"Yellow, white and light colours in general" Topic

Hi forum,

As a newbie (and generally rather poor) painter [medieval, 15 mm], I'm looking for tips to get a decent white or yellow on large surfaces (a coat, horse caparacon, etc).

I manage a fair blue, red, or most dark colours – but my whites and yellows are hopeless, they are uneven and patchy, the undercoat shows through, the paint accumulates in the recesses that are whiter than the bumps, etc.

I tried various paints (from Citadel, Army Painter and Prince August) – no luck.

Any advice would be appreciated !

Best

I don't really do 15s but when I do white or yellow, on my 28s, I find it's better to paint them onto a grey, or yellow brown, base coat over your primer. It's an extra layer of painting but it makes those colours stand out better imo especially on black primer.

Years ago when I worked for games workshop I had a manager who painted an imperial fists space marine army (a whole army of guys in bright yellow armour) and he swore by using flesh coloured paint as a base coat for his yellow and he painted really nice yellows.

Prince Rupert is correct. I'm assuming you are using black primer. If so, an additional coat of white or light grey before painting light colored areas can often fix inconsistent coverage. If you are still having trouble with coverage try using white gesso over these areas. Gesso is about as opaque as white can be.

On the paint front I use a lot of Revell aqua colour paints and their Matt yellow is one of the best yellows I've found four for coverage. My army painter yellow is horrible almost useless as a paint.

Yellow is very hard to paint – I agree that a good primer coat of light grey or white is important – I have come to use white mostly

When I paint yellow, I put a base coat of desert sand. The yellows show up nicely. If I am doing white, I use sky gray, then off white, and then highlight white.

Similarly to cavcrazy, I tend to use a first coat of Vallejo Gold Brown 70.877 when painting yellow. But I don't use black primer, which probably helps.

I've never had any problems painting either yellow, white or red over white primer.

Yellow ochre basecoat. I tried for many years using white but that never quite hit it.

Thanks all !

If you use a brown or ocre primer, how do you manage the other areas (e.g. flesh, metal, other colours) ? Are they not affected ?
Or are you talking of three coats (+ highlights if required), i.e. a white/grey primer sprayed on the whole figure, a beige/brown/sand base coat, and then the actual yellow you wish to use ?

The second version use your normal primer then base coat over the primer with grey for white or a yellow brown for yellow then paint your colour choice and extra highlight if desired. In the case of white the white can be the highlight of the grey so just paint the raised areas white and that will then hopefully stop

"the paint accumulates in the recesses that are whiter than the bumps, etc."

I'm with GurKhan – Vallejo Flat yellow over Goldbrown. I prime mid grey (with Gesso), thinned black wash & drybrush white quickly over the figures before putting any colour on.

I do that with 6-28mm figures and it works pretty well for coverage. You do need to plan ahead and I always have figures in different stages of preparation so I can just prime or undercoat if I don't feel like doing detailed work.

I primer my figures white every time.

Prime your horses white or grey, but I would stick with black for your armored figures. I'm guessing most of your medieval figures have a lot of armor, and metallic colors need to go over a black base. For small areas of yellow cloth, paint a base coat of yellow-brown, yellow-tan, or just plain tan. Add a coat of yellow over that and highlight with a very light yellow on the highlights.

I also prime my figures white.

For white paint, the trick is not to paint white. WHite should be the highlight color, but the base color should be a light cold grey or light ivory color, then highlight up to pure white.

For yellow, I ALWAYS paint over a coat of white paint as a base, even when I prime in white. For white paint I use Vallejo, even if I use mostly GW colors for ancients/medievals. Vallejo white does very well when brushed & properly thinned.

Damon.

Yellow is indeed a "special" colour. I just finished a unit with yellow uniforms, so I get to brag a bit …

TMP link

The problem is that yellow pigments, inherently are very transparent, so there is no universal answer. I can tell you what I did for that unit and then give some general ideas for whites and yellows

The Spanish dragoons were primed white and then had two coats of Reaper HD Pale Saffron which is the best coverage yellow I have found. Of course they have discontinued the HD line and I have no idea whether any of the Bone paints work so well. I shaded with burnt sienna ink and did a tiny bit of highlighting with Pale Saffron mixed with a little white, but that didn't really make much difference

I prime white as I prefer bright colours and don't have the patience to build up to the brighter colours from darker ones. You can prime a darker colour and zenithal coat white on top, or any variation involving drybrushing, shading etc.

To get white over a darker colour, you normally have to use an intermediate colour, such as grey. This will cover much more evenly. I usually find more than one coat is needed, but after the first coat, you don't have to be too accurate with the brush, as you're only hitting the major areas. For crossbelts on Napoleonics I do one coat undiluted of Vallejo white, This does a pretty good job, and I'm not concerned about loss of texture on crossbelts. I then do some lining or other shading and then another coat of white where needed.

In general, for white over black primer, don't try to get all the way to white. For a white basecoat, choose a darker white, as the highlights can never get past pure white. This means that you have to pick between a warm or a cool off white as your base colour and this is going to cover more evenly over the black primer

Base coat for yellow could be an ochre colour. Flesh colour is really a red orange colour with lots of white, so is also a good base for yellow

John

Again – thanks all for the advice. Much appreciated !

For bright colours I always undercoat white. But yellow… has always been problematical. Two sometimes three coats required. However I picked up P3 sulfur yellow – one coat was enough.

(Yes I too paint 15mm)

I always prime in white as well. But for yellow, I am usually putting it on over some darker color.

I have found that a gouache paint for both red and yellow will cover in one coat, even over dark blue.

Tom

I agree with ochre or sand colour and then yellow, the miniature in the middle is yellow over white while those flanking are yellow over sand, which I prefer at the moment.

For any transparent colors, the trick is underpainting. Basically you apply a separate pale undercoat to the area then after that is dry, topcoat with the desired color. The undercoat shows through, especially with yellow, so take advantage of that. For a pure color result use white undercoat. For warmer effect use cream, or even a light brown. For cooler effect use pale gray, or even pale blue gray.

>>The problem is that yellow pigments, inherently are very transparent, so there is no universal answer. I can tell you what I did for that unit and then give some general ideas for whites and yellows

As above- all has to do with the base pigments and opacity. Yellow and white being worst.
You should use a 'sympathetic' colour as an undercoat- in the same colour range like the straw/ tan/ sand scenario for these.
Reds often do better with a more medium brown (not burnt sienna) undercoat. etc…

Good luck. Trial and error, 'dry brush' not wet!
d