6. Maintain hue contrast: complementary colors look better than adjacent. 7. Saturation and brightness contrast is just as important: 3 equally saturated and bright colors look cheap unless you're painting a clown. make one dark for unimportant secondary stuff and the other desaturated for highlighting focal points. 8. Analogous colors work best in gradients: e.g. an orange panel next to a red panel looks bad, whereas red-orange panel is ok. 9. Less is more: when adding more colors to the scheme, it's getting harder to ensure they don't conflict with each other. 10. If you really want to have a multitude of colors think about space "contrast": a. don't place similar colors near each other; b. give colors different amount of model's surface. 11. In my experience the best combination is 1-2 complementary colors plus one outstanding that doesn't take a lot of space and goes in gradient from highly saturated to white.
I've struggled with choosing color schemes for years, like REALLY struggled. I was recently diagnosed with ADHD at age 30 after having powered through it (with no small effort) for decades, and my suspicion is that this has played a major role in the type of obsessive indecisiveness that has delayed very many projects in the hobby for me. I imagine that others may be able to relate to this as well. One thing I would recommend to anyone who feels like they have a similar issue is to take a step back from printed and published resources and try to remember what you found really appealing at your first glance. In other words, try to remember what the models or army looked like that sparked your interest in them in the first place. Then use THAT scheme to paint a few chaff/troop/battleline models. At which point you can revisit your sources of inspiration and decide if there is anything you'd like to modify, and if there is, pick 1-2 elements you want to add or subtract and paint another batch of models. It is very important that you do not let yourself obsess and "research" a bunch of stuff while you are in the process of finishing as batch of models, as this is ultimately what paralyzes you and keeps you from making actual progress. You want to avoid overstimulating yourself with too many ideas in a period of time where you need to stick to one or two ideas. As you complete more and more of your models, you will feel more invested and confident in your choice and be less prone to what I'd call "progress paralysis." Hope someone finds this a bit helpful, as this is what I wish someone told me years ago.
As a fellow ADHD'er diagnosed in their 30's this resonates with me extremely well. I have always loved the Dark Angels and their colour scheme but I am now slightly obsessed with the Imperial Guard and want to do a Killzone/Helghast paint scheme for them. But I am struggling to work out how to paint them without them just being black grey blobs 🤣
Thank you for this, I also have ADHD and I have struggled to finish a single mini so far because I keep going back to try to figure out a better scheme.
New video idea: How to tackle painting armies, if you have more than 2-3 armies that need to be painted. Also, cell reception now extends to the forest. lol
I am going thru your beginner stuff playlist and am quite happy (as a 62 year old beginner). I needed a logical approach. As I do Photoshop and illustrator stuff for a living I always have a command-z option, yet painting and building up figures hadn't made sense. Ninjon and Maniac turned me onto your channel. If you are in Minnesota, I would love to buy you a beer. Enjoy your week - Joe
Nice ideas! I also really like putting every colors I plan to use together, with an approximate ratio, on a bit of white cardboard. You can sometimes spot problems and make subtle adjsutmemts to the scheme before testing on a model (ex: switching the yellow for a colder one)
Great reminder about stripping not being super necessary. I do it out of habit, especially when getting stuff from eBay, but in a lot of those instances I probably could have gotten away with just a respray. Thanks as always Vince! You've become part of my Saturday morning routine :)
The paint mock up is brilliant, gonna use that for sure! I really lucked into my schemes fitting ok on color trinaries, with the only disparity being stuff like "made it brighter to work as a plasma/energy color". I will have to put the rest of these in use, thank you for the amazing video as always!
For years I’ve been telling my fellow GW hobbists that there is no rulebook to painting your models. I’m just glad to see someone on UA-cam agrees with me.
One of the tricks I use to do is to pick a color scheme from a different army that I like. You can pick perfectly a Stomcast Eternal scheme to do a Space Marine (or chaos). Armor over clothes schemes are perfectly switchable between armies (Tau-GenestealersCult-ImperialGuard-Votann).
Thanks Vince. Your tips are gracious and best of all, there to serve the individual for the sake of fun. Months ago I bought some “Dragon glaze” (mostly opaque, purple-hued sparkly glaze) and I just had to use it. So I’ve thrown it on my newly purchased Thricefold Discord on all their flesh (after painting) and it looks quite cool. It gives the flesh that ethereal glimmer while also giving it a bit of gloss which makes it look more gross and slimy, like I imagine a demon from Slaanesh would be. Great vid. Thanks!
I have found a lot of inspiration from Napoleonics and pre-Napoleonics uniforms. The range of colors is massive (yes, even pink!), and they knew how to make a solider look good back in those days. :)
This is surely the most complete guide about choosing a color scheme on the entire internet, I started painting more than 15 years ago but it still helped me a lot, thank you!
I learned from the Spanish painters to use impressionist fantasy & sci-fi concept art. Boris Vallejo sorta stuff. Gave me alot of ideas for colours & also how lighting works.
