Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

How do people do this? Yellow being a bitch to paint and all

I always start by painting a very light grey, then building up the yellow with 5-6 thin coats. Make sure you get most of the paint off of your brush before you put a layer on, and let the previous layer dry completely before adding a new one.

If you don't do this, the yellow has a very bad tendency to pool and look splotchy.

I use browns instead of greys but same process. You looking for small yellow accents or mainly yellow?

Yellow is to be the dominant colour on the chest pieces and shoulder pads of my marines

I use a bone-coloured base paint.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
then the yellow over that. the bone base paint covers a lot better than any of the yellows.

Multiple thinned coats of yellow (I know a local player's Imperial fists took 11 layers of yellow just for the main colour, not counting the highlighting tones).

And it's not just GW's yellows. It's to do with the pigment density in yellow paints - in general.

Honestly, GW averland sunset does a pretty decent 1-coat job. It's a bit more on the orange side of yellow, but if you're someone like me can't be bothered to paint something 11 times to get a single color, it does a good job.

Yeah, averland sunset is a fantastic yellow basecoat paint; about as good as it gets, to be frank. On the other hand, if you want a nice, brushstroke free yellow, whatever paint brand, it will take a lot of layers.

Want to try something fun? Take Vallejo model air and try to cover red or blue with yellow. It's almost to the point where I'd say, "can't be done". Like, 10 layers later, and you're still seeing the color underneath super-visible. In a fit of nerd rage, you just drown the model in yellow VMA, only to find, you STILL see the other color underneath. I sometimes run into this if I am doing a yellow-to-red gradient, because I will do the yellow first, then lay the red on top. But if I go too far on the red, I'm screwed, and basically it's faster to just reprime and do it again.

Which takes me to the way I do yellow on a model that's predominantly yellow: prime desert tan with airbrush, basecoat with choice of yellow with airbrush.

For bits where I must use a paintbrush, I use a paintbrush with averland sunset + liquitex Flo-Aid, then Flash Gitz Yellow if I want to make it bright. 10-15 coats is *minimum* to get it from, for example, black to a bright, hazard stripe yellow, like I have on this drop pod:

I cheat! I use a spray can of yellow and base coat the whole model in it on anything that will have a majority of yellow.

For accents, I do what everyone else is saying.

But seriously. If your model is going to be mostly yellow (Like Badmoon Orks) just base in yellow.

If the Marines have large yellow sections I'd personally prime white or yellow, then darken the non-yellow parts.

Air brush


Otherwise mix all the way up from beige brown > averland sunset > to yellow. about two coats each tinned. between. and mixed between each other steps.

I miss the days when I could get by painting yellow by first basing, layering and highlighting in fleshtones and then covering all that with a layer of yellow ink

Brown basecoat and then Averland Sunset.

Here is a marine I did:

If yellow is the dominant colour, I'd just base coat it yellow with my airbrush. Start with a white or light grey primer and preshade with a brown then build up the yellow. I don't normally like preshading, but yellow is probably one of the few times I'd bother to do it. If I didn't have an airbrush I'd probably buy a can of yellow spray paint.

If yellow isn't the dominant colour but is only a spot colour, I'd make use of averland sunset. That stuff will cover almost anything in 2 to 4 coats.

Like everyone else has been saying, Depending on the sort of yellow your after, base coat with either a light grey, or a brown, and then lots of thin coats of your yellows, allowing each layer to fully dry before moving onto the next. It's time intensive sure, but its the way that your going to be getting good results.

I second the suggestion of Averland Sunset as a base color. I used it for the yellow seen here:

I did 2 coats of Averland Sunset, then 2 coats of Yriel Yellow to get the color you see here. And it is reasonably smooth, at least on the shoulder pad (just ignore where I got yellow where it shouldn't have been!). If I had had time, I might have put one more coat of Yriel Yellow on it, or edge highlighted with Flash Gitz Yellow, but...eh. The model looks better in person than this pic would suggest.

 Talys wrote:
Yeah, averland sunset is a fantastic yellow basecoat paint; about as good as it gets, to be frank.

Averland Sunset is awesome. It even covers black primer in a couple of coats. Here's an example...



Now, you can take a brighter yellow like Yriel or Flash Gitz and coat over the Averland Sunset quickly and work you way up to the brightest yellow you wish to go in only a few coats.

It may not show but the shoulderpad started with two coats of Averland over black primer and then I went straight to Flash Gitz.

Yup, another Averland Sunset advocate here and as Breotan says it requires very few coats to get great results even over black.

My Yellow too is:

1. Averland Sunset
2. Sepia Wash
3. Averland Sunset
4. Ushabti Bone (highlight)
5. Screaming Skull (highlight)

This is the colour you get:

Tau ochre is a good colour to start from, as it's a yellow brown. Wash with reikland then built up the yellow. Comes out similarly to Develain's rather nice imp fist, but slightly lighter.

I'm in the process of painting an imperial fist army. My yellow coat comes out very good I think.

I undercoat in corax white, paint a watered down coat of averland sunset, then shade in balor brown, another thin coat of averland sunset, then I do a 2:1 of averland sunset and yriel yellow for bringing out light on large areas, then I do highlights with just yriel yellow.

That's my method and I think it looks great, can show pics if you like. Trick is to paint in multiple thin layers, don't just cake it on.

Paint white, wash yellow, highlight with a bone colour, glaze yellow.

If I want it to look dirty, I wash with black between painting white and washing yellow.

Thanks guys

I'm an Iyanden player and this is my recipe:

Yellow Paint Scheme (2014):
White undercoat
Shade Casandora yellow
Layer Yriel yellow
Edge Flash Gitz yellow
Lamenters yellow glaze
Skull white edge high light