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I've always struggled a bit when painting vehicles and I'm going to be starting tonight on 5 rhinos. I'm painting up these models for a friend who wants an Imperial Fists army. I have an airbrush and compressor ready. I have 2 pots of Averland Sunset. Now I could use some tips that will help me with getting these vehicles to look right. Is it as simple as airbrush the Averland Sunset then dry brush the next few colors? Should I do a wash with Argathrax Earthshade before dry brushing? All help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

So no one has any insight/helpful tips?

I don't paint Rhinos, but I do paint Iyanden, so I know something about painting things yellow. I also lack airbrush experience, so I can't speak to that. Yellow is hard to paint up - it's a battle for evenness! I use Army Painter's Daemonic Yellow Spray Primer. It gives you a great head start! Yellow models! After that, I wash with Seraphim Sepia. I do a light, "sloppy" wash here. I'm just trying to tone down the pastel nature of the primer and pick out the lines. I follow that up with Yriel Yellow (you could just go averland here) and then I mix up lighter yellows for edge highlighting. I start with larger bands of highlight that get thinner as the highlight gets brighter. Hit up the corners and various edges with white for a pop!

I have a thread in Painting and Modeling with some pics of a the various stages.

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/537281.page#5902290

 l0k1 wrote:
I've always struggled a bit when painting vehicles and I'm going to be starting tonight on 5 rhinos. I'm painting up these models for a friend who wants an Imperial Fists army. I have an airbrush and compressor ready. I have 2 pots of Averland Sunset. Now I could use some tips that will help me with getting these vehicles to look right. Is it as simple as airbrush the Averland Sunset then dry brush the next few colors? Should I do a wash with Argathrax Earthshade before dry brushing? All help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Don't drybrush.
Prime the Rhino white (or light grey) and pre-shade with black or dark brown along panel lines, in corners, along the bottom, etc. Since you are using a Base Color, thin the paint a lot and give the Rhino a nice, thin even coat. Add some highlights where you see fit with a lighter shade of yellow. Gloss varnish and use a watercolor or oil wash (Van Dyke Brown would work) to "black line" the panels, rivets, corners, etc. Paint the rest of the details however you see fir and add some IF logos and you're done.

Here is a good way to do the tracks of the tank: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDryCX98SpM
If you want to add some weathering (and you should, they are Imperial Fists after all), try this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEF5mbd7_cI (the good stuff is around the 4:25 minute mark and some more towards the end)
Here is a pretty decent explanation of pre-shading: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mex6x1Xckr0
Some more pre-shading: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLLIzv3AK6o

Enjoy!

I do not recreate the wheel, this guy seemed to get it OK:
http://smurfsinspace.blogspot.ca/2011/10/guest-post-painting-yellow-is-not-that.html
He is not too serious about himself and shows a good finish: worth a look.

Unfortunately, I went ahead and did the base coat before you guys made posts about the pre shading. Would a light wash be able to get me a similar effect? Or should I "draw in" the shade lines and lightly go over it again with the base color?

@Thokt Those are some very nice looking Eldar!

Thanks Loki!

I think the wash will only rest in the cracks, if you want shade beyond the seems and joints (but along them), you'll need to do a little bit of shading in the form of blending or such. A darker yellow painted along all those bits, followed by a little bit of inking would probably do the trick.

Thanks for the help. I'll post a pic soon.

I don't see why you can't pre-shade once the basecoat is down. Just get a darker tint of yellow, spray it where the shadow will be, and go from there. After all, the basecoat is not the finished product....

I used Averland Sunset as my base coat, which to my knowledge is the darkest yellow gw produces(working with all gw paints right now unfortunately). Could I do a mix of the Averland Sunset and a dark brown to achieve this? If so which brown would you recommend?

what's the healthy chestnuttish brown that GW produces? I'm terribad with color names. I use such terms as bright yellow, medium yellow, dark yellow and the other yellow.

If you have some plasticard or some foam-core, then create a quick mock-up of one or two areas that will get hit with the shading effect, and give it a test. That way you'll know whether it's a good enough idea or not to proceed. In either case, you shoudn't need very much to darken the afflicted areas..... i guess one can't call it pre-shading now, can they? just "shading".

I have some beastial brown(kind of a medium brown) that I could do a 1:1 mix of. I assume I should basically spray into the appropriate areas and if its too dark I can always go back over it with the Averland Sunset?

 l0k1 wrote:
I have some beastial brown(kind of a medium brown) that I could do a 1:1 mix of. I assume I should basically spray into the appropriate areas and if its too dark I can always go back over it with the Averland Sunset?

I don't know what colors you have, but Vallejo Model Air Burnt Umber works as a good shadow for yellow.

Actually looking at the color its pretty close to the Beastial Brown that I have. I may try just using that and if its a little too dark, I can go back over it with a light layer of Averland sunset.