Painting Iyanden/Yellow Vehicles

[Commander Dawnstar]

I've been feeling sorely tempted to start an Iyanden army lately but one major concern I'm running into at the moment is just how I would paint their vehicles. As I'm far from the best painter, and would rather save myself time if possible, so I'm inclined towards the method of doing yellow armour with a Cassandora Yellow shade over a white base and following up with highlights, but I can't help but think that a method like that isn't really going to work on a model with large flat surfaces.

 

Does anyone have any experience painting large models predominately with shades or suggestions how I might get a yellow finish that wouldn't make for too unpleasant a contrast alongside the rest of my army?

[sarabando]

Break up the yellow with lots of weathering and blue sections such as flames or Eldar camo

[Arkhanist]

I agree, the casandora yellow over white works for normal minis, but I think pooling and uneven tone would be an issue for bulk shading vehicles unless you thinned it to more of a glaze and spent a fair bit of time on multiple layers. Straight yellow by brush similarly usually needs multiple thin layers to look decent, so again would be tedious at the scale.

 

I think this is a problem easier solved with a spray. Airbrushing would be one option but I assume you don't have one! So that leaves coloured rattle cans.

 

Army Painter Daemonic Yellow comes in rattle can form, is a nice bright yellow, and is something people already use for Iyanden and Imperial Fists. The basic approach is a light primer coat of white, then a couple of thin coats of army painter daemonic yellow. You can do it straight over the grey plastic, but that needs more layers (it initially looks kinda streaky and green over bare plastic) risking obscuring detail. Rattle cans are also subject to issues with temperature and humidity - they don't enjoy cold mornings, high humidity or very hot weather and need extra handling, so something to be aware of. Nozzle clogging can usually be solved by spraying the can when its upside down briefly; before finishing and during a long session.

 

After that depends upon what final look you want. For individual models, painting on army painter soft tone quickshade dip (comes in a tin, not a pot) is one popular option. It wouldn't look quite so good on a vehicle, but I think would still work fairly well. Option B would be a careful application of casandora yellow or seraphim sepia (depending upon which looks better to you) into crevices and lines, rather than just slopping it on all over the panels. Keep a 2nd brush handy so you can quickly mop up overspill onto flat areas.

 

To add a bit more pop, you could add a final highlight such as hexos palesun (light drybrush) or dorn yellow (edge highlight), or flash gitz yellow for less contrasty edges.

 

Older blog post showing the daemonic yellow + light drybrush + army paint quickshade soft tone method, and a quickie video on daemonic yellow spray in action.

 

Also someone using daemonic yellow as a base for iyanden vehicles, then layering with yriel yellow.

[Atia]

Just use your technique with an airbrush =)?

[Honda]

Or...don't do yellow. :)

In my case, I went with a sand color because I wanted something more subdued. No one in our general neck of the woods has ever doubted my army is Iyanden.

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

Yellow paint is a product of the Ruinous Powers. I personally have never had luck with yellow on a large area except when using rattlecans or an airbrush and would suggest the same for anyone else. 

[Arkhanist]

Yellow paint is a product of the Ruinous Powers.

 

There is a way to get bright, well covering yellows and oranges. Cadmium based paints, used by artists such as Monet for his autumn paintings. Problem is it's a toxic rare metal that is also very useful for NiCad batteries and QLED TVs so it's quite an expensive pigment. It's banned in a number of products in the EU, but not paint (yet). 

 

You do have to use it with caution - don't spray it, lick brush, put it on skin or put it neat down the sink etc, which is why you won't find it in child-friendly paint lines such as Citadel or Vallejo. But if you get the chance, check out some Cadmium Yellow Light in an artist brand oil or acrylic line some time (not the 'hue' variants, as they're not real cadmium), it really is amazing stuff when you're used to the weak-ass safe substitutes.

[Evil Eye]

I'd be tempted to consider using something like, say, Mr. Color or Tamiya with lacquer thinner through an airbrush (if you have one) to get the initial yellow coat. Generally speaking, lacquer paints have much better coverage and play a lot nicer than acrylics, and I would imagine that would lessen the inherent problems with yellow somewhat. Mr. Color is an especially nice brand that sprays like a dream- use it with their levelling thinner to lessen the chances of pooling/orange peel. Tamiya works well with Mr. Color thinners too. I haven't actually tried airbrushing yellows from either company, but if their other paints I've used are anything to go by they should work well.

