Quartered yellow and blue

[grailkeeper]

Any advice on how to paint a quartered yellow and blue colour scheme?

 

I'm working on one based on the papal Swiss guard. It'll also have bits in red.

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/Travel/2016/june/swissguard.jpg

 

any advice on how best to acheive this? my cousin suggested white undercoat and inks for the rest.

 

 

 

[Kierdale]

Some of my harlequins are halved yellow/blue and other quartered. With red too, as it happens:

My basic advice on how to paint it would be “carefully”.

As to what paints to use, I worked from a white undercoat in order to make the yellow brighter.

You could use inks and glazes but I think either way you’ll just need careful brush control and patience.

Be sure to post images once you give it a go :)

[Major_Gilbear]

I don't think your friend's advice is bad actually; a few glazes of yellow ink over a white undercoat will get you a nice yellow with relative ease.

 

After that, you need to paint a thin line with your blue paint. Go slowly, and work your way from the blue side up to the line. After that, block in the rest of the blue colour, and then highlight up as usual.

 

The reason for working up to the line rather than just painting a line down the middle and then filling in, is so that you don't end up with the blue quarters offset against the yellow ones. It also allows you to be "messy" on the side you will be filling in, as the last thing you want to be doing is trying to touch up blue slips on yellow areas!

 

To get a nice neat line, I would suggest using a really good brush (I use a Winsor & Newton Series 7 size 1) and thinning the blue a little with some clean water on your palette. Take your time, make sure you're sitting comfortably and are relaxed, and that you have good light. Personally, I also try to avoid music or other distractions when I'm doing anything like this, as I find it easier to concentrate on the task.

 

My Dark Angels are all 5th Company, and I have painted their three-colour quartered company colours onto every model's knee so far. I'll be honest; it gets even easier after you've done a couple. ;)

[WarriorFish]

When you say based on I assume you mean colour wise (otherwise that wouldn't be quartered )? As mentioned patience is the real key along with a good brush I have no real depth perception and I can manage a halved scheme fine with these. The washing method is good but you just need to be careful with the follow up colours - I use a similar method on my halved scheme and repainting the washed bit is a bit of a pain if you slip.

 

Oh, and when you're building up washes don't forget to keep the method consistent and ensure you leave enough time between coats for them to fully dry. Overall it's not as hard as you might think, so give it a go and let us know

[Xenith]

I'd actually do the opposite of Gilbear and paint the blue first:

 

White undercoat

Paint blue split line.

Paint blue

Tidy up areas to be yellow with white paint. Paint yellow.

 

This is more forgiving as you can be messy on both blue and yellow,as you can easily touch up the blue, while painting the yellow first means you cannot make a single mistake with the blue, due to doing washes.

 

I think Duncan has a tutorial on painting quartered marines, give him a search.

[Major_Gilbear]

I would honestly say that it's harder to get a really sharp and crisp line where the two colours meet unless you paint one over the other. Then again, I generally have a fairly steady hand.

 

That's not to say you can't do it, or that with other quartered colour schemes it isn't easier, but details like this add up when you have to paint the scheme repeatedly over a whole army.

[Subtle Discord]

Agreed, do one side 'quick and dirty' and make sure it's the 'harder' side; yellow is simply more challenging to get good coverage than blue. This is a case that you want to be aware of your order of operation; blue will cover yellow with ease, and yellow will struggle to cover blue; it struggles to cover anything, really, that's just the nature of yellow. Get the yellow correct, then carefully create the split line with a very sharp brush and thinned blue paint, then fill in the blue. Do everything possible to preserve the yellow, as it will always be the harder colour to fix.