Picking a good scheme can be challenging especially for people like me who want most new army projects to have a general theme and their own color scheme. I do find the look at existing schemes for inspiration as a great tool. Sometimes you'll just have an idea hit you which you then expand on and finalize. I do this all before I even decide to buy a single mini. If i can't think of a good theme to go with i often will not bother starting that army. themes can be pretty basic as well. Oh all the armies i play have no X. What armies excels at X thing and go off that.
Doing the digital mock up is a great idea. Lyla Mev goes over doing stuff like that too in some of her videos, but she usually uses a much fancier (and kind of intimidating) program to do it. Using a transparent brush on like MS Paint is great idea, and much more accessible. Also, seeing how you use pop colors to such a subtle affect is really helpful. Thanks for another great video!
Another thing I do personally that helps me is figuring out the personality of what I want to paint. It helps hone in on the scheme I want. For instance I love Iron Warriors but I wanted to make a custom warband. I wanted them to be Slaanesh worshippers but their worship came in the form of excessive greed of others riches and technology. So I made the trim dark silver but their armor is a gold with purple in their loincloths, eye lenses, etc.
You Look Greaaaaaaat!!!!!! All is right with the world when it’s Saturday Morning, a cup of coffee, a cigar, and an incredible HC video. This was just bitchen!! Great topic, super simple useful recommendations, things to help me, LARRY, and great audio! Thanks!
Great tips, even after so many years of your content I find new gems to utilize. I happen to love stripping models because it takes me about 5 minutes and gives my mind a reset even if it may be physically an illusion lol.
Not gonna lie, thought you were going to say go back the forest when you asked "why are you worried about the unimportant stuff" lol this was a great video I've seen similar videos but this broke it down a lot better it makes my idea for a paint scheme I'm thinking about a lot more manageable
Great video Vince! Feel like this is a massive topic that doesn't get spoken about enough and these are some great tips. :) One thing I also find often a problem is when I find too many cool schemes for an army and I can't decide on one. I've done this many times with my Nighthaunt over the years and have so many models in my collection from different ideas and in different schemes it can be really hard to just lean into one.
"This happens to all of us, you get excited about a new army..." Me, still working on the WFB Wood Elves I've been working on since 2016: "yeah... happens to all of us"
Watching this video from the woods. It's been 5 days, but I think it may now be time to return to civilization and paint some of those gray minis I ran away screaming from.
Krita is a very nice tool. Basically a free Photoshop application that exist on all platforms aside apple pads I think. Then just do what the man said, take a pic, add a layer and paint a scheme. I do that and have several schemes to flip over before I change.
Thanks for the insights. Very helpful as usual. I would also suggest to write the scheme down after using it. It can help in the future to go back to the scheme faster
For a great many of mini/army painters their background isn't from anything creative, let alone using paint. So it can be daunting to come up with color themes without much experience. A good shortcut is look at things for inspiration. Maybe you like a certain car in a certain colorway and can apply that motif to your marines. Maybe some warcraft armor from a decade ago is your jam, paint that. Inspiration can come from anywhere, it doesnt have to be from your codex. When I do army painting I alter 1 part of the color pallet, or color layout, to make them my own and in some cases to make it more efficient to paint.
I haven't actively planned out a paint job yet, everything I've done so far has been on the fly. I do think about planning a color scheme at some point, but for now, I'm just having fun. I think about it too deeply and it's like looking down from a tightrope, I'm probably going to screw it up lol
I paint my armies in the colours of my workplace incase I donate for them to sell later in life... (I work for a charity hospice).. purple, white with green bases
I’ve used most of these suggestions & can certainly back them. I even painted my Space Marine RG successor chapter using Carolina Panthers kit colors. I’m looking to get into a Song of Ice & Fire with Martell & using NMM gold, browns & ochre type colors.
There are great open source alternatives to things like Photoshop, Krita for example. Just in case you might want to see if a big scary program will help you, don't worry though, they're not so scary really. They do have some significant advantages though: Layers, different ways to combine the colour information on those layers ( a big one here is using a layer set to multiply or screen on top of an image of a grey model, as this is kind of like actually painting on the model), better selection tools like lasso, polygonal lasso or the magic wand (using those you could also do fast mockups of kitbashes up front)
I have really enjoyed using impcat for digital mockups, it's kind of addicting. You can add specific models and paint through the Reddit forum shared folder for it.
I LOVE COLOR SCHEME'S! Part of the reason why I collect eldar aspect warriors is because each aspect shrine has thier own unique colors. So the sky is the limit and no 2 squads are alike!
Thanks! Very helpful. I’m trying to come up with color scheme for my Soulblight Gravelord. I was lucky and tracked Battleforce with them. I’m thinking about practicing airbrush technique on them. So I don’t want to think about about color scheme to much and instead build up my airbrush skill. But I don’t like official color scheme. So I think I take official color scheme and tweak one color slightly and that would work great for me. Thanks for suggestion!
