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Hi guys,

I've just finished painting a small Necron force and I want to branch out into something a bit more interesting now, paint-wise. I really like the look of some of the Chaos Daemon figures, in particular the Bloodletters and the Juggernaut models.

I'm wanting to stray from the standard red that I've seen many time before and go for a yellow (I think it's as much a knee-jerk reaction from painting a bunch of monotonous grey Necrons as anything) however when I mention it, I tend to get mixed reactions - not because people think yellow will look crap, but because apparently yellow is a bitch to get right!

Is this correct? Are there unseen complications with yellow? Will I be banging my head against a brick wall with these? Yellow has never featured in my paint schemes before.

Cheers all.

You just need to be sure that you use a light-colored primer, otherwise it will take a million layers to get the yellow to look right and it will eradicate a lot of the detail. I would use a light-grey or white primer, and layer up to yellow from that. Just remember, a few thin coats will yield better results than one thick one.

I have a batch of botched bretonnians bathing (ahaha) in purple clean because I sprayed them skull white too closely because it apparently pools and cracks at a distance that would be fine for chaos black. So be careful..

I tried for hours different ways of painting them yellow anyway, just to experiment. I really wish I could tell you I found out a good technique for it. I really wish I could.

For me the best way to paint yellow is a nice white undercoat, a base colour of Bubonic Brown and then several thin layers of sunburst yellow , just keep building up the layers until you get a nice clean and crisp yellow.

Sounds like a great idea!
Yellow is a very unforgiving colour to both paint with, and photograph.
To get a shocking yellow you do need to start with a light primer, but I have had recent success with black primer based on trying to get a duller yellow.
I use a mix of Iyanden and Sunburst; two very slowly applied coats of slightly watered down, and then a final coat of heavily watered down, and lowlight key points with badab black.
Here is a miniature I did last night, bear in mind that it looks much better in person

I have painted my Lamenters army from a black basecoat. It was quite simple really.

1. Black basecoat
2. Two to three coats of well watered down Iyanden Darksun.
3. Glaze of a nice dark brown colour. I used Vallejo Dark Fleshtone, but GW scorched brown would look just as good. and voila!

1. Iyanden Darksun
2. Golden Yellow
3. Gryphonne Sepia wash
4. Highlight w/ Golden Yellow.
5. PROFIT!!!

I find yellow not so hard once you get the knack of it.


http://forum-of-doom.com/index.php?topic=10183.0

This should give you a hand on yellows.

Excellent, excellent tips so far guys, I really appreciate them all (I love Dakka!).

I've only been painting for about a month or so, if we don't count the splurging of colours to figures I did when I was a kid, so I'm not remotely advanced. I can't blend, haven't learned how to highlight yet... I know the theory behind shading with inks and washes etc, but I haven't tried that yet either. It's amazing the tips experience brings. I would never have thought to lay a coat of brown underneath what I wanted yellow - I'm sure there's some technical explanation, but is this just to avoid a patchy finish?

Also, the primer, this is an interesting topic for me. I've only ever sprayed things black as I like to leave recesses in my figures black to promote a shadowy feel - so I'm a bit nervous about trying white or grey. I suppose to get the same kind of feel, I'd need to shade a lot more with inks or something once a figure is painted from a light primer, right?

Deneb Stone is a agreat base for yellow, even over black.
2 thin coats should do it.

Halfords do great primers (IMO).
They even do a yellowish one call filler primer which I can't fault.
I think these were done with it -


Great base for yellow
Prime with this then over-paint with yellow.
Follow up with develan mud wash

My recipe for simple yellow is - white primer, golden yellow, light brown wash, bad moon yellow highlight, voila

I prime either in black or grey, and I have a simple method for yellow which works pretty well

prime in whatever color you prefer, it makes no difference. Paint the surface with White, thinned down so it covers smoothly. If you have to do 2 layers to get full coverage, do it.
then paint in the yellow shade you want, if you want to shade/highlight that afterwards its as simple as shading/highlighting any other color.