Painting white uniforms on minis?

[Digits]

I really struggle with this.  Can anyone please put up their guidance on painting good looking whites, specifically for Nap figures and the like?

I just can’t get the shading etc.

[westwaller]

Not a Naps painter but i remember this combination from a few years ago for a warm white - Vallejo Medium Grey, Deck Tan highlight with Silver Grey.
You could mix them with each other for softer transition. 

[axiom]

I don't paint historicals, but I do paint quite a lot of white cloth on my miniatures, like the Citadel scientist below:



The method is (over a black undercoat):
1) Basecoat with a high-pigment off-white (I use Citadel's Pallid Wych Flesh). Usually I do 2-3 thin coats
2) Wash with a thinned brown wash (I use Citadel's Agrax Earthshade at 1/3 wash to 2/3 water)
3) Highlight with the basecoat
4) Optional second highlight with 50/50 off-white and pure white

It's pretty simple and quick method that I like the look of.

[has.been]

As my Spanish involve a lot of white, & I need to churn them out to take on
Digit's  French horde, an more tips?

[Mindenbrush]

Many, many years ago I helped Gary Morley paint a lot of 15mm Battle Honours Austrians using a grey undercoat and highlighting with off white & white.
It also depends if you want a cold white (grey base and lighten to white) or a warm white (such as Foundry Boneyard).

[Digits]

These are great tips, thanks.  Keep them coming....

[LazyStudent]

The Dr. Faust painting you tube channel had a very nice tutorial for a 'warm' white that I use ()

I guess if you need to paint quickly, have you looked at all the one pot solutions out there, ie contrast paints? The white one seems to do a decent job.

LS

[SteveBurt]

Paint off-white. Wash of diluted Payne's Grey ink. Job done.

[Dodgy_Ed]

Quickest decent looking white I've found is a GW's Contrast Apothecary white over a white base/under coat. Quick and gets the job done; tho being as it's a GW product the wallet winces more than I would like.

[Calimero]

Quickest decent looking white I've found is a GW's Contrast Apothecary white over a white base/under coat. Quick and gets the job done; tho being as it's a GW product the wallet winces more than I would like.

That is the method I wanted to try... turns out this particular GW color is OOS in every places I looked so far...

[OSHIROmodels]

I use two methods at the moment.

First is a white spray undercoat (usually Humbrol matt white) then inked with a GW brown of choice (thinned 50/50 with a flow improver), then build the highlights back up to white, with white, in a couple of layers. The ink for these was Reikland fleshshade as it’s warmer (and more suitable for Mars) than the others.



The other method is standard Halfords grey primer, then a mid layer of  Foundry slate grey light and then a final highlight of white (sometimes in two layers as above). The other colours are done using the triad method.

[syrinx0]

Lots of interesting ideas for my Egyptian & Sudanese forces in this thread.   Thanks for starting the conversation Digits!

[Digits]

May have to look at the contrast paints, they sound interesting.

The video is about the best result but I fear doing all that on 36 troops may be too much for me.  Shame because I always start from a black prime.

I want to be able to achieve Something close to this ( taken from Perry site)

[Orctrader]

I use the CDA White Triad a lot. LINK

Photo isn't great, but you get the idea.  (I paint from a black undercoat.)

[zemjw]

For Star Wars Stormtroopers (a cold white) I thinned down Citadel Nuln Oil wash with Lahmian Medium.

It was quite a heavy medium to wash ratio (at least 2:1, probably more) if I remember correctly. Hopefully I have written it down somewhere, as I have more of them to paint at some point