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Well, right after I told someone on here that painting IF isn't much worse than painting Dark Angels, I started painting my first imperial fists tank.

I have good results so far on the figures, but this tank looks AWFUL right now.

I have gray undercoat, averland sunset layer, then a hybrid of OLD citadel paint that makes it look school bus yellow, and then Golden yellow on top of that. Usually I highlight with bad moon yellow (can not get used to/remember new names of colors)

This works great on the minis, but these long flat surfaces look terrible. I can't get an even coat at all. tried watering the paint down and just letting it spread as far and thin as I could, but as of right now I feel as though its going to take 12 coats of paint to get this to look even remotely presentable.

Is there anything you can recommend for painting vehicles that isn't an airbrush? I really don't want to invest in one. Maybe a better undercoat color? Any yellows people recommend for primer? What about other brands of paint?

Any suggestions appreciated.

Flow aid would help, that and a big brush. Iit will help the paint "level" off and give you a smoother coat.

Other then that I use an airbrush, you would be amazed at the difference on large flat surfaces.

Years ago - before I was able to set up my proper airbrushing set up - when I needed to paint yellow (and a handful of other PITA colors) I just went ahead and painted them with rattle cans.

From hardware store paints like Krylon and Rustoleum to model paints like Tamiya and Testors - you can normally find one that is the color you are looking for (or pretty close to it).

You can do your base coat and a little shading with the aerosols and then follow up with hand paints to detail and weather.

What Sean said.

The problem is that with very light colours, you see every variation in coverage. Trying to build up the coat in multiple layers is likely to only get you crazy.

I airbrushed my Iyanden Yellow on white primer.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-NoHLwmUfDgo/U0E9gtsskcI/AAAAAAAAAxI/T0kku6nViz4/s1600/Eldar_Army_20140406_131007.jpg

What is not done in this picture is adding shadows by painting over the bright yellow with a more muted yellow/orange.

I'd follow Sean's advice and get either a generic spray from the home improvement store that matches your base yellow, or try to find an army painter or equivalent primer in the right colour. Natrually, with a product that is made for our use, your experimenting need is reduced, but the cost per can is most likely higher.
Maybe Army Painter Colour Primer "Demonic Yellow" is the ticket:
http://shop.thearmypainter.com/products.php?ProductGroupId=2

Thanks!

Just saw the deamonic yellow primer yesterday as I read the army painter free booklet. I'm concerned it will be too bright....

Lets say worst case scenario, it sprays Bad moon yellow... if I wash it with seraphin sepia, and then paint over will it be possible to darker the yellow or would I be better off with the brownish primer and bringing it up?

Right now I am just layering and layering and layering thinnned out averland sunset on it. I'm finally getting decent looking coverage but I can't do this again. I'm hoping I dont end up with a yellow i can't duplicate.