If you paint your Tau ivory, you’ll want to use these tricks for detailing white. Check out this awesome way to make your Tau look ready for the tabletop.
Coming from, Rage of Khorne’s old Tau model, we’ll be taking a look at what he did for detailing white in the Tau armor he painted up.
Don’t Be Afraid of Detailing White: Hobbying on Tau
There are actually several common ways of painting white on models, including the following:
- Priming black, then painting the white areas with a mid-scale grey and then highlighting up to white.
- Or priming the model black and painting white right onto the white areas and blending the shadows in using a light grey.
- Lastly, Priming white and leaving the areas you want white.
The fastest way is probably to prime white highlighting the most raised edges. If you have access to an airbrush, your life gets a lot easier when painting tricky colors. However, prioritizing colors with a rattle can of primer can also pull off the same effect. It’ll just take more time and you’ll benefit from having a steady hand. Here’s the method he uses.
Step 1: Prime
Prime the models with white primer and don’t worry about applying the spray too thickly. There is a natural soft fade that happens when you prime the model lightly. And you can use this to mimic shadow effects. We’re not saying avoid priming certain areas, but having a higher concentration of spray on the raised areas is useful. After the model has been primed, let it dry. Then cover up all the areas you want to remain white (in this case the armored carapace) with blue-tac. Then spray the model again but with the other primary color (or paint it on by hand). Before you put on your blue-tac. Make sure the paint is completely dry. Or else you’ll get stuck with a rough surface where the paint was tampered with while wet.
Remove the blue-tac when the model is finished drying. Then touch up any areas where the primer went under the blue-tac.
Step 2: Draw Out Your Details
At this stage, it is important to add shadow effects in the cracks and sunken areas of the model. For this, use a combination of black and blue wash which looks fairly natural against the white areas.
Brush this wash into the cracks and be careful not to be too messy. As it will stain the white and make a lot more work later on. Your best bet is to use a fine brush and apply it in little amounts at a time. You can always add more later on. But it’s difficult to take it off if you throw on too much.
Step 3: Highlight For Contrast
You might want to finish this step before going on to finish your white. Just to rule out any other possible mis-strokes onto your white surface. Get your risky painting out of the way first before you touch up your white armor panels so you don’t have to keep going back over and fixing mistakes.Step 4: Make The White More Vibrant
The last step of painting the white is simply painting pure white onto the edges of the plating. Just as was done with the black areas but with white instead of grey. This usually only takes one step, but if the lines don’t show up well, you might want to use another layer. This effect is subtle and you won’t notice it everywhere but the areas of shadow on the white plates will stand out most. You might also want to add some touches of battle damage at this stage as well. By using a dark grey to paint on scrapes and cuts and underlining them with pure white.
