Painting a yellow finish

[eng]

A quick question and probably been asked a hundred times before but here goes anyway. 

 

Got a small aircraft tug on the go and the overall finish is gloss yellow, what's the best way to get a nice vivid finish? I recall reading somewhere that undercoating in red is the best option.

 

Can anyone confirm if I'm on the right track here or is there a better undercoat option.

 

Rgds,

 

Eng

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

Are you brushing or spraying? I'm not very good at brush painting and would rather take up knitting than have to brush paint models ... but if spraying then I'd probably just go with a black base as I do with white top coats, and spray on dry dust coats over and over again to get the coverage. When spraying whites and yellows I find the trick is not to go wet.

[Rabbit Leader]

My tip would be to apply a nice even undercoat of white. I realise that white is almost as hard to apply as yellow however it's the only way to go in my book. Red would appear to be too 'dark' for an undercoat colour, so for me - I'd stick to white. 

 

To be honest, I apply white under most vivid colours including red but most certainly fluorescent colours. 

 

Like most things, try it on a test piece first. I suspect your using an airbrush, however if not, perhaps try to spray it evenly with some suitable spray cans. 

 

Cheers... Dave

[Black Knight]

I always use gloss orange as undercoat for both yellow and red

 

 

[eng]

Thank you chaps, I meant to say I'd be airbrushing, and my chosen ammo is Tamiya, which I have to admit are lovely to spray. 

 

My initial instinct was to go white then yellow, but interesting to hear Jamie suggest black basing. Will have a play on my test jet tomorrow. 

 

Thanks for for your help guys 👍

 

Eng

[pacificmustang]

Personally, if you want a vivid yellow, don't blackbase. Whilst you can spray yellow over black, it will never be as vivid as  spraying over a white base. I have sprayed over a pink base before which also gives great results. Just mix a bit of red into your white base and you get a deeper yellow

bruce 

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

I agree it won't be as vivid over black as over white but I admit that's intentional. Yellow can be a real punch in the face to look at on a model - a bit like chrome wheels on a car that overwhelm the overall visual impression. Still, it's a personal preference thing

[Prenton]

I have used both a white base and a red base.  The former is great if you are doing something like Luftwaffe yellow (eg cowlings on BoB Bf 109's), or undersurfaces of RAF trainers.  I have used the latter, with great effect, on pre WW2 US aircraft wings, which are more "golden yellow".  I would also undercoat with red if doing a postwar flourescent yellow.

 

Philip

[azureglo]

My 10 cents worth: The last thing I built was an all yellow P-51 and here is what I did . Simple white primer (Alcald) and misted coats of Mr Color thinned with Mr Levelling thinners, waiting 15 minutes between each coat. The Mr Color dries to a super glossy finish for decalling. Also it  will probably kill you unless you have a serious extractor and a VOC face mask, but Mike will say nice things at your funeral.

 

A

[Troy Smith]

a recent thread on Hyperscale,  I've quoted some relevant parts

 

http://www.network54.com/Forum/149674/thread/1497201027/last-1497236261/(View+All+Messages+In+This+Thread)

 

Quote

I am not a paint expert but I ask a professional painter who was in the paint manufacturing business a few years ago about a primer that would help me get better yellow finishes. As you know yellow is the Devil's color. Anyway, his response was to use a 'purple' tinted primer because it was opposite yellow on the color wheel. He explained that this was a general rule for primers and colors. 

I have had some luck with using a light purple under yellow. I've gotten the best results with a good all around silver for my primer. I use Tamiya AS-12 for my go-to primer. It can be used as a universal primer to cover hard to hide colors like red, the Devil's other color, and it is a generally a good primer for any color. 
 

and

Quote

As noted in other responses, primer coats are another option for manipulating color, but be aware it works on a different set of rules. For instance, a purplish white primer makes yellow even more vivid than a white primer because the purple absorbs all the other color wavelengths and reflects only the yellow back to the eye, resulting in a purer yellow. But, it also changes the hue, so if color fidelity is important, you might not want to do that. If you're building a yellow '68 Camaro, it's perfect. 

 

not mine, but the given the comments about using red and orange,  the purple tinted makes sense, remembering we see reflected light, 

 

probably worth experimenting with some scrap first

 

HTH

 

[Black Knight]

Interesting