Imperial Fists with Vallejo Game Color / Army Painter Washes

[appiah4]

After painting and collecting Blood Angels for two decades now I decided to dip into another army for my Primaris.. After briefly considering Mantis Warriors, I settled back on Imperial Fists. Because I'm a masochist and if I don't have two armies of the hardest colors to paint, I wouldn't be satisfied.

Anyway, for twenty years I painted my Blood Angels with craft paints (they were a cheap option back when I was a college student, then I just stuck and soldiered on with them) but as a 40 year old I have neither the patience nor the time for that anymore, so I stocked up on some Vallejo Game Color paints and Army Painter washes.

I've gone through a few tutorials, and in this age nobody seems to paint without an airbrush or something, so I found little to nothing to guide me with this. So by gut feeling and my experience in painting Blood Angels Fast Attack helmets, I am planning to pain them as follows:

Primer: Grey flat
Basecoat: VGC Heavy Goldbrown
Layer: VGC Gold Yellow
Shade: AP Soft Tone
Highlight: VGC Sun Yellow
Edge Highlight: VMC Ice Yellow

I've also considered using a VGJ Gold Yellow base and doing recess shading with AP Strong Tone instead but I don't want to make the same mistake I made with my Blood Angels and end up painting 2,000 points in 20 years, so I'll cut as many corners as I can and be as lazy as I can be.

The question is, is this a sound plan?

[Honda]

It's not a bad plan. The question I'd have for you is how many figures are you intending to paint this way?

 

I'm guessing that this will give you a very yellow "yellow" and that is what you are after. If you were going for a more desaturated yellow, I would offer for consideration VMC Yellow Ochre. It's still a yellow, but less bright if  that makes sense.

 

I think the first thing to do is one fig from start to finish, take notes along the way, and then see if you like the end result.

 

And post pics, we'd like to see what you come up with.

 

Cheers,

[DarkMark]

Vallejo now do spray cans in a number of their colours including Sun yellow. Could be a real time saver?

 

Oils washing really would help when painting yellow. You can brush on a very diluted gloss coat for the oil. Just be careful that it doesn't pool, allow a day to dry, and wash with thinned oil. Search Buypainted's oil wash technique on Youtube, where he paints an IF marine. The clean up is very easy and fast with washing. You don't need an airbrush to benefit from this technique, but remember to keep the coats thin, and store in a dust free environment so no dust gets on the coat while drying!

 

The gloss coat will also help with placing transfers. After washing and allowing to dry just apply a very thin matte coat before continuing with regular highlights etc. Oh, and always test on a few old models till you've got your technique down.

 

Hope this helps.

[appiah4]

Vallejo now do spray cans in a number of their colours including Sun yellow. Could be a real time saver?

 

Oils washing really would help when painting yellow. You can brush on a very diluted gloss coat for the oil. Just be careful that it doesn't pool, allow a day to dry, and wash with thinned oil. Search Buypainted's oil wash technique on Youtube, where he paints an IF marine. The clean up is very easy and fast with washing. You don't need an airbrush to benefit from this technique, but remember to keep the coats thin, and store in a dust free environment so no dust gets on the coat while drying!

 

The gloss coat will also help with placing transfers. After washing and allowing to dry just apply a very thin matte coat before continuing with regular highlights etc. Oh, and always test on a few old models till you've got your technique down.

 

Hope this helps.

 

I'm not really very thrilled about using oil based stuff, but the Sun Yellow spray paint is something I will look into (But I wish they did Gold Yellow instead..)