Anybody have any tricks for speed painting white cloth?

[Patyrn]

I'm painting the tabards on these guys white http://privateerpress.com/files/products/31030_SwordKnight-Grunts_WEB.jpg and I'm trying to hit a good tabletop standard without spending too much time on it.

I can't seem to get the white to look even remotely smooth without ridiculously thin glazes of grey for shading, which takes forever for 12 guys.

Does anybody have any tricks for getting good looking white in a timely fashion?

 

[jcichon]

White is a tough color to base. If you have an airbrush its great for it. Or prime it with white primer. I know neither of these may be an option but if they dont work, thin layers to build it up. Sorry!

 

[Niranth]

Have you tried painting the grey first and then painting white?

 

[Patyrn]

The white is already based. I need a fast way to shade it.

 

[Bloodhowl]

Wash the shadows with the gray, then drybrush white over?

 

[MAXXxxx]

I'd start with a grey here and go up from there.
A little extra: don't use a neutral grey use either a cool one (blueish) or a warm one (yellowish) as a base. it really helps a lot.
And while working up use the new GW white for the last 2-3 layers. It really covers well, so for speedpainting and armies in white it's really usable despite being a GW product

Last time I wanted a really contrasty white was here(the Maiden's cloth): https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-...lsTXGpTk/s800/Helldorado%20Lost%20-%2002S.jpg

Here the base was graveyard earth, highlighted to bleachedbone then to pure white. So for contrast it can help if you start much darker than you'd think.

One tutorial I go back to sometimes when painting white is this: http://blog.brushthralls.com/?page_id=1967

 

[Wyrmypops]

I'd avoid a regular grey. It can look artificial without a hint a colour.

Keeping it simple helps speed. Just transitioning between two paints, a dark tone and white. That's less faffing around with mixes.
A dark brown works well, as they aren't often overly saturated with colour so once the white is added you get various greys with a hint of brown. You could have a lot of tonal ranges going from that dark brown up to white - simple, but could be more stages than wanted.

For something really fast, could go with a moderate tone (a dirty yellowy brown) and head into white, and just slap on some thin brown ink for the shading.

 

[stampedingviking]

For a warm white, start with a base of 50:50 white/GW Dheneb Stone, wash with GW Sepia, wash of GW Devlan Mud in deeper creases, highlights white.

 

[Einion]

Airbrushing is the way to paint anything fast and smooth, and you could easily do your dozen minis in a single sitting. But failing that, you're pretty much stuck with doing something with glazes or washes.

The main 'trick' to getting as smooth a result as possible is to use incrementally-different colours, but that fights a bit with the requirement for speed since you have use multiple coats to get a noticeable colour change.

Einion

 

[Phoulmouth]

I'm painting the tabards on these guys white http://privateerpress.com/files/products/31030_SwordKnight-Grunts_WEB.jpg and I'm trying to hit a good tabletop standard without spending too much time on it.

I can't seem to get the white to look even remotely smooth without ridiculously thin glazes of grey for shading, which takes forever for 12 guys.

Does anybody have any tricks for getting good looking white in a timely fashion?

I like to prime with a matte black, then mist the models with a matte white giving a grayish effect. If done properly the white mist should hit the highlights more than the recesses. I don't have a problem doing whites over this in 2-3 coats using Formula P3 paints. I personally like to start with the absolute lightest shade of either ivory or seafoam before going to white though.


Hope I could help.