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Now that my airbrush set is complete, I'm going over some Imperial Fists recipes to see which best works out. The goal for me is to really get that bright, canary yellow conforming to the very-impressive paint jobs done in the official Sentinels of Terra expansion:



And, if I muster the guts, I'm going to attempt some battle wear and dirtyness while attempting to maintain the, dare I say "pop-ness" of the color scheme, but to add a more realistic battle-worn effect.

I'm going to take a stab at Vallejo air paint and see how I like it (suggestions appreciated). Because this is my first foray into the airbrush medium, I expect to be doing all of my finer details with a standard brush, although I will likely F up a few marines attempting to detail with the airbrush, and have a grand time doing it! Here's what I'm thinking:

Vallejo Air: white primer, basic yellow (considering flourescent yellow, but may be too bright), sepia wash GW: casandora yellow shade, white scar/yriel yellow 2:1 blend for sun-catching highlights, caliban/moot green for eyes, mephiston/evil suns red for trim (keeping the agrax earthshade on hand just in case I mess up the sepia wash with the airbrush). I also bought a can of Daemonic Yellow from Army Painter because I watched an Imperial Fists tutorial on YouTube and really liked the yellow effect, so I may replace the Vallejo basic yellow if its not the right shade I'm looking for.

I painted a couple of marines using white scar primer, yriel yellow in various phases of water to paint ratio in layers, and the same highlight as mentioned above and was pretty satisfied with the result, although not so satisfied with the cakeyness of the paint as I made several mistakes (picture below). It is a good representation of where I'm trying to go generally speaking:



Any comments, recipe suggestions, noobie pointers for airbrushing IF armies and vehicles would be super. As you can tell, I have my work cut out for me:



And a closeup of the HQ:



Any feedback greatly appreciated!

Might want to look at Vallejo Game Air colours. I am thinking of doing an imperial fist army and the gold yellow and sun yellow look really good. They are also close matches to yriel yellow and flash gitz yellow respectively according to the chart.

http://cdn.acrylicosvallejo.com/68641ae6935afa4ba569fb0da362c880/CC082.pdf

 uk_crow wrote:
Might want to look at Vallejo Game Air colours. I am thinking of doing an imperial fist army and the gold yellow and sun yellow look really good. They are also close matches to yriel yellow and flash gitz yellow respectively according to the chart.

http://cdn.acrylicosvallejo.com/68641ae6935afa4ba569fb0da362c880/CC082.pdf

They do look pretty dead-on. Gonna pick up the yellow spectrum -- moon, sun, and gold yellows -- and the sepia wash, base with white to really bring out those nice bright yellows. Thanks for the tip!

No problem, I am in a similar position to you, just about to make the jump into airbrushing and thinking about imperial fists. I look forward to seeing some paint on your models! Might want to look into oil washes as well.

Check this YouTube video out:




Amazed by the results here, and it seems really quick and painless. This is what got me to buy a can of Army Painter Daemonic Yellow -- just because the color really looks great, and very little else needs to be done other than some highlighting and washing.

Just ordered my Game Air paints. Gonna post both the Daemonic Yellow recipe and the Vallejo recipe side by side once I receive everything.

Perhaps a tad brighter and more battle worn than you're going for:

Prime White
Lowlight (spray from beneath, dunno the term - Hull Red (model air)
Spray Model Yellow (medium yellow, model air)
Edge Highlight screaming skull or other such bone colour
Wash Agrax

Looks like this when done:

 Melcavuk wrote:
Perhaps a tad brighter and more battle worn than you're going for:

Prime White
Lowlight (spray from beneath, dunno the term - Hull Red (model air)
Spray Model Yellow (medium yellow, model air)
Edge Highlight screaming skull or other such bone colour
Wash Agrax

That -- looks incredible! Almost dead on for what I'm going for. It's not too bright or worn. I would add just a touch of casandora yellow wash for that incandescent orange effect. I think I understand what you're saying with "lowlight" -- essentially spray a lighter color in an upward fashion as if the light was coming from below, correct?

Also, is there a difference between model air and game air??

 hybridmoments82 wrote:
Also, is there a difference between model air and game air??

Slightly different colours in each range. The Game range is much brighter and more cartoony, while the Model range is more of a historical, realistic colour range.

 hybridmoments82 wrote:

 Melcavuk wrote:
Perhaps a tad brighter and more battle worn than you're going for:

Prime White
Lowlight (spray from beneath, dunno the term - Hull Red (model air)
Spray Model Yellow (medium yellow, model air)
Edge Highlight screaming skull or other such bone colour
Wash Agrax

That -- looks incredible! Almost dead on for what I'm going for. It's not too bright or worn. I would add just a touch of casandora yellow wash for that incandescent orange effect. I think I understand what you're saying with "lowlight" -- essentially spray a lighter color in an upward fashion as if the light was coming from below, correct?

Also, is there a difference between model air and game air??

I mean more spray a dark colour from underneath to preshade. When the yellow goes on its quite thin, meaning in the pre shaded red areas ot creates realistic shadow on the yellow