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Hi! My son and I have been doing some experimentation and have come across color problems. How do you paint black, white, or yellow?
Here are the problems:

a) Yellow: how do you make this color look nice? Our results were streaky or not really yellow.
- Do you have to "build" this somehow from other colors? We based in black and then tried to cover it, that was a disaster. Basing in white was slightly better.

b) Black: how do you do "layers" with this color? I mean, it is black, how do you get darker? Is the trick not to really use black but use a lighter version?
- Maybe basing in black and then coating the model in a dark grey would give some room to move so you can have a darker color in the recess and lighter for the hightlight

c) White: this one is really tough. How do those guys make it look so beautiful? We tried basing a model in white but I have no idea how to highlight it. I tried just painting it over a black primer and it
ended up as bad as the yellow.

If you have some tricks or links to sites, that would really be helpful

thank-you

kalias

Dheneb Stone makes a good base for white or yellow. You can also use Astronomicon Grey if you want a greyer base. Here's an example of a yellow I did over black:

http://kan.org/michael/mkp/objective_tf2.php

That yellow looks really good. I will give the dhneb stone a try.

thanks

kalias

For black, you simply base black and then highlight up. There are several great tutorials in that section. Also check out the awesomepaintjob.com video on painting Black Templars.

haha,colors everybody struggles with ^^

black:

if your mini is mainly black,you obviously want a black basecoat.
highlights can be made by adding blur to the black,adding more blue and even white for the last highlights
you can also use greys instead of the blue

yellow:

one of the worst colors.dheneb stone or scorched brown followed by bestial brown is an ok base for it.
for my space wolves shoulder pads i do:

scorched brown then bestial brown after that a layer of iyanden dark sun/bestial brown/dheneb stone mix.next layer is a mix of dheneb stone/iyanden dark sun.after that i add layers with less and less dheneb stone in the mix until i get the yellow i want.

white:

same as black.white undercoat or if you paint white on a black undercoat you need a few layers of greys with more white added for each layer.

highlights are not needed,problem with white is the shading.
really,really watered down grey or light browns or blue(with white in the blue).


something else:

if you have colors that wont cover well,try adding other colors.like the dheneb stone/yellow mix.

hope this helps ^_^

EDIT:theres a great tutorial section here,you could also try www.coolminiornot.com

My SM are black base, yellow armour trim and red weapon trim. . .

By no means am I any good, but i have found the following technique to work.

Base coat/ prime in the same go with matt black from a rattle can.

I generally do the yellow and then the weapons.

Now I dip a brush in clean water, transfer a drop of water into the paint (GW paint pot lid full.) I then use the paintbrush to bring some paint into the drop of water, mixing the paint to "milk-like" consistancy. Practice will make this easier. This may seem too thin to some, but this is the secret. I then load the paintbrush and bring it to the model. Now when i paint, the brush doen't even touch the model. . . all i am doing is touching the bead of paint to the spot I want to paint. When I drag the brush along the model, I am leaving what seems too much paint, but being very thin, it evaporates to a smooth finish. when I get around to learning some Kodak-fu I will do some pics for ya.

kalias wrote:Hi! My son and I have been doing some experimentation and have come across color problems. How do you paint black, white, or yellow?
Here are the problems:

Sure, those are very challenging for everyone, as mentioned before! I use to teach classes, and I have some advice for you! Sounds like you (and others) generally start with black, this is a mistake, for any light colored figures especially white, pastels, yellow and orange. The key is learning to paint with clear over white, when working with light colors you have to reveres your concept instead of painting from black up to a light color you paint from a light color down, read on.

kalias wrote:a) Yellow: how do you make this color look nice? Our results were streaky or not really yellow.
- Do you have to "build" this somehow from other colors? We based in black and then tried to cover it, that was a disaster. Basing in white was slightly better.

Brilliant Yellow looks nice when applied as a clear coat over white, essentially the beautiful sunburst yellow color that looks so nice in games workshop pot will never look that way unless it is painted over white, for all yellow models, spray paint flat white primer, then brush on the sunburst yellow. For patches of white, paint a white field until it is solid white (might be 2+ coats) then paint the yellow as a second layer.