Hi Vince. Really like the idea of a digital mock up. Going to order myself a colourwheel. Strangely although the digital mock up is a great idea I also love the feel of something physical in my hands (!) I suppose this need would also be fulfilled by the physical test figure. It's also nice to have my free form attitude to schemes validated by a pro painter such as yourself. I don't play TT and I'm not entering Golden Demon - I model/paint for pleasure and relaxation so not painting my minis (or indeed my models) according to canon is the norm. One more thing - yaaay Larry! 😁
Mine were pretty simple. When I first started I played the World Eaters. Then the Grey Knights. Then in 7th when the Khorne Daemon Kin codex came out I played The Wrath. When I started up a Sisters army I used my GM's DnD setting for inspiration since it was originally supposed to take play in the 40K universe. I used my PC's color scheme at the time to paint my Sisters. Since the World Eaters codex came out in 9th and I lost access to like 75% of my armor, I have been updating them to my current CSM army: The Black Knights. They are a terminator heavy warband that wear Frog Helmets (from the Grey Knight Terminators kit) for easy kitbashes. Though they look like Black Legion. Black and bronze or gold depending on the placement in the FOC. So mine were kind og chosen for me, save for the Sisters and the Black Knights. My Sisyers one is overly complicated, but it looks good.
13:16 well... Stripping a freshly painted model is very easy and very fast. If you have a bath of your favorite degreaser ready to go, just do it. Might not do much, but if it makes you feel good, why not. On the other hand, if you never stripped a model before, go with what Vince suggest and paint over it. My point: there are no absolutes.
In regards to the paint 3d tip, I like to Zenithal my miniature, take a picture of it with my tablet that has a pen, and then draw on the zenithaled miniature in the same way. My main issue is that it is hard to get exactly the a close paint tone from the bottles on the digital tool
You’re an amazing resource for the community, thanks for all your hard work, love the new format, but you should consider leaving less negative space between your head and the top of the video. Keep up the great work!
One point I would add are: Think about the Base beforehand. I painted Custom Black Templars where i used Blue as my secondary color for cloth and other parts that are usually red. Now that can work, but the bases are also dark and ice themed. While bases that look similar to the mini can work usually having a distinct color scheme for the base makes the Mini pop more. On a different note: how do you use a color wheel when 2 of your main colors are black and white? I always had issues, adding different colors (even 2 more) to my Black Templars without it looking to crowded.
If I am not using more or less something that already exists, I'll usually go searching on here to see what goes with what, the rest of this is well beyond me. :D Well, even in the first example I'll usually come here to get help along the way.
Really nice summary of what I wish I'd known when I sat down to paint my first army a long time ago. Question: how do you go about thinking about colour schemes when most of the real estate on the model is neutral (e.g. black armour; brown robes)? I usually end up tinting browns toward red or orange, or tinting the highlights on the black toward blue, but sometimes you just want a neutral black or white.
Simple answer - I don't paint those models. ;) - Serious answer, yes, integrate some colors into your blacks - browns, blues, reds in the shadows, all sorts of options and then also look for the opportunity to work in those pop colors on the other elements of the miniature.
One thing about painting my Tau gungnam crisis suit army that tortured me was that I wanted to paint my Tau to look like MINE. So I “had” to use “my awesome” color scheme. But I didn’t like any color scheme I made better that the regular Tau or Viorla Septs GW already made. So for MONTHS I didn’t touch the tau I wanted to paint. Now I’m happy I just picked one of those GW color schemes and my army looks awesome.
Yep, we often fall into that trap - but of course, there is no our scheme. So many thousands and thousands of painters have touched these, there is never anything original for most of us. :)
I feel like the one thing missing from this is how to choose non primary colors. For example an obliterator has a ton of stuff on it that wouldn't necessarily match your primary color scheme. Really anything with a ton of cabling or flesh or whatever. Sometimes stuff like gun holsters is pretty easy because you can just go with a leather color and it tends to match up pretty well with just about any color scheme. Other things that you don't want to look leathery and so you have to find something that matches but it's not going to be your primary three colors (usually). That's been one of my problems anyways.
i often fall into the trap of wanting to paint up a new army, but i already HAVE an army in that color scheme so i dont wanna do the same thing again, so i pick a different one but end up not liking it very much.
I have mobile internet here in my wood, where I live after my mental meltdown, because I didn't knew, what colorscheme to use for my Stormcasts. I just wanted to let you know.
