Yellow base coat

[ManicMan]

okay.. why is it soo hard to get a decent yellow base coat on a figure? I've never really managed it.. I would say it's because yellow is a pale colour so needs more layers to get a decent coat. Maybe if there are only small areas, fine.. but when a large model has to be mostly yellow it's just a real pain..

 

[Sleepysod]

Yellow is my least favourite colour to paint- but if it’s pulled off correctly it looks fantastic.

 

[ManicMan]

after this one figure, I got an Imperial Fist terminator to do sometime, and a Howling Griffon Terminator ¬_¬

 

[Fimm McCool]

Yeah yellow can be horrible to paint.
Vallejo Filthy Brown is my usual base coat: https://acrylicosvallejo.com/en/product/hobby/game-color-en/filthy-brown-72037/
It has good coverage over a grey undercoat and I seem to be able to apply both green-yellow and red-yellow highlights over it. That's what I used on these guys:

(Shaded with Army Painter Flesh Tone)

 

[Fimm McCool]

You might be better off getting a yellow spray paint to base coat models that are mostly yellow. Molotow do a good range of colours and I've found them to be good at taking successive paint layers.

 

[ManicMan]

I was wondering about just giving up on the big model, stripping it and spraying.

I mostly use Vallejo German Green Brown (which is more of a desert Yellow) or German Dark Yellow (which is pretty much the same colour as a primer undercoat because it's not too light and not too dark. I found something like a black, it was too dark for me to really make out too much detail on the figure, and sometimes a white could be a pain being a bit too light a colour a times.

 

[jon_1066]

Try using a base coat of pink - can be surprisingly effective.

Another option is a brown then work up from there.

Final option is use a yellow ink over a zenithal grey/white.

 

[EricF]

When I did my Imperial Fists I used my airbrush: primed white, then a base coat of yellow (Vallejo Moon Yellow), then a leather brown sprayed from underneath, then a white from above. Then a coat of Yellow ink to tie that together, then pinning the armour with a sepia wash before doing the highlights and details.

That all said the results I see these days from a white (or whatever the GW primers for contrast are) rattle-can prime and one of the contrast type paints (GW/Army Painter/Vallejo) over that seems to yield amazing results. So if I didn't have an airbrush I'd go for a Contrast Paint approach myself for Imperial Fists.

 

[symphonicpoet]

I'm the weirdo who paints yellow (and even white) on top of a black basecoat. It does require some patience, and mayhap a somewhat thicker paint than usual, but I find the result quite satisfying as there's a nice depth to it. I usually use craft paints and I use a fairly heavy coat of a dark golden yellow followed by two lighter coats of bright yellow. Here's an example of what I can manage thus:

 

[Loose Loser]

As I also go with black undercoat. I usually paint few layers of bestial brown and bubonic brown before any yellow. Usually hehe They are ( yellow ) more less in transparent range of colours. Pigment load is another problem. I think it's very expensive for starters so they don't use much of it or the quality is down. Liquitex Heavy Body acrylics got nice yellow with good coverage but I don't think they are any use except if you diluted them with mediums that doesn't affect paint load in quality matter.

Best to avoid black or dark undercoat even grey as it will mute the colour. Pink was mentioned and that works since transparency of yellow paints so you'll get brightish yellow. I think it's best to stick to neutral ( white undercoat ) or base coat with something that is from that spectre of colours.

Space elfs are beautiful. Gorgeous miniatures.

 

[sniffer_squig]

My yellow method/tips based on doing my rogue trader bad moons with a black undercoat and plenty of yellow/black side-by-side and associated mistakes that need correcting -

* GW Averland Sunset to block out yellow areas over black
* Whatever yellow you want over the top, thin out with yellow ink. No matter how transparent the brand, I get a decent colour in a couple of coats of the Averland
* At this point WAIT. The yellow is the last colour to finish off because it is incredibly difficult to correct mistakes afer this point.
* ...
* Correct any mistakes here using Averland then going back over with whichever yellow you're going with
* Shade, highlight, glaze etc. You've got nothing else to paint on the mini at this point in theory so just don't mess up any other area in contact with the yellow that touching up could endanger messing up the yellow

 

[Wolfie65]

I use watercolors, which makes black basecoats impossible, and I have no trouble getting very light, very bright yellow over white.
Did the black basecoat thing for a while in the early 00's, but wasn't happy with how it dulled everything down.

 

[TMS]

That all said the results I see these days from a white (or whatever the GW primers for contrast are) rattle-can prime and one of the contrast type paints (GW/Army Painter/Vallejo) over that seems to yield amazing results. So if I didn't have an airbrush I'd go for a Contrast Paint approach myself for Imperial Fists.

Indeed, the latest batch of contrast paints from GW have at least one very impressive yellow among them - bad moon yellow.

The "contrast" brand is misleading here. This particular paint gives no contrast at all but rather a clean, striking yellow coat with no splotches. I've included an image where it's being used. It's one or two coats of bad moon on top of a white primer (GW's white contrast primer, as it happens to be). The white highlight on top is from my drybrushing, the yellow you see in the image is what you get from the paint itself. Quite impressive, really.