 

Alternatively, if airbrushing isn't an option I'd honestly recommend starting with a base of Averland Sunset over white primer. Obviously it'll need multiple thin coats, but in my experience it's actually pretty good as yellows go, probably because it's a somewhat darker yellow admittedly, but if you just use it as a basecoat to paint much brighter yellows over it should do the trick.

 

 

Yellow paint is a product of the Ruinous Powers.

 

There is a way to get bright, well covering yellows and oranges. Cadmium based paints, used by artists such as Monet for his autumn paintings. Problem is it's a toxic rare metal that is also very useful for NiCad batteries and QLED TVs so it's quite an expensive pigment. It's banned in a number of products in the EU, but not paint (yet). 

 

You do have to use it with caution - don't spray it, lick brush, put it on skin or put it neat down the sink etc, which is why you won't find it in child-friendly paint lines such as Citadel or Vallejo. But if you get the chance, check out some Cadmium Yellow Light in an artist brand oil or acrylic line some time (not the 'hue' variants, as they're not real cadmium), it really is amazing stuff when you're used to the weak-ass safe substitutes.

 

I'd be interested in trying this. A shame that airbrushing it would probably be a very, very bad idea though.

[NovemberIX]

Yellow is easy. Seriously. I'm actually gonna spend more time trying to describe what to do, than what it what actually take to do. You'll need a few things.

• a can of white primer is first (I like Duplicolor white sandable primer, rustoleum is also pretty alright)
• a bottle of Lamenters yellow glaze is gonna be your number 2
• your choice of yellow layer paint (I like a bright yellow so I go with Flash Gitz, but you can choose what you prefer)
• a couple of brushes you don't mind abusing
• a paint cup of clean water
• maybe a paper towel
• and some speed

Priming white is pretty self evident, yellow is a color that really takes on the tint of what it goes over, I prefer a bright clean color, so white primer is what I lay down. Once it's good and dry pop the tops on the lamenters yellow and your layer paint. The basic idea is you're using the lamenters glaze to help thin the layer paint, and keep your brush 'hydrated' for lack of better word.

 

And yes, I am talking about painting straight out of the pots, heresy, I know. but, you can use a pallet if you want, especially if you're using dropper bottle paints. Though I'd almost go so far as to recommend a dry pallet at first till you have more experience in the glaze-to-paint ratios.

 

So dip your brush into the glaze, you'll want the brush soaked. Next load up a bit of layer paint on the body of the brush (I tend to side load from the cap) and apply to the model. The trick is to spread the paint as far as you can without any physical buildups (you want the depth of the color to build, not the thickness of the paint), if you end up with a spot that has too much paint, grab a clean brush and start working it till smooth. Short staccato sweeps in multiple directions work for me. Do this over all the parts of the model you want yellow.

 

At the end of it, you should have a smooth consistent yellow base that you can then shade or highlight as you choose. Every once in a while, make sure to rinse the brush in the clean water, even with the glaze being used regularly, the layer paint is gonna wanna dry a little on the brush, use the paper towel to remove excess water from the brush after, and take it from the top again.

 

Again, this sounds like a lot of hoopla, but it's literally thinning your paint with a glaze, and using that glaze to spread the pigment of the layer paint further out.

 

There is another trick I use, but this one breaks a lot of the 'rules'. I apply a large amount of lamenters glaze to the surface of the model, then using another brush I load that up with layer paint and dip into the glaze pool. You'll see the pigments start to strain out into the glaze, that's when it's time to really start going buck wild with the long quick brush sweeps to spread the color as thin as possible. Doing it this way, I usually end up only having to do two layers and it takes no more than a few minutes.

 

Now admittedly, it'll take a bit of experience till you get to the point where you can eyeball the amounts of glaze and paint you need to fit the space you're working in, but like I said, the trick is to keep spreading it as much as you can, and using a clean brush to clean up any mistakes before the paint start to dry.

