15 starter paints

[DINOthedinosauer]

If you could choose any 15 GW paints to start painting multiple army’s what should you chose?

[Terminatorinhell]

Mephiston red

Abbadon black

Lead belcher

Frostheart contrast 

Flesh tearers contrast 

Wraithbone

Retributor gold

Darkoath flesh

Caliban green

Imperial fists contrast 

The layer version color of frostheart contrast (I forgot the name) 

Nuln oil 

agrax earthshade 

Ratskin flesh

Luxon purple 

[Grotsmasha]

Above is a pretty solid list, and the one paint not there I'd really want is Dorn Yellow. It is massively useful for reds/greens/blues to make your lighter highlight colours, and is one of my highest used paints.

[Grotsmasha]

*IF* you're planning on getting these paints from GW directly, AFAIK, they are still doing buy 10 get an 11th free. Depending on your budget, I would consider bumping to 20 paints and getting the two more for free.

[LameBeard]

Remember it’s easy to mix “dirty” colours and nearly impossible to mix “clean” ones, so I would probably want a white and perhaps a bright or mid-blue. I guess Frost-heart layer is a light blue so I’d be mixing that instead.

 

So my list:

 

Similar to above: two metals (one gold or brass, one brighter silver than leadbelcher and mix in black most of the time), the two shades, Abbadon black.

 

Then add a white (White Scar?) and 3 primary colours is already 9 (Mephiston is the bright red, if Dorn is our yellow, mid blue could be Teclis? Or is that an old one?) A bone colour is used a lot I find, so wraithbone is a good shout. I also find it difficult to mix the exact green I want, so choose a favourite green. Caliban I like, but not for plasma glow. 
 

We now have 4 spots left to treat ourselves to Contrast Paints. If you don’t like the flesh contrast, it is worth substituting in a mid flesh tone and then 3 slots left for contrast.  Personally, I haven’t had a lot of luck with contrast, I’d probably put in Ulthuan Grey and Zandri Dust (my current workhorses) and just one contrast that suited my main army area (for ork skin or space marine armour or whatever.) For me currently,  that’s the purple one, but I also like Talassar Blue. Alternatively ditch contrast and have the dark blue shade, Drakenhof Nightshade.

 

 

 

[pawl]

Any particular reason for it being Citadel paints? I would (personally) be looking at either the AK 3rd Gen range, Two Thin Coats (Citadel but better) or the Vallejo Model/Game Color lines, personally. =]

[Doobles57]

4 minutes ago, pawl said:

Any particular reason for it being Citadel paints? I would (personally) be looking at either the AK 3rd Gen range, Two Thin Coats (Citadel but better) or the Vallejo Model/Game Color lines, personally. =]

 

I think for some people it's a case of easy availability depending on where they are. Or, if you're a newbie, it's an easy way to be able to follow a lot of the tutorials that are out there.

 

Personally I'm a mix and match person. e.g. Scale75 metallics, Pro Acryl for a lot a basic colours (and their Pure Titanium White which is just excellent), Vallejo for several others (their sandy colours are really nice and VMC Black is just a lot better than Abaddon Black) etc.

 

However there are a few Citadel paints that I do think hold their own and are well worth having. Largely ones whose coverage is comparatively good.

• Mephiston Red
• Averland sunset
• Retributor Armour
• Leadbelcher
• Wraithbone

There's plenty more in the range that I use but I'd say those are "must haves" if there is such a thing. Contrast paints are almost their own route, but there's a lot of them I like these days - the browns like Ratling grime, Wyldwood, Gore Grunta Fur etc are great, as are a couple of the flesh tones. The bright ones like Magmadroth Flame, Talassar Blue and Striking Scorpion Green give you a great set for everything from sensors and screens to plasma glow effects. It's the stuff in the middle like the darker blues and greens that I just can't find a place for.

[TheArtilleryman]

Choosing 15 is very hard. Those I literally can’t do without are:

 

Abaddon Black

Dawnstone

Ulthuan Grey

Corax White

Warplock Bronze

Leadbelcher

Khorne Red

Evil Sunz Scarlet

Sotek Green

Temple Guard Blue

Mournfang Brown

Ushabti Bone

Agrax Earthshade

Balthasar Gold

Nuln Oil

 

If I was getting 5 more I’d definitely add these for the top highlights and for skin (I try and paint black skin most of the time which you can do with the colours above but you’ll probably want to be able to paint white as well):

 

Liberator Gold

Stormhost Silver

Kislev Flesh

Pallid Wytch Flesh

Fire Dragon Bright

 

Of course this is so subjective depending on what you want to paint. I’ve not included any “normal” blues and greens because I rarely use them in my armies, but you couldn’t paint ultramarines or salamanders with this list.
 

I use Sotek and Temple Guard all the time for eye lenses and scopes because I love the turquoisey shade, so they are an auto-include for me. However, if you wanted you could switch those two for say, Kantor blue and Altdorf Guard Blue, of if you wanted an army green palette you could take Death Guard Green and Elysian Green instead. For an extra highlight I’d use Russ Grey on the blue or Skarsnik Green on the green.

 

If you’re in the UK and you order from Alchemist’s Workshop they are VERY cheap on the GW paints (£2.20 for a regular colour pot instead of £2.75) so you can get way more discount than the two free pots from GW if you’re buying a few. Free shipping over £50, which should just about hit the mark with 20 paints. Wayland Games are also good and have a lower free shipping threshold, but charge about 15-20p more per pot. In other countries I’m not sure where to recommend but generally, third party hobby retailers can be a good shout in this regard.

