Imperial Fists with Vallejo Game Color / Army Painter Washes

[appiah4]

I posted this in the Imperial Fists subforum a while back and got a total of 0 replies; apparently painting is not as big over there as it is in Blood Angels, so I had to turn to PCA for advice..

 

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
Layer: VGC Gold Yellow
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?

[plastic_slug]

Say what you want about GW paints, but Averland Sunset is one of the best covering yellows out there in any paint range. And it's available in a spray can, too. They offered a guide to Imperial Fists with only four colors, and no nonsense to get them table. If you're looking for a deeper golden yellow this may not be your cup of tea. But I think using any other color ranges yellows you are in for a long, tough slog. 

[Razblood]

Good colour choices, however you could drop a step by doing the wash over the heavy goldbrown then layer over with gold yellow.

[Aramis K]

I agree about GW Averoand Sunset, a game changing paint. Makes painting yellow so much easier.

If you're not keen on the exact shade it's still a great base for other yellows.

[appiah4]

Good colour choices, however you could drop a step by doing the wash over the heavy goldbrown then layer over with gold yellow.

 

I was hoping this wouldn't be a terrible idea, good to hear it's a sound plan.  My worry was that Goldbrown+Soft Wash would be too dark and going to layering with Gold Yellow straight away would be a step too many to layer over..

[Arkhanist]

Yellow is a bastard of a colour as a rule, which is why it's a popular reason to use an airbrush, or at least a spray can such as army painter daemonic yellow or averland sunset spray. If you want to stick to purely hairy stick, I'd go with the revised plan of heavy gold brown -> shade -> gold yellow. Heavy gold brown should be OK over a while primer, it's akin to the old foundation paints, though averland sunset is a very, very good coverage paint too.

 

One option is to 'pinwash' the soft-tone; i.e. don't just slather it on all over, deliberately run it along the joints and crevices with a fine-tipped brush. It should mostly suck itself in there by capillary action. It does take a bit more time and care. An advanced version is to gloss varnish first which will make it even more effective (you can matt varnish or whatever as usual later in the process) You'll more than get the time back by needing less layers of gold yellow to cover up the wash mess, and a better finish to boot.

 

Alternatively, a quicker version you can get away with if you're quick is to use a microfibre cloth to soak up the wash off the panels before it dries, though you may still get a few rough spots.

 

Edited December 16, 2018 by Arkhanist

[Razblood]

 

 

Good colour choices, however you could drop a step by doing the wash over the heavy goldbrown then layer over with gold yellow.

I was hoping this wouldn't be a terrible idea, good to hear it's a sound plan. My worry was that Goldbrown+Soft Wash would be too dark and going to layering with Gold Yellow straight away would be a step too many to layer over..

The soft tone shading will look more subtle until you get to you final layer, as said above try pinwashing in order to make the layering of gold yellow easier.

[appiah4]

 

 

Good colour choices, however you could drop a step by doing the wash over the heavy goldbrown then layer over with gold yellow.

I was hoping this wouldn't be a terrible idea, good to hear it's a sound plan. My worry was that Goldbrown+Soft Wash would be too dark and going to layering with Gold Yellow straight away would be a step too many to layer over..

The soft tone shading will look more subtle until you get to you final layer, as said above try pinwashing in order to make the layering of gold yellow easier.

 

 

Time to prime a test model. :)

[Flintfish]

As said before yellow is annoying to paint and one of the paints where an airbrush seems to help plenty.

 

Personally, I would go with Averland Sunset as a base and maybe from a spray can... (that would save you a few painting steps...) Both VGC Heavy Goldbrown and VGC Gold Yellow are pretty orange/brown in the tone which may be what you want or not. Especially if you dip the model soft tone will darken/brown the yellow a bit anyway. If your yellow turns a bit meh and washed out don't forget you can give it more punch with an ink glaze (GW's lamenters yellow is probably easiest to get hold off).