as a beginner: copy existing schemes to learn the basics. as an intermediate: try mixing schemes. learn new techniques. as a pro: teach others. keep learning. In all levels. Go with your gut. If it feels right, it will be right. Having said that: I currently sit on a Vyrkos Bloodborn and have no clue on how to paint him, other than box art
Note both of those colors look great as visual clean highlights on a banner or heraldry even mucked up beneath a whole bottle of streaking grime. Drops mic and pulls out his teal and pink paints to go paint up a new space marine army
@@dlvnmedia I want to include them in my word bearers army 😉🔥🥰🐶 I thinking of using teal for power weapons, having green warp glow coming from their base, maybe adding the pink instead of the green, but I need to actually paint some models, I may use the blue/teal for the base so it’s a purple shadow on the red armour, then use pink as the power weapon/plasma glow, can squeeze some green in as eyes then 🤔🤔🥰🐶
@@JakeDogg-RIP honestly I had to look at the Word Bearers a few minutes on Pinterest I would ask if you are planning this for 30k or 40k cause in 40k I would say the horns and mutations could take both those colors mixed in. Make tabards really pink that dirty em down heavily (also freehand on a leaders tabard Fulgrims a pedo or something like that . Cause you know in the grim darkness of the 41st blah blah blah there is only sarcasm and satire. I like the warp glow base idea as that is a cool color against the warmer tones of the word bearers red. (Also you can mix your pink with your primary red and have a nice touch with the highlighting tying into the pink used elsewhere on your model. Just my Nicole’s worth of advice for the .02 I normally do. Just have fun with it and do it! Most problems are really not so bad when stuff is more finished on a model.
@@dlvnmedia thank you my frend! I really like the idea of adding some pink into my highlights, It’s for 40K, no fulgrim, but it will have possesed/mutated models and a demon prince 🥰🐶
@@JakeDogg-RIP it took me a long time to get here but remember - it’s your army and if you are happy with it, that’s the only thing that matters. Don’t let the bastards get you down and so on and so forth. Also lore note but I do believe that Fulgrim is still in 40k as a demon primarch but I am not quite home yet and would need to check there
I go to instagram and use # + the army or character I'm looking for, a lot of people upload their amazing paintjobs, I took my Kharadron color scheme from that
Hey Vince how about color schemes where a metallic is the primary color I am having some trouble coming up with one that I like for a color scheme I feel should work (Steel with Orange pauldrons and purple as the remaining color but I cannot seem to make it work (in theory this color scheme should work but I am having a hard time of it)
So often, with steel, you can assume it to be a blue color (it's generally reflecting blue light, so it becomes soft blue effectively). Orange and Blue will will fine, but adding the purple is tough with that scheme, as it's likely too close Effectively, you aren't on the color wheel in a logical way. If that third color was a desaturated blue-green or something similar, you would have a good scheme I believe.
Sure, tilt them into hues - green brown, red brown, orange brown, and so on. Then plan your scheme accordingly and where you have opportunities to use colors (leaves, vines, flowers, insects), then go for those and plan with the scheme. I have some videos in the playlist about painting sylvaneth, so check those out as well.
6. Maintain hue contrast: complementary colors look better than adjacent.
7. Saturation and brightness contrast is just as important: 3 equally saturated and bright colors look cheap unless you're painting a clown. make one dark for unimportant secondary stuff and the other desaturated for highlighting focal points.
8. Analogous colors work best in gradients: e.g. an orange panel next to a red panel looks bad, whereas red-orange panel is ok.
9. Less is more: when adding more colors to the scheme, it's getting harder to ensure they don't conflict with each other.
10. If you really want to have a multitude of colors think about space "contrast": a. don't place similar colors near each other; b. give colors different amount of model's surface.
11. In my experience the best combination is 1-2 complementary colors plus one outstanding that doesn't take a lot of space and goes in gradient from highly saturated to white.
I've struggled with choosing color schemes for years, like REALLY struggled. I was recently diagnosed with ADHD at age 30 after having powered through it (with no small effort) for decades, and my suspicion is that this has played a major role in the type of obsessive indecisiveness that has delayed very many projects in the hobby for me. I imagine that others may be able to relate to this as well.
One thing I would recommend to anyone who feels like they have a similar issue is to take a step back from printed and published resources and try to remember what you found really appealing at your first glance. In other words, try to remember what the models or army looked like that sparked your interest in them in the first place. Then use THAT scheme to paint a few chaff/troop/battleline models. At which point you can revisit your sources of inspiration and decide if there is anything you'd like to modify, and if there is, pick 1-2 elements you want to add or subtract and paint another batch of models. It is very important that you do not let yourself obsess and "research" a bunch of stuff while you are in the process of finishing as batch of models, as this is ultimately what paralyzes you and keeps you from making actual progress. You want to avoid overstimulating yourself with too many ideas in a period of time where you need to stick to one or two ideas. As you complete more and more of your models, you will feel more invested and confident in your choice and be less prone to what I'd call "progress paralysis." Hope someone finds this a bit helpful, as this is what I wish someone told me years ago.
As a fellow ADHD'er diagnosed in their 30's this resonates with me extremely well. I have always loved the Dark Angels and their colour scheme but I am now slightly obsessed with the Imperial Guard and want to do a Killzone/Helghast paint scheme for them. But I am struggling to work out how to paint them without them just being black grey blobs 🤣
Thank you for this, I also have ADHD and I have struggled to finish a single mini so far because I keep going back to try to figure out a better scheme.
New video idea: How to tackle painting armies, if you have more than 2-3 armies that need to be painted. Also, cell reception now extends to the forest. lol
Wow. Production value has noticeably improved on your channel. Love the new set and lighting.
