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I love my Iron Warriors army, but I have a really hard time making the Hazard Stripes for them. Right now I have my awesome girlfriend paint them for me or at least tape them off for me. I am kind of a perfectionist and don't like messing up straight lines. I've tried to look for some sort of guide on them but I've never seen one. Does anyone have any tips for a fairly new painter on how to do these?

Might sound stupid, but the first trick is to paint the yellow first, and then paint black stripes on it.
Seems obvious, but when I was a beginner I made the opposite...

Once I have the yellow painted, I try to make straight stripes of black. For this, I draw the lines at once, trying not to shake. I paint each side of the black stripes, and then fill the area inside.
The result is never totally perfect because it is not possible to have perfectly straight, parallel and identical in width lines on complex surfaces, but it looks good enough.

On vehicles, you can use masking tape.


Some exemples on combi-bolters that I painted :

Masking and spraying seems ideal, but it's only really plausible on simple shapes, especially large ones like those found on vehicles. For smaller and more awkward surfaces, you might find it easier to draw your lines on than paint them, in which case a micron pen would come in handy (Sakura Pigma is my weapon of choice - plenty of reviews floating around regarding their use on models).

I use them for doing checks and dags on Goff orks and they've been indispensable in that capacity. My patterns are usually small enough that I fill with the markers, as well, instead of painting the bulk, but many prefer to use them simply to lay out their lines. Definitely worth considering, if you have more to do than a few dozer blades.

I think the pen/paint marker sounds like the best idea for me. I just purchased one and I am going to try as soon as I am able. When you use the marker do you use any sort of straight edge? I really would like to apply stripes to some of my model's legs, especially a bionic terminator that I made. On the curves do you have any tips?

I always freehand it, since the surfaces I'm covering are small enough that tiny discrepancies aren't immediately apparent. The odds of wandering off the mark over a span of 1/4" is also much lower than over 2", so the fiddly bits are often, counter-intuitively, more forgiving.

Another benefit of the micron pens (again, Sakura Pigma - accept no substitutes!) I use is that the ink takes a little bit of time to dry if it isn't immediately soaked in, like it would be on paper. On the off chance that I muck something up, I can just swipe the area clean with a finger or the like, if I'm quick about it. Too much of that might start to stain the area, but I've yet to have that happen and I'm usually working over Astronomicon Gray - not pure white or yellow, but still quite a light color.

Unless you can figure out a good, flexible straightedge (masking/electrical tape spring to mind, but the fluid ink may want to creep under, like dilute paint would), my only suggestion would be to start conservative with your lines (that is, make your stripes skinny and spaced out farther than you want, then fatten them up until they're even with the yellow). When painting, it's always easier to paint up to a line than to lay one down, outright (like how it's easier to clean up rough edgelining than to get it perfectly even in one go). Similarly, it's easier to nudge your lines outward and even out wiggly bits when you can work piecemeal, with plenty of visual reference. That's all I can think of, unfortunately, at least at the moment.