Saim-hann colors

Use white undercoat. To paint Saim-Hann with black coat is really, really, really painfull and time consuming, the white shortens that massivly.

I exploited this for my Saim Hann :

http://www.librarium-online.com/gallery/browseimages.php?do=member&catid=member&imageuser=106&page=2

However painting straight Saim Hann I think I would agree with Da Mighty Cammel and basecoat white, however how to paint red over black:

1. basecoat black (suprise)
2, use a thined red to apply a coat of red
3, repeat until colour is quite consistant
4, Start to blend highlights with lighter red (use orange mix to highlight, using white will produce pink)
5, on completion of blending wash with a thin red ink
6. repeat 5 many times until effect is as desired (note you MUST let the ink dry before applying the next coat)

The easiest way would be to find a spray paint in the color you want - even the GW Blood Angels Red spray. Apply that over your primer coat, and all your basecoating is done - then you just need to add shadows and highlights. Leave the bikes in pieces, keeping the bottom black, and spraying the carapace red.

A lot of times sprays will be too "shiny" to paint over - there's no "tooth" left. So you may need to dull coat it after your sprayed base color, to allow paints and inks to go on easier.

The tricky part is finding a spray that matches nearly exactly to one of your bottled paints, for touchups and the like. So you may want to use an airbrush to lay down the basecoat, using your bottled color with some Liquitex Airbrush Medium. Although, if you use Vallejo Model Colour, they have plenty of reds, and you ought to be able to find a matching spray. Or, again, use the Blood Angels spray, and pots of Blood Red (they're fairly close).

I'm painting my demolisher right now. I sprayed with Chaos Black primer, than did a watered-down coat of bestial brown, and then vermin brown. Then, a watered down coat of red gore.

I'm going to do another one (of red gore) as of right now. I'll keep painting, and highlight with blood red, as well as red/brown inks.

If you want a dark look of your Saim-Hann then paint over black can be a good Idée. Still I like to paint red over white.

When I painted this Vyper I used white primer then red spray paint (it was tamaya ferrei red I think). I painted the model blood red and used thinned down black + red fore the parts bet vine the plates.
Then I just highlighted it with red + yellow and yellow for the extreme highlights.

http://img249.imageshack.us/my.php?image=vyper4lk.jpg