Edited May 14 by TheArtilleryman

[Firedrake Cordova]

What armies are you looking at painting? If it's "Biel-Tan, Blood Angels, and Necrons", then the set of paints that would be helpful is going to be different to "Orks, Hawk Lords, and Genestealer Cults".  It also depends on your style - if you're going for "GW 1990s red era" colourful miniatures, or a more realistic "historicalesque" take.

[Cleon]

I am surprised by all the love for leadbelcher, I've mostly phased it out of my painting in favour of Iron Warrior.

[TheArtilleryman]

1 minute ago, Cleon said:

I am surprised by all the love for leadbelcher, I've mostly phased it out of my painting in favour of Iron Warrior.

I think we can often be creatures of habit, and this has been a staple for a long time. It’s a reliable dirty metal colour. Oh and it still comes in the starter paint sets for both Sigmar and 40K. I know I tend to just stick with what I’m used to; it’s why I’ve never tried switching to another paint system since 1996 :)

[Xenith]

Great suggestions so far, if I had to cut things back to 15, and only them, i'd go with:

 

1. Mephiston red
2. averland sunset
3. macragge blue
4. corax white
5. abaddon black
6. black legion contrast
7. nuln oil
8. agrax
9. leadbelcher
10. retributor armour
11. guilliman flesh
12. moot green
13. wraithbone
14. magos purple
15. mortarion grime

 

Edited May 14 by Xenith

[LameBeard]

I must admit, I only very recently got Averland Sunset and I was pretty amazed how good it was … I need to find more excuses to use it.

[Xenith]

Everywhere you can! Fists, iron warriors, bad moons, iyanden! 

[sitnam]

I’m having a tough time, as my top 15 really splits between a contrast list and a standard style list. I find that if I’m painting with contrast base coat, the project will be mostly contrasts. If I’m using a standard style of layering, I still end up using a lot of contrasts.

 

The one big recommendation I have is to give Targor Rageshade a try. It sits in a nice middle ground between Nuln Oil and Agrax Earthshade, and for me I think it is going to replace those shades in my toolkit

[Xenith]

On 5/15/2024 at 12:02 AM, sitnam said:

give Targor Rageshade a try. 

 

Ooh, anything like old devlan mud? Seen it in a tutorial recently. 

[sitnam]

19 minutes ago, Xenith said:

 

Ooh, anything like old devlan mud? Seen it in a tutorial recently. 

 

Devlan Mud was before my time, but from what I see online it seems similar 

[Firedrake Cordova]

It might be worth having a look at Army Painter's Strong Tone, as that seems similar to Devlan Mud. 

[crimsondave]

On 5/14/2024 at 1:19 PM, LameBeard said:

I must admit, I only very recently got Averland Sunset and I was pretty amazed how good it was … I need to find more excuses to use it.

I’ve painted a ton of Iron Warriors so I’ve done a LOT of hazard stripes.  Averland is amazing in how it will paint over black.  If you don’t thin it and get a small enough amount on the brush where it goes on smooth, it will cover black in one pass.  

I prefer Iron Warrior to Leadbelcher but I use both.

 

I’ll be that guy and throw in my $.02 on something the OP didn’t ask.  Vallejo 70.950 is the best black I’ve ever used.  It thins well, covers great, it’s about the most well behaved paint I’ve used.  I really like GW Wraithbone but anything whiter I don’t care for the GW range.  I like pro acryl Bold Titanium White for true white.  Those are the only two paints I use regularly that aren’t GW.  Well, I use Army Painter Uniform Gray but just because I have a lot of it.  It’s no better than GW imo.

 

 

[crimsondave]

21 hours ago, Firedrake Cordova said:

It might be worth having a look at Army Painter's Strong Tone, as that seems similar to Devlan Mud. 

I have used Strong Tone a lot in the past.  It’s not as brown as agrax.  To me, agrax is almost brown contrast paint.  If you add enough medium to agrax, it basically matches Strong Tone.  I mostly use agrax now because if I want dirty Iron Warriors I can use it straight out the pot.  If I want a cleaner shade I just add medium to the agrax.

Edited May 17 by crimsondave

[DINOthedinosauer]

Thanks, 

these replies were a lot of help. And the reason for the 15 gw paints is I won a giveaway were that’s the prize.

[Doobles57]

3 hours ago, crimsondave said:

I’ll be that guy and throw in my $.02 on something the OP didn’t ask.  Vallejo 70.950 is the best black I’ve ever used.  It thins well, covers great, it’s about the most well behaved paint I’ve used.  I really like GW Wraithbone but anything whiter I don’t care for the GW range.  I like pro acryl Bold Titanium White for true white.  Those are the only two paints I use regularly that aren’t GW.  Well, I use Army Painter Uniform Gray but just because I have a lot of it.  It’s no better than GW imo.

 

I mentioned the same two up above. If you need a reason to step outside of Citadel's range, these two paints are that reason. 

 

29 minutes ago, DINOthedinosauer said:

Thanks, 

these replies were a lot of help. And the reason for the 15 gw paints is I won a giveaway were that’s the prize.

 

That's a pretty good reason! Let us know what you go with in the end 

[jaxom]

I'm surprised no one mentioned Snakebite Leather. That stuff is black magic.

[Cleon]

2 hours ago, DINOthedinosauer said:

Thanks, 

these replies were a lot of help. And the reason for the 15 gw paints is I won a giveaway were that’s the prize.

Oh. if you aren't paying then maybe look at biasing more towards the contrasts and shades that are more expensive and buying core base paints yourself.

[TheArtilleryman]

12 hours ago, jaxom said:

I'm surprised no one mentioned Snakebite Leather. That stuff is black magic.

Love that but isn’t it the old name from before they changed the range?