 

(side note, if you end up with yellow in a place it's not supposed to be, a clean brush loaded with clean water more or less acts like an eraser if you're quick enough, you may have to 'scrub' it a bit, but as long as you can keep the pigment from binding to the surface and drying, you can save yourself a lot of headache)

 

 

In my case, I went with a sand color because I wanted something more subdued. No one in our general neck of the woods has ever doubted my army is Iyanden.

To be fair, they're all filthy xeno tricksy knife ears to me

 

edit: to give some examples of how it ends up looking, click on the November Warriors banner and scroll down to all the hidden images, apparently photobucket works again, so all my close up examples of models painted this way are visible again. I have started to use an airbrush more recently, but I've found I prefer my brush technique much more, it's smoother and quicker. The Storm Eagle, Fire Raptor, and the FW Fellblade we're painted with brushes for the best examples.

[Brother-Chaplain Kage]

Sounds like a neat process, NovemberIX! Maybe you should do a tutorial with pics?

 

Here's a tutorial from massive voodoo on painting an Imperial Fist marine all by brush that might be helpful for others. 

[FormelyKnownAsSmashyPants]

Similar to the Casandora wash method, using lamenters yellow and glazing, a much more controlled process, leaving a nicer finish, no large splotches etc, could work. Here’s a link to tute from Memel Miniatures I found a long time ago I think may help http://www.mengelminiatures.com/2015/11/tutorial-heresy-era-imperial-fists.html . Let me know how it goes if you decide to go this route, as I’m quite keen on trying it out on some Lamenters space marine, funnily enough, the only thing stopping me being I really don’t fell confident painting checks on SM shoulder pads. The only thing is that doing vehicles this way would probably mean going through many, many pots of the glaze.

[Atia]

Similar to the Casandora wash method, using lamenters yellow and glazing, a much more controlled process, leaving a nicer finish, no large splotches etc, could work. Here’s a link to tute from Memel Miniatures I found a long time ago I think may help http://www.mengelminiatures.com/2015/11/tutorial-heresy-era-imperial-fists.html . Let me know how it goes if you decide to go this route, as I’m quite keen on trying it out on some Lamenters space marine, funnily enough, the only thing stopping me being I really don’t fell confident painting checks on SM shoulder pads. The only thing is that doing vehicles this way would probably mean going through many, many pots of the glaze.

Using an airbrush, it works wonderfully (since it's the same technique I used):

 

 

[Commander Dawnstar]

I'd just like to say thanks to everyone who's suggested ideas and methods. You've given me a lot to think about. Like ... a lot.

 

At this point I'd probably say that I'm most inclined towards that last method suggested, although I'll certainly want to mess about and test my options. It's definitely been very helpful to see all these different ideas.

[FormelyKnownAsSmashyPants]

 

Similar to the Casandora wash method, using lamenters yellow and glazing, a much more controlled process, leaving a nicer finish, no large splotches etc, could work. Here’s a link to tute from Memel Miniatures I found a long time ago I think may help http://www.mengelminiatures.com/2015/11/tutorial-heresy-era-imperial-fists.html . Let me know how it goes if you decide to go this route, as I’m quite keen on trying it out on some Lamenters space marine, funnily enough, the only thing stopping me being I really don’t fell confident painting checks on SM shoulder pads. The only thing is that doing vehicles this way would probably mean going through many, many pots of the glaze.

 

Using an airbrush, it works wonderfully (since it's the same technique I used):

 

 

Wow Atia, those knights look really, really, :cuss ing good.

[Atia]

 

 

Similar to the Casandora wash method, using lamenters yellow and glazing, a much more controlled process, leaving a nicer finish, no large splotches etc, could work. Here’s a link to tute from Memel Miniatures I found a long time ago I think may help http://www.mengelminiatures.com/2015/11/tutorial-heresy-era-imperial-fists.html . Let me know how it goes if you decide to go this route, as I’m quite keen on trying it out on some Lamenters space marine, funnily enough, the only thing stopping me being I really don’t fell confident painting checks on SM shoulder pads. The only thing is that doing vehicles this way would probably mean going through many, many pots of the glaze.

Using an airbrush, it works wonderfully (since it's the same technique I used):

 

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Wow Atia, those knights look really, really, ing good.

 

 

Thank ya