Glad to hear it!
I am going thru your beginner stuff playlist and am quite happy (as a 62 year old beginner). I needed a logical approach. As I do Photoshop and illustrator stuff for a living I always have a command-z option, yet painting and building up figures hadn't made sense. Ninjon and Maniac turned me onto your channel. If you are in Minnesota, I would love to buy you a beer. Enjoy your week - Joe
Welcome aboard! So glad it's helpful. :)
Running out of the house screaming for sure 😂
If you ever do merch then I want Larry the Ogor mug for that deep painted over lore.
Well, there is a merch store link in the description. ;) - No Larry the Ogre gear yet, but that's a great idea.
Nice ideas! I also really like putting every colors I plan to use together, with an approximate ratio, on a bit of white cardboard. You can sometimes spot problems and make subtle adjsutmemts to the scheme before testing on a model (ex: switching the yellow for a colder one)
That's a great idea!
Great reminder about stripping not being super necessary. I do it out of habit, especially when getting stuff from eBay, but in a lot of those instances I probably could have gotten away with just a respray. Thanks as always Vince! You've become part of my Saturday morning routine :)
The paint mock up is brilliant, gonna use that for sure! I really lucked into my schemes fitting ok on color trinaries, with the only disparity being stuff like "made it brighter to work as a plasma/energy color". I will have to put the rest of these in use, thank you for the amazing video as always!
For years I’ve been telling my fellow GW hobbists that there is no rulebook to painting your models. I’m just glad to see someone on UA-cam agrees with me.
One of the tricks I use to do is to pick a color scheme from a different army that I like. You can pick perfectly a Stomcast Eternal scheme to do a Space Marine (or chaos). Armor over clothes schemes are perfectly switchable between armies (Tau-GenestealersCult-ImperialGuard-Votann).
Thanks Vince. Your tips are gracious and best of all, there to serve the individual for the sake of fun.
Months ago I bought some “Dragon glaze” (mostly opaque, purple-hued sparkly glaze) and I just had to use it. So I’ve thrown it on my newly purchased Thricefold Discord on all their flesh (after painting) and it looks quite cool. It gives the flesh that ethereal glimmer while also giving it a bit of gloss which makes it look more gross and slimy, like I imagine a demon from Slaanesh would be.
Great vid. Thanks!
Sounds like you have a very fun and interesting project going on!
I have found a lot of inspiration from Napoleonics and pre-Napoleonics uniforms. The range of colors is massive (yes, even pink!), and they knew how to make a solider look good back in those days. :)
That's awesome!
This is surely the most complete guide about choosing a color scheme on the entire internet, I started painting more than 15 years ago but it still helped me a lot, thank you!
Glad it was helpful!
14:19 fair point. Tend to ask questions like those just to get your input, but nothing beats trying it yourself.
I learned from the Spanish painters to use impressionist fantasy & sci-fi concept art. Boris Vallejo sorta stuff. Gave me alot of ideas for colours & also how lighting works.
Picking a good scheme can be challenging especially for people like me who want most new army projects to have a general theme and their own color scheme. I do find the look at existing schemes for inspiration as a great tool. Sometimes you'll just have an idea hit you which you then expand on and finalize. I do this all before I even decide to buy a single mini. If i can't think of a good theme to go with i often will not bother starting that army. themes can be pretty basic as well. Oh all the armies i play have no X. What armies excels at X thing and go off that.
Doing the digital mock up is a great idea. Lyla Mev goes over doing stuff like that too in some of her videos, but she usually uses a much fancier (and kind of intimidating) program to do it. Using a transparent brush on like MS Paint is great idea, and much more accessible. Also, seeing how you use pop colors to such a subtle affect is really helpful. Thanks for another great video!
You can tell me how to paint my army but you *can't* tell me to stay out of my woods!
Another great HC thanks mate.
Stepping into some new army's shortly and this was something I've been ruminating on!
Cheers from Aus
Another thing I do personally that helps me is figuring out the personality of what I want to paint. It helps hone in on the scheme I want. For instance I love Iron Warriors but I wanted to make a custom warband. I wanted them to be Slaanesh worshippers but their worship came in the form of excessive greed of others riches and technology. So I made the trim dark silver but their armor is a gold with purple in their loincloths, eye lenses, etc.
I've got another one.
Load up dawn of war and use the army painter to get a quick idea of how schemes look
Just came back from the woods, to finish my Octarius stuff 😎 Thanks for the content, my dude ✊🏻
One thing my Lumineth have taught me (brutally) is don't paint trim a different colour on troop models.
You Look Greaaaaaaat!!!!!! All is right with the world when it’s Saturday Morning, a cup of coffee, a cigar, and an incredible HC video. This was just bitchen!! Great topic, super simple useful recommendations, things to help me, LARRY, and great audio! Thanks!
Hold on Vince, I'm going to need a note pad and a hot cuppa tea for this. I'll get you a Dr Pepper.