 

One more "trick" you can do is do the edge highlight before shading. That way it's easier to clean up mistakes and the AP wash will harmonize the color a bit for you. For a really fast and simple paint scheme you could go (not really tested in practise, but this is where I would start tests):

 

Basecoat: Averland Sunset rattle can spray (if not available light grey+pot will work as well but is is one more step)

Edge Highlight: Ice Yellow

Basecoat and highlight any thing else (bolter, shoulder trim, ammo bags etc)

Shade: AP Soft Tone (dip or paint). Be careful of wash pooling under legs, arms etc

Touch up any highlights that have gone too dark (should not really be many)

 

Regardless - good luck with the army

[appiah4]

Thanks for the advice everyone. I have found VGC Heavy Goldbrown to be less opaque and not quite as well cıvering as I would have thought; certainly not up there with old Foundation paints from GW (I cant speak for the new range, never used them) but considering three thin coats acyually covered a briggt red I think I can make it work on grey.

[Razblood]

Heavy goldbrown is a weird paint to use, one drop too much water/thinner and it acts like a layer paint.

 

It's not as good as Iyanden Darksun or Averland Sunset for coverage but considering its cheaper and you get more paint I won't complain too much

[Firepower]

There was an interesting tutorial on BnC a while back where you can paint great looking Fists by priming bone, glazing the whole thing yellow, and highlighting with bone after. The one tricky bit is working in sepia wash to shade the recesses after, but until that stage you can practically do it all blindolded thanks to how easy glaze is to work with. It looks solid and worked well for me when I tested for myself. It's a very bright yellow in the end. Edited December 21, 2018 by Firepower

[DarkMark]

I responded in the IF section, , but I'll add these links;

Oil washes very useful for colours like yellow, and Vallejo Sprays,

 

[appiah4]

Heavy goldbrown is a weird paint to use, one drop too much water/thinner and it acts like a layer paint.

 

It's not as good as Iyanden Darksun or Averland Sunset for coverage but considering its cheaper and you get more paint I won't complain too much

 

I can attest to this 100%; my fault was trying to water down Heavy Goldbrown.

[blackbabyjesus]

Paint them bone and use GW Lamenters yellow glaze. Makes painting yellow a breeze.

[Canadian_F_H]

Hmm... Well. I've been torn about painting my IF/CF allies for my templars...

 

Hopefully I can pull something off.

[MithrilForge]

This was based with Averland sunset(brush) stippled over with yriel yellow and washed once with Lamenters glaze and recess washed once with cassandora yellow

i also did agrax in the innermost joints. it was quick !! and its a nice strong yellow.

Cheers, Mithril

Edited January 3, 2019 by mithrilforge

[appiah4]

Ladies and gentlemen, I apologize for resurrecting this thread but I have been busy with an uphill battle in my quest to paint Imperial Fists using Vallejo paints, and finally I have found the issue.

 

Vallejo Game Color Gold Yellow may as well be renamed to Vallejo Game Color Pure .

 

I haven't had this much trouble with a single color since trying to cover with GW yellows in the good old screw cap pot days.  It's impossible to avoid streaking with this color at any consistency that will actually cover even moderately, and at any consistency that is workable with a brush I may as well be painting with a glaze.  Especially over a brownish base like Heavy Goldbrown, this piece of paint makes me want to smash my paints, brushes and models, it is just THAT frustrating.

 

My experience with VGC in general, aside from Extra Opaque colors, has been very, very poor, and now I swear by VMC.  Even though VGC Moon Yellow is almost agreeable, I've started using VMC Flat Yellow and VGC Deep Yellow as replacements instead.  I'm done with VGC paints.

 

Rant aside, I have altered my painting.  Now I use this method:

 

1. Prime a light grey

2. Basecoat with two thin layers of VGC Heavy Goldbrown (which is actually NOT a very opaque paint as you would think at all, it actually behaves very much like a layer paint as soon as you dilute it a slight bit and results in a sand brown/yellow look rather than thealmost brown look most paint comparison charts and even Vallejo's own cartela would lead you to believe.)

