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So hey guys, this is my first time posting here, how you all doin ?
I'm also new to 40k coming from quite a few years of lotr or hobbit sbg (really love this game)
As a typical elf fun i desided to start an eldar army and i was really amazed by the Iyanden craftworld and its amazeballs colors. So here's my issue, all the tutorials i ve found online show a different kind of yellow, a more intense one, while the GW one that i liked is more of a light brown- white to yellow color (hope you get what i mean). now which colors do i use to achieve that?

i have attached some pics. id like to achieve the 1st one, not anything like the other 2.

and again i understand that this might be a pretty simple question to you but im not used to painting so vibrant and intense colors.

also any other tips you can give me beforehand, feel free to share them. it ll really help me out

ty

I guess the simple answer is basing your yellow on red, browns, and oranges rather than straight up banana yellow.

have a color to suggest? also can it really be that smoth without spraying it?

I'm not an expert on painting yellow, but I would agree with Manchu, it will depend heavily on the basecoat under the yellow. Painting yellow over black primer, for example leads the yellow to look greenish in color, similar to your middle picture above.

Games Workshop I believe did a very specific Iyanden painting guide where I'm pretty sure they go over the specifics of the yellow for their models. You could probably pick that up from GW or see if you can find a PDF of it somewhere. It might be in one of the White Dwarfs that came out around the same time as the Eldar release as well.

i actually wasnt aware that the prime would make such a difference, i guess ill search some more and experiment

I would start with a reddish brown primer and/or base coat and work up through reddish orange to yellow.

Personally, I would not attempt to paint such a large model with a brush -- especially not a color like yellow or white.

GET AN AIRBRUSH! Seriously, you will struggle paiting these damn things with a brush. Even a crappy cheap air brush will help you, plus you can then finetune your primers and colours as they go down.

Sorry, I know it sounds like a huge deal, but that smooth yellow is damn near impossible to achieve with a brush.

The other thing to consider is that according to the White Dwarf when these models came out in the last codex, they didn't actually paint them with yellow.

They used a white primer, then painted them white, and then used layers of (at the time) yellow glaze to get that shade. I think it's Lamenters Yellow? It's a great technique for lighter colors over white. If you do it properly, you get shading as well as gradual highlights in the model. Too many layers, and it will look like crap, too few and it will look like a colored ink over white. The key is to thin the glaze down a bit (they are already thin as it is), and apply even, smooth layers, letting each one dry COMPLETELY before adding the next layer. I keep a $10 Walmart hair blow dryer handy for this.

I think they even admitted that on the Wraith Knight, they used an airbrush (oh, they tried to say they used the Citidel Paintgun, but really? LOL).

If you use an airbrush, and you are trying for this yellow, primer the model white first, then shoot the yellow you want. It'll probably take a few layers, and even then, you might want to glaze it with a yellow or orange to saturate and deepen the color. For something like a Waveserpent, or the Wraithknight, an airbrush would be the way to go.

Brushing? Primer it white, and start with a light brown or light orange, and then add the yellow to it, and again, thin layers, layers, layers, making sure it's completely dry before adding the next layer.

The reason why you don't see many yellow, white, light blue, pale green, orange or pale red armies is that they are a difficult color to paint, and it requires a lot of patience and a few "tricks" to pull off. The key really is thinning down your paint and using a lot of layers.

Good luck!

brown primer + Iyanden dark sun? thats what I did and it seemed to come out nice and dark