Vincey V!
Thanks for the continued words of encouragement for us new beginners 😊
You bet!
Great tips, even after so many years of your content I find new gems to utilize. I happen to love stripping models because it takes me about 5 minutes and gives my mind a reset even if it may be physically an illusion lol.
Not gonna lie, thought you were going to say go back the forest when you asked "why are you worried about the unimportant stuff" lol this was a great video I've seen similar videos but this broke it down a lot better it makes my idea for a paint scheme I'm thinking about a lot more manageable
Great video Vince! Feel like this is a massive topic that doesn't get spoken about enough and these are some great tips. :)
One thing I also find often a problem is when I find too many cool schemes for an army and I can't decide on one. I've done this many times with my Nighthaunt over the years and have so many models in my collection from different ideas and in different schemes it can be really hard to just lean into one.
"This happens to all of us, you get excited about a new army..."
Me, still working on the WFB Wood Elves I've been working on since 2016: "yeah... happens to all of us"
Theres some humor and sass! Glad youre feeling better.
Watching this video from the woods. It's been 5 days, but I think it may now be time to return to civilization and paint some of those gray minis I ran away screaming from.
Krita is a very nice tool. Basically a free Photoshop application that exist on all platforms aside apple pads I think.
Then just do what the man said, take a pic, add a layer and paint a scheme. I do that and have several schemes to flip over before I change.
Thanks for the insights. Very helpful as usual. I would also suggest to write the scheme down after using it. It can help in the future to go back to the scheme faster
For a great many of mini/army painters their background isn't from anything creative, let alone using paint. So it can be daunting to come up with color themes without much experience. A good shortcut is look at things for inspiration. Maybe you like a certain car in a certain colorway and can apply that motif to your marines. Maybe some warcraft armor from a decade ago is your jam, paint that. Inspiration can come from anywhere, it doesnt have to be from your codex.
When I do army painting I alter 1 part of the color pallet, or color layout, to make them my own and in some cases to make it more efficient to paint.
Morning Vince! I hope recovery is going well
Just what I needed at the time I needed it. Thanks, Vince! Hope you are feeling better.
What's up Vince. I found your channel through Ninjon. Man, Holy crap you're a great painter!! I love your work!!
Thank you so much 😀 - Glad to have you along on the hobby journey!
If you're doing slap chop style transparent paints cmyk is the way to go because you can paint blue over yellow to get green (etc etc)
I loves this video. I'm always scared as a new painter to pick a color scheme. I did start this week finally painting my red harvest tarantulos brood.
I haven't actively planned out a paint job yet, everything I've done so far has been on the fly. I do think about planning a color scheme at some point, but for now, I'm just having fun. I think about it too deeply and it's like looking down from a tightrope, I'm probably going to screw it up lol
I paint my armies in the colours of my workplace incase I donate for them to sell later in life... (I work for a charity hospice).. purple, white with green bases
Larry always looks clean, no matter the amount of paint coats.
That run into the woods part really does sound good right about now. How do i do it again? Lol you are the best vince.
I’ve used most of these suggestions & can certainly back them. I even painted my Space Marine RG successor chapter using Carolina Panthers kit colors. I’m looking to get into a Song of Ice & Fire with Martell & using NMM gold, browns & ochre type colors.
Really useful tips. Thanks Vince for sharing ur knowledge.
Glad it was helpful!
There are great open source alternatives to things like Photoshop, Krita for example. Just in case you might want to see if a big scary program will help you, don't worry though, they're not so scary really. They do have some significant advantages though: Layers, different ways to combine the colour information on those layers ( a big one here is using a layer set to multiply or screen on top of an image of a grey model, as this is kind of like actually painting on the model), better selection tools like lasso, polygonal lasso or the magic wand (using those you could also do fast mockups of kitbashes up front)
This is the best video in this topic.
Thx Vince.
This has been my bane……
I paint figures that I print, no box art!
Great video, yes it did give loads of ideas. Thank you
Wow! Once again a video on the topic that I need the most at the moment.
Glad it was helpful!
Impcat is pretty amazing at trying paint schemes on various models.
I have really enjoyed using impcat for digital mockups, it's kind of addicting. You can add specific models and paint through the Reddit forum shared folder for it.
Waiting for to go bonkers curious with the new Vallejo Xpress colour range.
Thank you, sir. Great insights and very helpful.
Glad it was helpful!
I LOVE COLOR SCHEME'S! Part of the reason why I collect eldar aspect warriors is because each aspect shrine has thier own unique colors. So the sky is the limit and no 2 squads are alike!
Thanks!
Very helpful. I’m trying to come up with color scheme for my Soulblight Gravelord. I was lucky and tracked Battleforce with them. I’m thinking about practicing airbrush technique on them. So I don’t want to think about about color scheme to much and instead build up my airbrush skill. But I don’t like official color scheme. So I think I take official color scheme and tweak one color slightly and that would work great for me. Thanks for suggestion!
