Quick Painting Advice Needed

[Alyster Wick]

I have an absolutely miserable sense of how colors go together (as my fiance so often tells me). While I've always been happy with the results I get using my homemade wet palette and gradually fading up from my base color this tends to be far too time consuming for anything other than important details (ie the main color scheme for a character's robes, skin tones (which I feel can really make the model) or other "big" things).

Basically I'm looking for help with quick formulas (in three shades) to come up with certain colors for clothing that don't require mixing. GW or Vallejo colors would be best as they are the most immediately accessible for me. These colors are going to seem incredibly basic to some people out there but I swear to you that I am just cognitively disabled in this arena. I don't want to waste any more money investing in paints that don't do what I want them to do.

So esteemed colleagues, I'm looking to see what you use to get:

Clean White
Military Green/Camo Green (without the camo)
Red
Dark Brown
Lighter Brown
Bandages

Ridiculously basic, I know, but I have a gigantic pile of models that need to be painted and I just can't spend the weeks I'm used to taking hovering over the wet palette just to two slightly different shades of brown with a base so similar that they just clash terribly. Also feel free to throw in your favorite recipes for other colors. Going "off topic" with general advice/tips or tricks that go beyond the simple formulas mentioned above are encouraged. If others have similar questions feel free to post them here as well, would be good to get a conversation going for perfectionists who are color-impaired. Thank you!

[Koval]

Well, for all of those, I tend to start off with a grey basecoat (I use Mechanicus Standard but that's just because it's darker; and yes, I even use it for red). Usually after that, it's just a wash and a layer, though depending on what I'm after it might involve more layers, or an extra wash to unify what's there. I don't really bother mixing paints with anything other than water.

As an example, here's the Captain for my Imperial Guard army:


The brown started off as Mechanicus Standard Grey with a wash of Agrax Earthshade; I then used Dryad Bark and an overbrush of Baneblade Brown over the top, then washed it back down with Agrax again.

So let's take a look at what you want to do.

Clean White: No idea, never done it, but I'd start off with grey and proceed up through Dawnstone to something like Ulthuan Grey before putting the white on -- otherwise, it's going to look a bit flat.

Military/Camo Green: Not done this one either. I'd go for a greyish brown first (I think Steel Legion Drab might be a nice place to start) and then put something like Elysian Green over the top of that. Failing that, you could go for green > Seraphim Sepia > green. I might have to experiment a bit with that myself, actually...

Red: If you want bright red, start from Mephiston Red, and if you want it darker, start from Khorne Red. In either case, what I've done with the red models I've got is base paint > Carroburg Crimson wash > the same base paint, though that might be because the colour was exactly what I wanted anyway. Obviously, I still started from grey, but that's just my own personal preference

Dark Brown: See the Captain above, but it's basically Agrax over grey, then Dryad Bark, then an overbrush of a lighter brown washed back down with Agrax.

Lighter Brown: The lighter brown models I'm currently looking at started off as Seraphim Sepia over grey, then either Baneblade Brown or Karak Stone (forget which) with another wash of Seraphim Sepia.

Bandages: Depends on how dirty/bloodstained they're supposed to be, but I might start off with light brown, then a very light grey, sepia wash, and then white over the top. I've never done these, though, as I just don't have any bandaged models.


I'm by no means a good painter, though, so YMMV.

[Keravin]

I'm on my tablet so will respond on others probably tomorrow.

White is all about thin watered down layers if you want it to look somewhat realistic and to allow texture.

I go with P3 frostbite as a base.  It's slightly blue tinted and nice for coverage to build from.  Then a few thin layers of white to build from there leaving some of the base colour in the crevices.  Then I use a very very watered down fortress grey to line and give shade before using white again to just get the colour consistent.   

[Keravin]

Coming back on this with a question

Red- what type of red - bright, deep, crimson - all sorts of reds?

Most of my suggestions are based on flat surfaces.   If you want ideas for cloth that's different and usually about mixing and working building layers.

Dark brown - I tend to use either scorched brown or P3 battlefield brown as the base - slight difference between those two.  Then for quick and easy I would look at using graveyard earth drybrushed over lightly to break up the brown a little whilst still keeping the core colour visible then devlan mud wash or badab black wash.  Depends on the colour you want, but the washes do help.

[Koval]

For ease of reference, the current/new names for the paints Keravin's referencing are, respectively:
-Rhinox Hide (apparently)
-Steel Legion Drab
-Agrax Earthshade
-Nuln Oil

[Keravin]

Not tried it, but Nuln Oil looks dirtier and greasier than Badab black.   Army painter does do some equivalents for the old washes.

[Koval]

I don't think Nuln Oil is that greasy-looking unless you start using two or three layers of it. While doing that might make grey look pretty cool, I wouldn't recommend more than one coat on brown.

[Alyster Wick]

Lots of helpful advice so far, if nothing else this has encouraged me to experiment.

Coming back on this with a question

Red- what type of red - bright, deep, crimson - all sorts of reds?

I'd be looking deep to crimson red. Thinking about just splurging and getting a variety here. Khorne red would be my base at this point though I'm curious if anyone has experiment with an extremely dark brown building up to a duller red for a more earthy blood-tone.