Small Scale Military Headquarters

Why does it seem yellow paint's don't cover well? I've tried two different brand of acrylic yellow in an airbrush and they don't cover at all. It takes 6 coats before it starts to resemble yellow. Is this the norm or just the brand of paint? I'm going to try Tamiya yellow now, it seems like it will work great.

Yes

One should always pain the yellow first.before all colors.

It would help also to paint white first over your primer then yellow.

Alright, I'm working on a plane for some one with a yellow 6. I've never had any good luck with yellow... The camo is in place already, should I just spray yellow down and reverse mask it, then touch up the camo?

flyboy_fx wrote:Alright, I'm working on a plane for some one with a yellow 6. I've never had any good luck with yellow... The camo is in place already, should I just spray yellow down and reverse mask it, then touch up the camo?

That should work..

If you try to spray the yellow after words it will look like a child's stick on number because you will have to do so many coats.

I noticed that... That was failure number 1.

Picklehuabe is right. Put some white down first. If you've already painted the rest of the plane, just use a white first on the area to be yellow.

I haven't done any models in a long time, but I painted cars for years. Yellow doesn't cover in the automotive world either, and we always had to put down a white sealer (or paint) first on every job to get the yellow to cover. The white underneath always makes it more vibrant anyways.

I have no airbrush, but can say it is the same problem with red and white. Red comes much better with a first white layer. For white... 6 times white on white is more ivory than white, finally. I should better have started with a white layer before painting white on it

Dauntless wrote:Picklehuabe is right. Put some white down first. If you've already painted the rest of the plane, just use a white first on the area to be yellow.

I haven't done any models in a long time, but I painted cars for years. Yellow doesn't cover in the automotive world either, and we always had to put down a white sealer (or paint) first on every job to get the yellow to cover. The white underneath always makes it more vibrant anyways.

This is exactly right. If you have an already painted craft, paint the areas you want yellow white first, then yellow over that.

In paint yellow is known as a "transparent" color. It is about the worst single color in that regard - even yellow with quite a bit of pigment will still not cover a darker color well at all. As mentioned, you need to undercoat the area that needs to be yellow with a light color. Depending on the color that I'm covering I have used white, light grey or khaki tan, for a bright yellow you need a smooth white base. Make sure your base coat is fully dry before putting on the yellow,

Some reds are almost as "transparent" as yellow, some aren't too bad. Again, you need a base coat to get a rich bright red.

The above is old painter's and modeler's info from years of painting yellow model trains as well as military models.

Back in the day yellows, orange, and reds covered really good.

This before regulations took the lead based tint out of them. That's what made them cover well. Though reds are somewhat better than yellows and orange because they are mostly iron oxide based.

Thanks guys! After 7 attempts, I got it!!!! I must have sanded off 3 inches of yellow...


I ended up using Tamiya yellow and white.

I Always use a grey base before using Yellow or Red it works wonders

Thanks for the help! It worked great!!!!

That looks like its comming along nicely Mate

Cool who is dat ? Looks like a Mediterranean or North Afrika.