3. Over that, I do a thorough shade of AP Soft Tone (Sepia Wash equivalent), then clean up with a thin layer of VGC Heavy Goldbrown

4. Thinned down layer of VMC Flat Yellow

5. Edge highlight with VMC Deep Yellow

6. Extreme edge highlights in VMC Ice Yellow.

Edited February 20, 2019 by appiah5

[Dosjetka]

Got any pictures to share of the result from the altered paint recipe?

[Razblood]

Gold yellow is generally a terrible paint.

 

If you're up for trying it I'd recommend putting down a layer of heavy warm grey over the heavy gold brown, the gold yellow goes over this quite well.

[appiah4]

Got any pictures to share of the result from the altered paint recipe?

 

I'll do once I get around to taking proper photos

 

 

Gold yellow is generally a terrible paint.

 

If you're up for trying it I'd recommend putting down a layer of heavy warm grey over the heavy gold brown, the gold yellow goes over this quite well.

 

You don't say

 

I would really not go to the trouble of using another base over goldbrown as that defeats the whole purpose of trying to layer the yellows on top of each other.  Flat Yellow is a less orange hue than Gold Yellow but layers much better.  I ended up with a cooler and less saturated yellow than the one I set out for but I like it.

 

VMC has its own problems, however.  It rubs off the model if you look at it wrong.  Impossible to handle your figures for any length of time unless you use a decent varnish.  I'll take that over paints that drive me mad though.

Edited February 22, 2019 by appiah5

[Stealth_Hobo]

When I painted Imperial Fist marine recently, I went straight to the source and found recipe for the yellow armor from 'Eavy Metal team painter, Steve Bowerman's, twitter/instagram. I think it's a happy medium between easy to paint and looking good. I will go with this scheme with my marines when Shadowspear arrives. The recipe is:

Basecoat: Averland Sunset
Layer: Averland mixed with Yriel Yellow
Recess shade: Mournfang Brown + Skrag Brown + Lahmian Medium
Highlight: Screaming Skull

[Imren]

You guys would save yourselves lots of money for therapist sessions, psychiatric clinic fees and headache from banging your foreheads in the wall in pure frustration of attempting to brush paint a whole Imperial Fists army with yellows if you just got yourselves into airbrushing.

Here is an airbrush recipy that is close to how ex-forgeworld painters do Imperial fist yellow scheme:
 

1. Prime white.
2. Preshade recesses with VMA Leather Brown.
3. Base coat with one of the following options:
   • Tamiya flat yellow thinned with X20A thinner, basecoat this in several thin layers until the brown preshade starts fading and the basecoat yellow becomes opaque.
   • Mix 10:1 VMA gold yellow with Scale 75 inktensity yellow ink and basecoat this in several thin layers until the brown preshade starts fading and the basecoat yellow becomes opaque.
4. Highlight with GW Flash Gitz yellow.
5. Gloss varnish.
6. Do your decals.
7. Carefully stipple with a sponge edge either Tamiya flat yellow or VMA gold yellow on to the decals to represent wear.
8. Pin wash the recesses with very thinned down oilpaint browns of your choice (van Dyke browns, burnt umber or burnt sienna) depending on what dust and dirt scheme you want. Alternatively you could use GW gloss shades seraphim sepia or agrax eartshade.

The pinwash into the recesses will further increase the contrast with the protruding edges on marine armour, so you really don't need the edge highlight, especially with these lighter colour schemes such as fists and white scars. Airbrushing the GW flash gitz yellow using the edge of the airbrush spray cone pattern you will have sufficient good looking highlights instead of edge highlings.

[MithrilForge]

i love steve bowermans recipe, but i'd drop the highlight for chipped edges instead... 

 

Mithril

[Stoic Raptor]

Paint them bone and use GW Lamenters yellow glaze. Makes painting yellow a breeze.

 

Normally I would say "It can't possibly be that easy!", but having seen your work (and your profile pic) I can't argue with the results. ;)