FAQ: painting yellow

[Cptn. Palladorus]

I've come up with a recipe that I think would work to paint a dark, rich yellow like the Imperial Fists should have up to tabletop quality quickly, but I was hoping I could get some feedback from the salty dogs before I ruin a whole squad.

 

1. Spray black.

2. Airbrush Desert Yellow.

3. Airbrush Sunburst Yellow.

4. Details in red, black, etc.

 

Has anyone done it this way? Will it work?

[Daeothar]

Haven't done any airbrushing before, so I won't be of much advice but I would not undercoat in black, even when airbrushing.

 

My initial IF minis were indeed undercoated black but then I had to work up my colours from black to Vomit Brown before I could start on the actual yellow. That meant 4 thin layers before I even started on the Golden Yellow basecoat! My dread in particular has an astounding 17 layers from black to the highest highlight.

 

For my later models, I use an undercoat of a colour as near to Vomit Brown as possible and it creates the same result. I bought a spray can with fast dryin acrylic paint that came as close to Vomit Brown as possible (only slightly less yellowy) and you can't tell the end results apart.

 

So; basecoat in a mustardy brown and work up from there; saves a lot of time, paint and thickness in the coats...

[Alys Dwr]

I think that as long as you got a decent coverage of desert yellow over the black it would be fine, producing a very dark yellow to work up from. I've never used an airbrush but guess it works similar to a can of spray paint. I wouldn't airbrush the second yellow over the the first as it would cover the entire model. I'd go for a dry brush style approach so that you still had the darker yellow in recesses and near the edges of armour plates. Might need to apply a few brushings like this to get a solid yellow but i think it would look very nice indeed.

 

Al

[Brother Gothard]

Honestly, I'd wait till April 28th if you are able. The foundation paints will make painting yellow a breeze: Iyanden Darksun yellows is a mustard lookin' colour that covers a black spray with 1 coat. You can get table-top yellow in 4 steps: black spray, Iyanden Darksun, Golden Yellow, Sunburst. I've done it myself at GW using the preview paints.

 

I gave up painting my Yellow marines a long time ago, and come April 28th, they're back in business. I'd seriously recommend you wait.

[Apemantus]

The best way I find to paint yellow over a black undercoat is not to use yellow paint at all, My Imperial Fists have black undercoats followed by thinned down layers of bleached bone, 50/50 bleach bone and vomit brown, then vomit brown, the three colours blend in nicely. I then use a (very) small bit of yellow ink.

[beefHeart]

Why spray black? Why not prime in white? or even gray.... if it just small patches of yellow again use white first, then yellow, then tone with a wash...

[sugar-free]

I agree. why does everyone use black. I don't even own black spray. I only use white on all my models. For yellow marines i just spray them white then i put two light coats of yellow ink on the parts i want yellow. Then i put a light coat of golden yellow-the golden yellow will just flatten out the ink then i highlight in bad moon yellow and then a final highlight of bad moon mixed with alittle white. Then i will go back and "black line" with chestnut ink. Right now i am painting an army called the soul collectors and they are a quarter sceme-yellow and green. So i spray the fig white and ink the green side black and keep the yellow side white to ink it yellow. That way the yellow sides are nice and bright and the green sides are dark and deep. Keep an eye out. I will post them on the works in progress area as soon as i can. Now, airbrushing is a subject that i do not know much about. But if i did use an airbrush then i would only use it for the first coat. then brush the rest. Good luck though. you will not really know if its gona work if you dont' try it. go for it.

[Romulas]

a quick cheat for a nice solid yellow is a undercoat of elf flesh. then wash with yellow ink, and highlight with a bit of the bright yellows. gives a nice good yellow.

 

-Rom

[Shinohai]

dont bother with the foundation paints. if you want a good coverage paint thats available now and is still a better quality get p3 paint. if your airbrushing try using tamiya colors, they airbrush very well and will look great. to the person that said the paint will cover everything hasnt used an airbrush before, its a far different animal then your average everyday spraycan.

[nik0]

how the **** do you paint yellow?

without it being to thick/dirty/streaky and all the other bad things about yellow paint.

i only have access to GW paints so nothing else

[Obliterator]

These are just 2 of the threads Searchy would've shown you in the tutorial section...

How to paint yellow

Painting yellow

[savage_heathen]

i havent tryed it but i beleave you build it up from brown, maby black bace coat, tehn a darkish brown going to a lighter brown and finaly yelow, highlited with white, or white and yellow mixed

 

Dave

[crimsonending]

there are new foundation paints that do the job perfectly

[nik0]

does it tell you how to stop it being streaky

[mario]

does it tell you how to stop it being streaky

Streaky layers of paint can have multiple reasons: Here are two. Your paint could be to thick (so you don't get even coats; only trails left by the brush) or it could be that you don't let a layer dry properly (if you are using thin paint); that would have the effect that when you brush over this area or the new layer you move the underlying layer that hasn't dried.

 

Both these things can be changed with patience. In the first case you need to thin your paint more (and paint more layers which takes more time) and in the second case you need to wait a bit more until the last layers is truly dry, which again takes some time.

 

A third reason could be that you primed bad and have too much bad texture which should cause the paint to settle irregularly. Bad texture could be caused by not removing the flash and mould lines.

 

There are (probably) some other reasons that I haven't mentioned.

[Beef]

i do white primer. I then put 2 layers yellow ink then wash with brown ink. These are done upto this stage. Bases and hihlights not done. This is a very quick method. However the marines dont look as nice. But for lazy people like me it fine.

 

They will be matt varnished to get rid of the shine.

I will post a finished pic later on in the week if this thread is still alive.

 

http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g320/vittorio_13/bestarmy.jpg

[Marovingean]

They look cool!

 

M

[bionic_insanity]

I recently started yellow on my bloodclaws. On a black primer I do 2 (sometimes 2.5) layers of snakebite leather, untill there is no black showing anymore. Then 3 layers of 2 parts sunburst yellow and 1 part snakebite yellow. this is the result:

 

http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t270/bionic_insanity/Space%20wolfs/IM000378.jpg

[Brother Cambrius]

My friend told me to basecoat with a pink and paint yellow over it. I haven't tried it but he assures me that it works.

 

Cambrius

[Beef]

finished. Look rushed but they did not take long, could get an army painted like this very quickly. 4 IF devs with a BT chaplian

 

http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g320/vittorio_13/IF001.jpg

http://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g320/vittorio_13/IF002.jpg

[Maeklos]

My trick for doing yellow is to basecoat black, then do Bronzed Flesh over the top of that. The flesh tones go on well enough, and once you've got a coat down, you can do a coat or two of yellow on top of that, then ink it to fill in any minor color variations.

 

Though it seems as though beef's way is the easiest.

 

When in doubt, trust beef. The guy's a freakin' genius. And he's British. That's like double kudos, since anyone who speaks with an English accent automatically sounds ten times smarter than anyone else.

[Apemantus]

the way I paint my imperial Fists yellow is to have an undercoat of black then use different mixes of Vomit brown and Bleached bone, blending the colours together and then adding skull white to the mix for the highlights, followed by a very light wash of yellow ink.

[nik0]

ok as soon as i get yellow ink im trying some of these ideas(should be getting it on saturday)

[Beef]

When in doubt, trust beef. The guy's a freakin' genius. And he's British. That's like double kudos, since anyone who speaks with an English accent automatically sounds ten times smarter than anyone else.

 

 

I am adding this to my sig, thanks

[Master of the Dark Scyths]

personally, i go ( from black undercoat ) bubonic brown, sunberst yellow, then, if i feel it is a little dark, highlight very edges with swullwhite 1:1 sunburst mix