12 Colors To Rule Them All! Find out the which, why, and how for a simple shopping list or minimal yet efficient paint setup!
The Dirty Dozen
A recent thread on the Spikey Bits’ Facebook page sparked my curiosity tonight, and drove me to write an article on it.
Jay Ryan asks:
« If you could only take 12 paint pots with you, which would they be? »
And in all honesty, reading the comments, there were a lot of crazy theories and complex answers. But not me. It took me exactly 12 seconds to figure out. And looking back at the list as I’m writing list, I wouldn’t change a thing.
Read on for glory.
12 Colors To Do Everything
Obviously, I’d like to add a lot to my list. Everybody would. But I’m fairly confident that those 12 colors would be the ones I’d buy if I had to make a new paint workshop. In fact, I just might. I’m up for it!
What colors you ask?
- Nuln Oil
- Agrax Earthshade
- Black
- White
- Kantor Blue
- Mephiston Red
- Balor Brown
- Ironbreaker thingy
- Bugman’s Glow
- Rhinox Hide
- Karak Stone
- Catachan Green
All day, ‘er day!
Let me break it down :
Nuln Oil and Agrax Earthshade are the fundamentals. They’re the first 2 on the list for a reason, with those 2 colors you can do pretty much anything decent. Base color, one of the 2 wash, highlight with base color again, and you get a nice result.
These washes also affect my other choices; I won’t have much glowy-funky colors. At least, not using those washes.
Black and White.
Obviously, these mix into everything or almost and bring a lot of dark or light with them.
Balor Brown, Mephiston Red, Kantor Blue
Some base colors. I chose a dark blue because it woks well with Nuln Oil and is fine highlighted with white or beige ( later)
I also chose an off yellow instead of some random bright garbage, again because it doesn’t work with Agrax Earthshade, but can make a nice bright yellow mixed with beige or white.
Leadbelcher
‘Cause guns and swords and all the killy stuff.
I chose to not include a gold or bronze, because you can get away without these colors and produce fine models.
Bugman’s Glow is a nice skin tone that is pretty mild. It’s easy to shade with either agrax or rhinox (below) and highlight with straight white. You can also mix it with blue and red to get some nice purples and pink.
Karak Stone is a go to color for highlighting stuff. It works on black to highlight, on white to shade and every color except silver.
My list could be done, but hey, I still have 2 colors fo’ free! Lets go with…
Rhinox Hide I chose this brown because it works well with Nuln oil and Karak Stone to make the perfect 3-color brown.
Catachan Green or whatever the new name of forest green is. That green is dope and works with my other colors ( agrax, beige, name it )
Now arguably, you could mix blue and yellow and some beige to get a green similar, and red, blue and yellow to get some sort of brown to pick other colors, but meh, that’s hard. You don’t need to use every color of the rainbow to make stuff look pretty. Pick colors that work well together and stick with it.
Colors, much like buttholes, are meant to be tight.
And speaking of tightness, you might’ve noticed that this frenchy has been posting a lot less recently, we’ll it’s because I’m opening up my game store in the french land of Canadia. I’ll get around to more writing an debauchery soon.
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About the Author: Hellfire Hobbies
Max Dubois is a hobby enthusiast from Quebec. Max produces a lot of hobby ressources that you can find on his own blog as well as well as on Spikey Bits.
He is always ready to talk shop with other enthusiasts, whether it's about, painting, playing or drinking, no matter your skill level in either those activities.
You can also find some of his work on amazon kindle, where he sells hobby e-books for a dollar!
