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So I've started doing an Imperial Fists army for a friend and I can't say I'm happy with the resulting look.



The model was primed white. It was base coated with Averland Sunset, then washed with Casandora Yellow. The highlights were done with Yriel Yellow then drybrushed with Hexos Palesun followed with a Lamenters Yellow glaze. Is this not that bad, or did I miss something? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance!

I want you to look at the following two drawing and see if you can notice something.



What you should be noticing is that every point where yellow armor meets another yellow armor plate, there is a black line separating them. This is how cartoons are done. You need to do this to your model as well. The brownish tone you are using doesn't provide enough contrast. It's fine for general shading but not for deep recesses or creases.

Here are a couple of pics of actual models to show you what I mean.





Alternately, you can go with a strong brown instead of a black if you choose. It just needs to be much darker than what you're using. It also needs to be a line instead of a more broadly washed area.



Once you get your lining in done correctly, you can begin working on your shading and highlight technique. Here is a more cartoonish example of shading and highlighting but it should give you an idea of what can be done with either wet blending or by underloading your brush (like drybrushing).



Hope this helps.

I see. I had read an Imperial Fists step by step somewhere on dakka and it suggested using a yellow wash, but I guess thats not the best. So I should start with a darker wash to bring this model to where it needs to be, then redo the highlights?

What I do for getting black lines (particularly wher two plates meet like on legs) is I roughly paint black in the area that needs to be bacl right after the base coat, while it's still wet I wipe as much off as I can, this will leave the black in the recess, then just paint around it!

Normally, I use a wash to do that job. I base coat the model, then use a wash(Normally Nuln Oil or Agrax Earthshade) on the model from top to bottom. After that I go back and drybrush the highlights or I draw them on leaving the wash in the recesses. Using this yellow wash filled in those gaps, but not to the point of being dark enough. I also don't like the "painted in recesses" in those terminator pics. It just looks so........tacky and not....well not natural looking I guess.

I have just painted a bunch of fists for my army so I feel I should chip in. What has been said it's good advice. The only thing I would say is if you have access to any form of spray painting use it. Airbrush would be best but can can work as well. Ideally a zenithal primer technique may help you with the final result if using a can. My second advice is to give a look at oil washes. This have a much longer drying time than the acrylic ones so you can go back and clean the areas where the wash pooled.

I found the best way to paint my fists was to use the daemonic yellow primer from army painter give that a heavy wash of agrax earth shade then highlight with flash gitz yellow and then I give mine a wash of gryphonne sepia not sure on the new name or if you don't want to use the yellow primer prime black and use the new yellow base not sure on the name if the either then just repeat the other steps.

I do all my Orks as Badmoonz these days, for me the simplest and best technique (the two words being interchangeable in my tiny Orky brain) is to spray them with a very bright yellow (Army Painter Daemonic Yellow, or Krylon 2 in 1 paint+primer Sun Yellow, gloss but it works) then follow with a sepia wash.

Caveat to this is that I have not tried it with the current GW sepia, only the old Gryphone sepia so YMMV, but it works really well, check my gallery for examples.

What I do for my fists is a simple base coat of white, then I do the whole model in sunburst yellow and then I apply a sepia wash to where it is needed. Such as the joints of the armor or in any area that armor plates have a seperation to them. I have some examples, even though they might not be completely finished you can see what I mean.

Thanks for the advice everyone. I'll try applying Earthshade directly to the joints rather than a full wash. I'm just used to washing the model completely, and it seems that is a bad idea when working with yellow.

Agrax Earthshade is usually good enough for inking but you may or may not want to consider mixing Agrax with Nuln Oil for a darker brown. It all comes down to what looks good to you.