread.php?t=18192

Hope it helps.


----------

