I have tried sandy colour, but it has been too close to the skin colour to really distinguish. Work on dirty Swedish troops, but well, doesn't look really good. Have no pic though. Also used yellow paint with a skin-wash, not happy with that either so I am also quite interested in this.
Todays blonds are might not be the best example for painting. I have used pictures of Sami people for my blond figures and they can ranch from light straw to very light brown.
I usually start with a beige color, then highlight it with khaki and then a very pale yellow. Here's an example I did with a Reaper Bones fantasy figure a while back:
Definitely ends up with more of a pale/ash-blond color than yellow this way.
Thanks for all the ideas. I have 8 Tumbling Dice Gothic infantry on the go (maybe another 16 if I sell some of my existing plastics) so I will experiment a bit.
I haven't painted many blonde figures, but when I do it usually use a clear brown/sand for the base and then highlight with pure yellow. Here you have a couple of samples: