Painting Yellow

Painting Yellow (marines) 

Hi guys, i did promise this to a friend some time ago, but i have not been painting for a few months due to other commitments, but finally it's here. it's just a little guide on how i like to paint yellow on my Imperial fists marines. 

I know that a lot of people get put off wanting to paint Imperial fists simply because paint yellow is a complete pain in the arse. I've tried base coating my mini's in white and going through different shades of yellow/brown to finally get it to a yellow, but for me that took far too long, so i spent a little time think and searching for a different solution, then i simply thought "why don't i just base coat the mini yellow in the first place?". This might seem like a simple idea but it did take me some time (not being the sharpest tool in the shed) so i did a bit of scouting around on the old internet and came across http://thearmypainter.com/ . They do a lot of different coloured primers. now i wanted a yellow that was a nice bright colour. now they do two different yellow primers, daemonic yellow and dessert yellow, so i went for the daemonic yellow, the brighter the better.

Here's a little run down of the paints and shades that i used for my yellow marine: 

• The army painter Daemonic yellow Primer
• Citadel flash gitz yellow
• Citadel casandora yellow shade 
• Citadel lamenters yellow glaze
• Citadel white scar

Now i am sorry if the pictures aren't exactly of best quality but i do hope that i will make simple enough so that you can just do it by what i say (i hope) :S 

Step 1

Ok first stage is to prepare you mini, if's it's resin then you will need to give it a wash in warm soapy water, i use washing up liquid. Get an old tooth bush if you have one and brush all over the mini, this helps to remove any of the chemicals that are left on the mini from when it was being made in the injection mold machines, that left over residue does not make it easy for the primer to stick to your mini and it will just end up a mess if you don't remove that layer. Then just was it in normal cold clean water, just to wash off any of the soap left on after washing and brushing the mini. Now leave your mini to dry completely, but if your like me and can't be bothered to wait you can just use a hair dryer on a low heat setting to dry on the water from your mini.

Step 2

Ok you can either glue the parts of your mini together if you want everything to be based coated yellow but for me and this guide i have only done the torso and legs.

Step 3 

So here you want to prime your mini with the Daemonic yellow primer from The Army Painter. you want to do this in a well ventilated room and wear and face mask so you don't breathe in any of the paint fumes. once you have sprayed your mini and made sure you have all of it covered in a nice even coating you want to leave it to dry for a few hours to make sure the paint is fully dry. You don't want to go and pick it up to find that it's still wet and you have just left a nice big finger print on it. 

Step 4

Now once your mini is dry you want to paint over all of the parts you want to be yellow in Flash gitz yellow with a little bit of water so it's not too sticky. I find this colour matches Daemonic yellow primer very well and in fact it's a bit brighter which is what you want, now by doing this you are topping up the base coat with a nice solid yellow. The base coat simply makes it easy for you to apply more yellow to the mini. if you have ever tried painting yellow over white or black base coats you will know it takes 3 or 4 layers for it to completely cover up the base coat. If you feel you want to put a quick second layer of flash gitz yellow on it then go ahead. 

The picture bellow doesn't look much different from the previous one from the section above, that's simply my poor photography skills, but you will be able to notice a different once you have done so yourself. the flash gitz isn't quite as pale as the primer.

Step 5

Step 5 is my favorite part, i like to make a bit of a mess. This is where you want to completely cover your mini in Casandora Yellow shade. Just let it go in all the cracks and groves of your mini. I went for Casandora yellow because i didn't want to have really dark shadows around the joints and other parts of my marines, plus dark shades don't go too well on yellow, plus i find it just adds something a bit different to the yellow.

You can add as much or as little of the shade to different parts of your mini depending on where you want darker areas. once your happy with the amount you have put on you just want to leave it to dry for some time so that when you come to doing the next stage you don't end up dragging some wet shade around with your paint and ruining it.

as you can see in the image bellow (and you will see with your own eye's better) that there are now darker areas to the armour and the overall colour of the yellow has taken on a slightly darker tone.

Step 6

Next you want to go over all the armour again with Flash gitz yellow, but leaving the groves and cracks alone so that they have a nice shaded area with the casandora yellow in it. you can also leave a slight gap around the edge of the armour as well so that you leave just a bit of the shaded armour still on show, it just adds a something to the look i find. next you can mix a little bit of white scar paint to some of the flash gitz yellow so you make a pale yellow, this you can use to highlight edges of the armour you want to stand out and have a lighter effect to it. after that i like to add a little layer of lementers yellow glaze over all of the mini, it adds a little shine to it, but you don't have to do this if you don't want to, it does really do a lot to it really.

Step 7

this step is really if you put a layer of the lementers yellow glaze on, all i simple do is just lightly go over some of the areas with flash gitz yellow again, but this stage really isn't needed.

And that's it really. I always find that teh mini sitting there just yellow like the image above really doesn't look like much at all, but once you start to paint on other colours like blacks for the suit that is worn under teh power armour and silver on the pipes then the yellow really does start to look good.

By all means have a little play around to try and achieve the look you want, this is simply the way i enjoy to paint my imperial fists, it's probably not the best and it's not super quick, but i find it's a lot better than basing it white and working my way through different colours to get to yellow. 

also if you want to do some battle damage to the yellow armour then i find that a good way of doing this is by make a pale yellow by mixing flash gitz yellow with white scar like we did with highlights, but this you want it to  e more white than yellow. So you then apply it to the area you want to to be. You could run it along the edge of the armour so it looks like it has scratched ad rubbed on something, then you can add a dark silver inside that pale yellow you made but make sure you leave that pale yellow running around the edge, then after that you can add in a light sliver within that dark silver, so it makes the effect of different layers of the armour has been damaged, going from the paint of the outside down to the actual armour it self.

If you want to ask me any questions feel free and i will do my best to help you

I hope this little guide will help some people over come that little fear of painting yellow :D 

Here's my commander that i painted using the same steps for the yellow as i described above. I hope to be adding some pictures of the rest of my command squad once i get the all the images.