What colours would you recommend?

[Aranon]

Thanks for the great feedback on my earlier posts.  I'm looking at buying some paints and would like your input on the most helpful colours that you use.  I'm looking at buying some Vallejo and Pro paints.  I was wondering if it would be better to buy the Vallejo fantasy paint kit and then add other colours or would it be better to buy individual colours?

[Ranger Man]

There are so many opinions about that. †It just depends on the colors you like and think that would look good. †Invest in a color wheel. †They can be purchased at most art supply stores. †Don't forgot most color pigments are a result of mixing the primary and secondary colors plus black and white. †Also pickup some metallics like gold, silver, brass, etc.

 

As for brands of paints, experiment and buy what works for you. †On a personal note, I use various brands and a lot of military colors. :)

 

rm

[smokingwreckage]

Well, if you're doing human fighters for ex you'll need a flesh tone you like, a deeper tone to shade it with, black to undercoat the armour, a dark silver for armour base and a bright silver for drybrushed highlights. Add white for highlighting most things. Add a light and a dark tone of any colour you want to do the clothing in anda dun colour, with maybe a brown to shade it, for leather. Probably a good red and a good yellow (according to taste; preferrably fairly deep, not pastels). A few greens for clothing, grass. Black ink or translucent black would also be nice for additional deep shading on armor and weapons.

 

If you're doing mages you'll want a few nice blues! All mages like blue, it's a documented fact.....

[Crusoe the Painter]

Well, the absolute minimum colors are....

White, Black, Red, Yellow, Blue, and Silver and Gold metallics. From these you can mix just about anything else. <:)

 

Since browns are used a lot though, and mixing a good flesh tone can be tricky, plus it's nice to have the secondary colors, the best 'all around' set is...

 

White, Black, Red, Yellow, Blue, Orange, Purple, Green,

Silver, Gold

a Orangey-brown ( burnt sienna ), perfect for mixing with fleshtones to shade them, and for leather, can be made darker by adding black

a midtone fleshtone, which you can lighten and darken for skin.

 

This will do nearly anything you'll need, with some mixing.

[Domni]

I based my Vajello choices off the skin pack available but tailored it somewhat. Vajello covers beautifully and are simply wonderful to work with. One thing I should add, Brown Rose is quite simply one of the best colors I've worked with. It's very versatile and I almost always use it for highlighting skin areas such as lips/nipples/eye area/etc. It's a great color. :)

I may have left a couple off the list:

 

Dark Flesh

Light Flesh

Black

White

Flat Flesh

Burnt Umber

Luftwaffe Uniform

Dark Prussian Blue

USA Uniform Green

Brown Rose

Basic Skin tone

Pale Sand

Cork Brown

Sunny Skin tone

Mahogany Brown

Azure

Smoke

Vermillion(very red color)

 

I do still need a good orange and purple selection and a couple more greens would be nice..maybe more browns..and ... LOL :)   Btw, two things to remember about Vajello paints: store them upside down and shake them a _lot!_ before use. Storing them upside down keeps the pigment closer to the nozzle rather than the binder(clear liquid stuff). If all your binder leaks, or squirts out first on a constant basis, then you may find yourself with nothing put a dried out tube of pigment. Shake them a good 1-2 minutes before using. You'll find that the higher the pigment of a paint, the more likely it'll seperate from it's binder but also the higher the quality(imo).

Hope this helps :)

[Flit]

Does anyone know of a reputable online/mail source for Vajello paints?

I have only one small game shop within 100 miles of me and there selection of everything is spotty. They carry mostly Citadel paints and alittle bit of the ProPaint.

I am interested it trying the Vajello stuff (eveyone says its the best) but have no idea where to get it.

Any help would be appreciated.

Flit

[aramance]

The one paint that I use the most is reapers oiled leather.  Its great for armors and some skin tones.

[Domni]

I've always had _great_ service and good pricing from AlbinoRhino. I believe they only take payment via Paypal. Paypal is free to use, just grab an account if you don't already have one.

 

http://www.albinorhino.com/hobby/

 

Another good online store is Brookhurst. Again, good service and prices. http://www.brookhursthobbies.com/

 

For windowshopping, ie: not really buying jack from them but loving the website ;) I use Newwave games. Let me restate this, I do not buy _anything_ from them.

 

http://www.newwavegames.com/gw.html

 

Hope this helps :)

[Lars Porsenna]

Hiya,

 

I've bought all my Vallejos from Grandiosity http://www.warweb.com/

 

I've been buying Old Glory from these guys for the last 4 years and service is always excellent. The longest I've had to wait for a purchase is 2 weeks...more typical is a 1 week turnaround. Also check out Veni, Vidi, Vici decals to decorate the shields of your figures! Most are historicals but theres a nice (slightly GW inspired) fantasy section. Pics can be seen at http://www.3vwargames.co.uk/

 

Damon.

[Kheprera]

War Web takes money orders !! Woo Hoo!!

 

That's a big plus for them right there. Gotta wait until I get paid again, though.

[Gobbo]

Well, I just bought my first set of Vajllejo paints and must say, Smoke and Metal Medium Rock and the rest of the paints are awsome too!

[Lady Tam]

All of them! Buy as much as you can. You can never have too much paint in my opinion! I hate to mix, so I buy everything I can. But if you do that, keep a list, othewise you get lots of duplicates. (Which my painting froend doesn't mind as I give them to him!)

Lady Tam paint collector.

[Kheprera]

I would start out, personally, with the primary colors. You can mix virtually any color using just the primaries. From there you can move on to the more complex colors...

 

Basic starting set for me:

 

Flesh

White

Black

Red

Blue

Yellow

Brown (because it's such a hard color to mix)

Silver or Gunmetal (for metal)

Gold (for ornaments)

 

all told, in Reaper Paints, that would run you about $20.00, not counting the primer of your choice. As a starter/beginner, I'd probably recommend grey or maybe black. Grey is neutral and black helps eliminate the need for blacklining or trying to the fine details to stand out. Primer color is really personal preference, although I use any from clear, to black, to white, and grey, depending on the effect I want on the mini I'm painting.

 

White lets the colors stand out more vividly.

Black gives good shadows and dulls color, good for those dark, evil minions and BBEGs.

Grey is a good neutral, as is a clear (made by Delta Ceramcoat).

 

I do recommend a good light, preferrably one of the "True Natural" lights, like Ottlight. Ottlights are pricey, but mine was well worth it.. desktop, purchased the magnifier seperately, and is less than 1 1/2 feet tall and folds up. No clamping to tables involved. It's also a LOT cheaper than a swingarm light with the magnifier (which run from about $35 (for the el-cheaper to $175 for the heavy duty good lighting great magnifier). Lighting is important for seeing the mini well and blending colors.

 

That's about all I got there.