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Greetings good people of dakka

So long story short; I have not painted for many years and have just got back into wh/wh40k.
I've decided on a black yellow scheme for my eldar and have been playing around with some ideas. Realize this is perhaps not the best choice in terms of putting into practice
The brushes I bough on ebay are very gak so I'm getting some good brushes tomorrow and will do some moar!

But so far these are what I got.

Picture quality is not the best as my phone isn't the best either.




As a reference this is kind of what I am going for..:





Whilst doing this I have encountered some issues....

The layers are coming out quite "matty". I really am aiming for a smooth almost glossy finish (especially on the center and right)
How do they get the finish to look so smooth ?

Left - Black coat ---> wash casandora yellow --> base riverland sunset ---> wash again -> and then highlighted with flash gits yellow + a slight touch up with gitz yellow and the "dry" hexos pale sun(I have never used "dry" before so was curious what it does...

Centre - undercoat black -> base river run sunset and layered gits yellow. no wash

Right - Undercoat black -> wash -> base --> layer -> wash.

So My questions are:

Tips on how to get a "smooth/bright" finish on the yellow?(Its coming out rly gritty/matt atm)

Any paints that might work better?

Things to try technique materials wise?

Which is peoples favorite?

Thanks in advance for the help.

Regards,

A

EDIT: Forgot to ask if anyone uses "dry" paint. Not sure if its paint. seems almost solid

My guess on the smoothness of that flyer is attributed to an Airbrush. For nice smooth yellow its going to take alot of thin, thin layers to build up a nice solid hue. I like the one on the right hand side most.

As stratassj said, the reference phoenix would have been done with an airbrush.

The more layers you use the more likely you are to end up with the chunky/"matty" finish. Especially if you are painting a light and unforgiving colour like Yellow on top of black.

If you undercoat white, paint yellow and then do the black you might get cleaner results. Issue there is that it is less forgiving (do a varnish layer on the yellow before doing black? that way you can wipe off/clear off any black spots that get on the yellow)

I'd give that a try and see how it turns out.


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Although this isn't exactly what you were wanting, it does talk about how to get a good yellow.

http://www.theminichopshop.com/how_to/how_to_yellow/how_to_yellow.htm

 Argive wrote:
Greetings good people of dakka

So long story short; I have not painted for many years and have just got back into wh/wh40k.
I've decided on a black yellow scheme for my eldar and have been playing around with some ideas. Realize this is perhaps not the best choice in terms of putting into practice
The brushes I bough on ebay are very gak so I'm getting some good brushes tomorrow and will do some moar!

if youre going for black on yellow, I would flip your colours. Even that pheonix seems to have black as the main colour with yellow as the accent. It also might be a tad easier to paint this way considering youre covering a light colour with a darker one.

With regards to the dry pain, are you referring to weathering powders or to GW's dry paint.
for the first, I cant help as i've never used it. For GW dry paint, load up your drybrush with it, wipe it on a piece of paper towel then drybrush over your model, I may be wrong, but I recall a thread here somewhere that states weathering powders are used in a similar way.

First before my two cents, some experts I like:
Choose guides according to taste...
http://www.theminichopshop.com/how_to/how_to_yellow/how_to_yellow.htm
https://miniaturemiscellany.wordpress.com/tutorials/painting-yellow/
http://www.centerpieceminiatures.com/imperial-fist-vindicator/

It all boils down to: do you want to start from a dark base colour and build up to light OR start from white and shade down?

I am tempted to go with the vindicator guide, it seems to be the most forgiving and looks more military than cartoon in tone.

Personal fave of what you got is the one on the right.

Reference flyer is 100% airbrush. Even with that; don't get an airbrush and expect to get the same results, lol. Airbrushing is hard in it's own right, especially with the black/yellow combo.

Have you tried priming grey? Prime grey, then wash a few times for the 'black' and layer up to the nice yellow you want. They say lots of thin coats, but honestly i've had terribad luck doing that - always gets lumpier. I'm a bad painter though

I wouldn't worry about the yellow being very matte in finish, as you can throw a gloss varnish on top to really make them shine. Try focusing more on just getting that colour solid and even, varnish can do the rest for you

Allright thanks guys.

I am fully aware that was airbrushed so I know will not get quite the same effect easily. But the shade is what I was going for as a goal.
I don't want to go down on the paint area any more then I already have. Otherwise it will feel like bit of a waste and not going to them justice. Its a balancing act.

Having mediated on what everyone has said I have got a pot of yariel yellow as the jump from riverland sunset to gitz yellow was quite big.

Also I need to water my paints down some and apply thinner layers of each as I haven't rly been doing that so much ..

Thanks for the help/guides and input, all duly noted.

I'll be getting stuck in with the new brushes in a couple minutes

Ill put up some stuff on for scrutiny once I make some progress.

A

My eldar use a Yellow and Brown scheme... I think maybe if you base spray white it will all be a lot easier for you. Then just paint the bits black that you want.
I think you'll find that less time-consuming too. Which is always handy.
Just a thought

@Twikins Craftworld Mustard-Ra ?
Those hawks on your gallery look kewl

I Want to tone up from black to yellow.
Coz Im stubborn like that and it seems more challangeing XD

(The effect I am aiming for now is more like if you look at the wraithknight hand painted Iyanden colours on the box.. yellow on black with black very subtly highlighted.)

Its looking promising
Decided to try out the blue for accenting and gems. Working fine.. And no my craftworld is not Iyanden.... Its Nesh-Ravan (Children of a million suns) Hence the black and yellow.

I cant outright name them "steelers"...

Oh noooo they're not hawks xD They're some Scourges from a few years back when I first got some Dark Eldar... But that conversion idea has been noted
No my guy's are like this-



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 Argive wrote:
@Twikins Craftworld Mustard-Ra ?
Those hawks on your gallery look kewl

I Want to tone up from black to yellow.
Coz Im stubborn like that and it seems more challangeing XD

(The effect I am aiming for now is more like if you look at the wraithknight hand painted Iyanden colours on the box.. yellow on black with black very subtly highlighted.)

Its looking promising
Decided to try out the blue for accenting and gems. Working fine.. And no my craftworld is not Iyanden.... Its Nesh-Ravan (Children of a million suns) Hence the black and yellow.

I cant outright name them "steelers"...

Did you make up that Craftworld yourself? Or is it fluff? It doesn't ring a bell for me?

Nice dude. For my HQ's I think I will be going a different scheme. Feel like predominately black wont do the figures justice. Might go for red or blue.

I made my own. Just made a thread in the 40k background section coz I dint want to babble on this thread

Might be a bit too orangey for you, but here's my stab at yellow and black (well, very dark red) Eldar. Just Guardians on that page, and a Farseer, lots more other stuff earlier on and further on in the log. Might be easier to have a look on my gallery, but you get the idea.

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/1860/269370.page

Dude...What even the fudge....!? Those are amazing....

That's very inspiring yet demotivanional. It seems that an endless abyss just opened between my current skill and whats possible...

Is it all brushed or did you airbrush ?



Automatically Appended Next Post:
Once again thank you all for the feedback.

I managed to do an hour or so of painting today and tidied up.
So this is the scheme I have decided to go with. Yellow highlighted off black and blue accents.

(I really liked finnans deeper orange tint but could not bring myself to steal his ideas )

As you can see the yellow on the back pack fins is a lot better and less matte as I applied all your wonderful advice



Any further comments advice most welcome

That is looking splendid! Have you thought of a symbol for your forge world yet?

lol steal away if you like it - a thin orange wash would be quicker and beef up the yellow somewhat than my usual method.

All done with a brush - I get a bit conflicted when I see airbrush work. It's very neat, and smooth, but in my heart of hobby hearts I somehow feel that it's cheating! (I know it's not for any airbrushers out there, it's just another technique to be used)


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Don't be demotivated - I spend far more time on even basic troops than I think the majority of the people on here, it's all about how much time you put into each model - obviously, the more time you put in the better the results. I'm more interested in collecting/display than playing, so that's my goal, not to have a table-ready force.

Quick note:

Black: Do not start with a full-on light sucking black: it makes the model have no depth (plus nowhere to go for dark crevasses of the model). Try a very dark grey like "Payne's Grey" (Black with blue in it). Not sure if "Abaddon Black" is a lighter black (I assume that is what you are using). Though it looks like the GW layer would be "Skavenblight Dinge" or "Eshin Grey" to apply over top.

Thought I would mention this because your yellow is now looking great.

its chaos black spray undercoat...

Thanks for the tip, I will try out the gray will pop in tomorrow to grab a pot.


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@trolmeat not yet. and I am unsure where I can find some sort of "canonised" alphabet... Im gak at drawing but I have one or two ideas I might put to paper..