Hi Vince. Really like the idea of a digital mock up. Going to order myself a colourwheel. Strangely although the digital mock up is a great idea I also love the feel of something physical in my hands (!) I suppose this need would also be fulfilled by the physical test figure. It's also nice to have my free form attitude to schemes validated by a pro painter such as yourself. I don't play TT and I'm not entering Golden Demon - I model/paint for pleasure and relaxation so not painting my minis (or indeed my models) according to canon is the norm. One more thing - yaaay Larry! 😁
this video is such a great idea, thanks!
Thank you for this!
Thanks for another great video!
Mine were pretty simple. When I first started I played the World Eaters. Then the Grey Knights. Then in 7th when the Khorne Daemon Kin codex came out I played The Wrath. When I started up a Sisters army I used my GM's DnD setting for inspiration since it was originally supposed to take play in the 40K universe. I used my PC's color scheme at the time to paint my Sisters. Since the World Eaters codex came out in 9th and I lost access to like 75% of my armor, I have been updating them to my current CSM army: The Black Knights. They are a terminator heavy warband that wear Frog Helmets (from the Grey Knight Terminators kit) for easy kitbashes. Though they look like Black Legion. Black and bronze or gold depending on the placement in the FOC.
So mine were kind og chosen for me, save for the Sisters and the Black Knights. My Sisyers one is overly complicated, but it looks good.
13:16 well... Stripping a freshly painted model is very easy and very fast. If you have a bath of your favorite degreaser ready to go, just do it. Might not do much, but if it makes you feel good, why not.
On the other hand, if you never stripped a model before, go with what Vince suggest and paint over it.
My point: there are no absolutes.
In regards to the paint 3d tip, I like to Zenithal my miniature, take a picture of it with my tablet that has a pen, and then draw on the zenithaled miniature in the same way. My main issue is that it is hard to get exactly the a close paint tone from the bottles on the digital tool
You’re an amazing resource for the community, thanks for all your hard work, love the new format, but you should consider leaving less negative space between your head and the top of the video. Keep up the great work!
Great suggestion!
One point I would add are: Think about the Base beforehand. I painted Custom Black Templars where i used Blue as my secondary color for cloth and other parts that are usually red. Now that can work, but the bases are also dark and ice themed. While bases that look similar to the mini can work usually having a distinct color scheme for the base makes the Mini pop more.
On a different note: how do you use a color wheel when 2 of your main colors are black and white? I always had issues, adding different colors (even 2 more) to my Black Templars without it looking to crowded.
Great tips Vince!
Glad it was helpful!
Your video quality is 👌 looks like a new camera and lights and its working great!
Yay! Thank you!
I am once again in need of this content
Happy to help!
Thank you! Just found this channel, great content.
Awesome, glad to have you along on the hobby journey!
Not sure if you changed anything with your set up, but I found the vocals in this vid much clearer than previous uploads 👍
Good to hear!
@@VinceVenturella pun intended.. 🤔😄
I recall sports teams when thinking about color theory.
Great stuff friend 👏 👍
Thank you 👍
Great vid … and inspiration to try a few different and interesting combos!
If I am not using more or less something that already exists, I'll usually go searching on here to see what goes with what, the rest of this is well beyond me. :D Well, even in the first example I'll usually come here to get help along the way.
Also don’t be afraid to use the decals existing chapters to create something totally new, it doesn’t even have to be a successor chapter!
Great video!
Glad you enjoyed it
Thanks
Just pick black as ur main an find different ways to highlight it BOOM!
When ur done ur gonna be giving Vince tips 😆
Thanks for all the help
You rock
You bet!
Vince, this video might help someone come back from the woods.
Really nice summary of what I wish I'd known when I sat down to paint my first army a long time ago.
Question: how do you go about thinking about colour schemes when most of the real estate on the model is neutral (e.g. black armour; brown robes)? I usually end up tinting browns toward red or orange, or tinting the highlights on the black toward blue, but sometimes you just want a neutral black or white.
Simple answer - I don't paint those models. ;) - Serious answer, yes, integrate some colors into your blacks - browns, blues, reds in the shadows, all sorts of options and then also look for the opportunity to work in those pop colors on the other elements of the miniature.
Dear Vince, How do I *stop* picking cool paint schemes and making armies for them?!?!
lol Love these ideas esp the mockup
That I cannot help. It's an embarrassement of riches. ;)
One thing about painting my Tau gungnam crisis suit army that tortured me was that I wanted to paint my Tau to look like MINE. So I “had” to use “my awesome” color scheme. But I didn’t like any color scheme I made better that the regular Tau or Viorla Septs GW already made. So for MONTHS I didn’t touch the tau I wanted to paint. Now I’m happy I just picked one of those GW color schemes and my army looks awesome.
