I did mention that to the wife when she was looking at this week's entries - I've struggled to take decent, well lit pics of white paint jobs in the past that don't mask all the hard work that goes into the detail
If you have a camera where you can control the settings:
It's best to purposely underexpose the photo slightly if you have a lot of whites. If it is overexposed, there's no information at all registered in the blown out white areas, you can never get those details. No amount of correction by darkening the white areas will bring back details. On a correct exposure, everything should be fine. Slightly underexposed will just need a little correction toward brightness, the digital file will have information in the white spots. I'm guessing your scene was overall quite dark because of the backdrop, which your camera compensated for, (cameras naturally try to 'even things out') and overexposed the whites.
The photography aspect of displaying miniatures on the internet, with accurate values and colors, is endless frustration. I hate it most of the time. My tutorial shots are really fugly for that very reason
If you don't have a camera with settings you can control, focusing on a medium gray card or sheet of paper placed in the center of the scene, then removing the card for the shot, should help- the camera will shoot for the medium tones.
I have yet to buy an actual light meter- I think it would save me a heck of a lot of time. I take a LOT of photographs just to get one good one.