Need some assistance with painting.

[NovemberIX]

Looks Good!

[Ovidius Incertus]

Very nicely done, especially on the flesh and uniforms--and those are two of the hardest to execute well!

 

As someone whose first stab at painting was Imperial Fists, I share your pain.  Yellow can be unforgiving, so your strategy of trying something else, like these Guardsmen, was wise.

[chrisdubya]

I was under the impression that a wash is a very slight highlight.. so I ended up with a coffee marine.

 

:( Biggest noob mistake so far.

 

http://i.imgur.com/58RAJG7.jpg

[Ovidius Incertus]

To get in those crevices and crannies, try pin washing: load the brush up with just enough of your wash (or shade, as GW calls it now) and flow it into the desired area with the tip of the brush.  You can also gloss varnish the model and then proceed with your washing.  Gloss varnish allows the wash to flow more readily and it also gives your paint protection so you can quickly wipe off any extra/sloppy wash with a cotton swab.

 

An area like the aquila on the chest could be mop washed after it's painted.  Say you want to paint it silver (which might not look so hot with yellow armor, but for the sake of example).  Paint the aquila with Bolt Gun Metal or Mithril Silver (those are the old GW names), depending on how shiny you want it, then put brush your Nuln Oil wash over the whole surface to darken the recesses in the aquila down. 

 

But if you're looking to only darken recesses and not change the main color, you want to accurately pin wash.

[Bryan Blaire]

You also want to remove any mold lines from the model, otherwise anywhere you wash with a mold line will have a ridge where the wash will gather and not necessarily flow correctly. Plus, cleaned mold lines make for a cleaner, more appealing model.