Yep, we often fall into that trap - but of course, there is no our scheme. So many thousands and thousands of painters have touched these, there is never anything original for most of us. :)
I love the video! What do you call a soul patch thats smaller than your chin? Never seen that. Not hating on ya
Errol Flynn. ;)
“Congratulations! It looks like crap, you picked a bad scheme.” 😂😂😂
I feel like the one thing missing from this is how to choose non primary colors. For example an obliterator has a ton of stuff on it that wouldn't necessarily match your primary color scheme. Really anything with a ton of cabling or flesh or whatever. Sometimes stuff like gun holsters is pretty easy because you can just go with a leather color and it tends to match up pretty well with just about any color scheme. Other things that you don't want to look leathery and so you have to find something that matches but it's not going to be your primary three colors (usually). That's been one of my problems anyways.
All skintones and brown leathers are a desaturated orange. Most off-colors will be some kind of strong shade or tint of a more vibrant color.
i often fall into the trap of wanting to paint up a new army, but i already HAVE an army in that color scheme so i dont wanna do the same thing again, so i pick a different one but end up not liking it very much.
I have mobile internet here in my wood, where I live after my mental meltdown, because I didn't knew, what colorscheme to use for my Stormcasts. I just wanted to let you know.
“It’s a little tiny gray person. It has nothing to tell you.” Made me laugh pretty hard 😂. Also, I disagree. I think they’ve got a lot to say!
Hey Vince you're heading over to Warhammer Fest? And are you gonna be there the whole weekend?
Yes, I will be teaching either right before or after, finalizing that here soon.
@@VinceVenturella Oh great. I've signed up for the NMM. Any chance it's that class?
@@gutssubz8232 No, this will be a 2-day stand-alone class down in london before or after. :)
Thank you sir.
Most welcome
Any plans for a space station zero expansion? I'm loving the game.
Nothing specific at this moment, but there is always a chance based on what we do in the future with off-cycle publications.
as a beginner: copy existing schemes to learn the basics.
as an intermediate: try mixing schemes. learn new techniques.
as a pro: teach others. keep learning.
In all levels. Go with your gut. If it feels right, it will be right.
Having said that: I currently sit on a Vyrkos Bloodborn and have no clue on how to paint him, other than box art
How I get teal and pink colours into a grim dark theme paint master Vincey vee? 😉🥰🐶 great video as always 👊👌🥰🐶
Note both of those colors look great as visual clean highlights on a banner or heraldry even mucked up beneath a whole bottle of streaking grime. Drops mic and pulls out his teal and pink paints to go paint up a new space marine army
@@dlvnmedia I want to include them in my word bearers army 😉🔥🥰🐶 I thinking of using teal for power weapons, having green warp glow coming from their base, maybe adding the pink instead of the green, but I need to actually paint some models, I may use the blue/teal for the base so it’s a purple shadow on the red armour, then use pink as the power weapon/plasma glow, can squeeze some green in as eyes then 🤔🤔🥰🐶
@@JakeDogg-RIP honestly I had to look at the Word Bearers a few minutes on Pinterest I would ask if you are planning this for 30k or 40k cause in 40k I would say the horns and mutations could take both those colors mixed in. Make tabards really pink that dirty em down heavily (also freehand on a leaders tabard Fulgrims a pedo or something like that . Cause you know in the grim darkness of the 41st blah blah blah there is only sarcasm and satire. I like the warp glow base idea as that is a cool color against the warmer tones of the word bearers red. (Also you can mix your pink with your primary red and have a nice touch with the highlighting tying into the pink used elsewhere on your model. Just my Nicole’s worth of advice for the .02 I normally do. Just have fun with it and do it! Most problems are really not so bad when stuff is more finished on a model.
@@dlvnmedia thank you my frend! I really like the idea of adding some pink into my highlights, It’s for 40K, no fulgrim, but it will have possesed/mutated models and a demon prince 🥰🐶
@@JakeDogg-RIP it took me a long time to get here but remember - it’s your army and if you are happy with it, that’s the only thing that matters. Don’t let the bastards get you down and so on and so forth. Also lore note but I do believe that Fulgrim is still in 40k as a demon primarch but I am not quite home yet and would need to check there
I go to instagram and use # + the army or character I'm looking for, a lot of people upload their amazing paintjobs, I took my Kharadron color scheme from that
Hey Vince how about color schemes where a metallic is the primary color I am having some trouble coming up with one that I like for a color scheme I feel should work (Steel with Orange pauldrons and purple as the remaining color but I cannot seem to make it work (in theory this color scheme should work but I am having a hard time of it)
So often, with steel, you can assume it to be a blue color (it's generally reflecting blue light, so it becomes soft blue effectively). Orange and Blue will will fine, but adding the purple is tough with that scheme, as it's likely too close Effectively, you aren't on the color wheel in a logical way. If that third color was a desaturated blue-green or something similar, you would have a good scheme I believe.
Any recommendations for choosing combinations of mostly browns? I paint Sylvaneth.
Sure, tilt them into hues - green brown, red brown, orange brown, and so on. Then plan your scheme accordingly and where you have opportunities to use colors (leaves, vines, flowers, insects), then go for those and plan with the scheme. I have some videos in the playlist about painting sylvaneth, so check those out as well.