How to highlight this!? Ahh, the key is not to but instead to darken the interiors with another clear glaze! Use Liquitex acrylic matte medium:



...to make a 'staining' glaze, just ad about a drop of yellow and brush tip full of rich brown to a quarter size of this medium and a little water to taste and paint it over the white, it will shade the recesses for a you a mustard color and look great!

kalias wrote:b) Black: how do you do "layers" with this color? I mean, it is black, how do you get darker? Is the trick not to really use black but use a lighter version?
- Maybe basing in black and then coating the model in a dark grey would give some room to move so you can have a darker color in the recess and lighter for the high light

Black is very tough, shaded black can be done with GW shadow grey, mixed with black and wet blended up with increasing amounts of shadow grey and smaller surfaces as the shade strips get lighter. Or, it can instead be done with a simple razor line of white on every right angled edge on the model, it is very challenging to paint all black models either way.

Sheen (flat vs matte) also makes a huge difference, typically flat black models do not come out very well, and the finished models need to be at least satin, if not completely glossy. This can be added as a spray to finished models. Model master makes some great sprays for this.



Do not apply it until the models are completely painted, acrylic paint does not like to stick to glossy oil base varnish anymore!

kalias wrote:c) White: this one is really tough. How do those guys make it look so beautiful? We tried basing a model in white but I have no idea how to highlight it. I tried just painting it over a black primer and it
ended up as bad as the yellow.

Ahh! The quintessential color white! White is like yellow, and once sprayed white there might not seem like anywhere to go to highlight it, of course! This means you have to paint dark instead, the simple way to do this is again to make a clear glaze and paint the model instead!

Add about a drop of shadow grey to a quarter sized pool of Liquitex Matte Medium and about 5 drops of water and simply paint it over the model entirely, this gives a great slightly tinted look, For extra crispy white also go back in and paint white lines on all the positive (edges and tops) of things after the glaze has dried.

Its actually pretty fast and easy!

Good luck!

Been doing much yellowing lately, this is how I go about it.

Black base coat followed by Iyanden Darksun and wash of 50/50 Badab Black and Devlan Mud. First highlight is 2/1 Iyanden Darksun and Golden Yellow followed by pure Golden Yellow then Sunburst Yellow for extreme highlights. If you need another colour for any leading edges you can use Bleached Bone, Skull White or even both.

The beauty of it is you can tailor the first couple of highlight coats to let some of the heavier patches of wash show through for quite a nice dirty or weathered effect. It's worked pretty nicely on my Vindicator and Sternguard so it's appropriate for both vehicles and more detailed troops.

How to paint white / yellow ( or generally any bright color? ) without fuss? without applying multiple coat to get a smooth look?

Simple , dont use GW paint.

LunaHound wrote:How to paint white / yellow ( or generally any bright color? ) without fuss? without applying multiple coat to get a smooth look?

Simple , dont use GW paint.

QFT

If you really want to, use very thin coats (the consistency of milk or oil is pretty good for what I do, painting dire avenger heads)

Honestly, I just bought my first yellow paint the other day (never had a reason to use it before eldar), Golden Yellow, and I freaking hate it. I was doing it over a white undercoat, and it ended up having all this green tone to it. I tried it on top of a basecoat of iyanden darksun, but that was just a gross color.

It ended up looking really gross, with greenish streaks running through it. Very dissapoint. I had to strip a beautfully painted fire dragon just to redo the white coat.

Iyanden dark sun. I swear by it. I paint the rims of my SM shoulder pads yellow (2nd company) and I can get a pretty strong yellow in a single coat of iyanden foundation paint over black primer. I usually add a second layer and if I'm feeling ambitious a highlight of golden yellow or sunburst yellow.

For whites I use the fortress grey foundation paint as my base, build up a layer of space world grey and finish with skull white. This is assuming a black primer. If you primary color is going to be white, you might want to prime white and then black line or wash the models to get the shadows. Another option is to prime with grey paint (I think testors has a good grey? Or was it Kryon?)

LunaHound wrote:How to paint white / yellow ( or generally any bright color? ) without fuss? without applying multiple coat to get a smooth look?

Simple , dont use GW paint.

Then who's yellow do you suggest? And who has better white? White is pretty much universal against most paint lines.

i can't say enough good things about the strong coverage of Privateer Press' P3 paintline...

2 coats of Gun Corps Brown covers black easily, and makes a great base for the Cygnus Yellow...

Greatcoat Grey makes a good base to start building up whites, using Ironhull Grey and Morrow White in various mixes...

Coal Black is a nice blue/black for a midtone...
looks great shaded with solid black, and highlighted with Greatcoat Grey (which has a slightly blue undertone)...

hope that helps...

cheers
jah

Theduke07 wrote:

LunaHound wrote:How to paint white / yellow ( or generally any bright color? ) without fuss? without applying multiple coat to get a smooth look?

Simple , dont use GW paint.

Then who's yellow do you suggest? And who has better white? White is pretty much universal against most paint lines.

What does paint line mean?

Brand of paint. The paints a brand makes would be referred to as their 'line'.

Theduke07 wrote:Brand of paint. The paints a brand makes would be referred to as their 'line'.

Vallejo for me.

If i want to use paint with quality like GWs , then i would use apple barrel or folklore. its like 80% cheaper for same thing.

Holy smokes! I didn't expect so many replies...thanks I will test out some of those ideas
If I get a chance later on today I will take some pictures of the work I have done on some orks.

kalias

never underestimate your fellow dakkites ^_^

would be great to see some pics and to hear if any of the things posted above works for you

For yellows, Iyanden darksun is awesome-sauce, re-basecoat the yellow areas with that, and then apply many many thin layers until you get a truly even coat, The cabling on my stormboyz are all Iyanden Darksun -> Bad Moon Yellow (don't ask, gw got rid of it! but it is such a sweeet yellow, if you see some I recommend picking some up!) in about 2-3 thin coats.

Will post some pics eventually!

Okay, here is a rough stab at painting space marines. Since I am learning I figured test models were the way to go. As you can see, my yellow is not very good. Some of the other ones look okay.
I would like to hear your comments.

thanks

kailas

Thanks for the images.

It looks like the first image was all done over white, a great way to start for light colors!

The yellow one. I suspect the yellow one was probably done with Iyanden Darksun over the white. This color is a very greyed out white and while Iyanden darksun may cover over block it will be very unsatisfying for someone trying to get to a brilliant yellow, for example to paint Imperial Fists.

Brilliant Yellow simply can not be done over black, and using a greyed out yellow like Iyanden Darksun will never produce brilliant yellow results either. From GWs own website look at the difference in color between these swatches:


versus

This can really make a huge difference between brilliant yellow colored primary color results and a more dessert sand like finish.

More brilliant like this:

and less sandy like this:

kalias wrote: Since I am learning I figured test models were the way to go.

very,very good.

there are way too many people that dont test-paint and ruin their favourite minis.

after looking at the pics i guess you dont use a spray for basecoating?

the yellow is way to thick,thinning down your paints is really important.

yellow marine:

try basecoating it white(spray) and the spray it yellow(gw spray gun works really well and youll have a nice yellow with great coverage).
after that you can use a wash(id say devlan mud) to create depth.

silver:

try gws black basecoat(black) and then spray or paint(thinned down paint!!) it with boltgun metal.washing it with bhadab black will make it look really good.


i dont know how much you want to spend on this hobby,but getting the right basecoats and the spraygun will give you great results.
painting can be very frustrating,especially at the beginning,but with the right tools you can,like already mentioned,get great results and the hobby will be way more enjoyable.

hope this helps ^_^

For highlighting black, I've had great results doing a black basecoat, followed by a hardline of boltgun metal or similar mid-grade metallic, and a wash of Badab Black to cut the shine. Works great on my Howling Banshee's pistols and all my Crimson Fists' heavy weapons.

The yellow's been beat with a stick and I don't think I can really add to what anyone's said, but Augustus is pretty spot on. I've done some great yellow shading with Iyanden moving to Sunburst, then Sunburst mixed with Skull White by degrees, but it's always tanned out in the shaded areas. I've heard that priming/basecoating white and layering yellow ink works great for a bright yellow.