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To celebrate the new IG codex I'm finally about to paint my Guard and hope to use this blog to motivate me into making sure I complete this task. Unfortunately, after a few, false starts I'm stuck trying to come up with a colour scheme for them. Fortunately, I think I have it narrowed down to two choices and would greatly appreciate input from anyone and everyone on it.

(colour approximations below)


Option A: Tau Sept Ochre armour, Fenris Grey uniform
Option B: Tau Sept Ochre armour, Adeptus Battle Grey uniform

or

Option C: whatever you think is a better colour combination (Either mono-coloured or dual coloured, doesn't matter)

Also, having not used the foundation paints all that much I'm curious how well they work beyond base coating. How well do they mix with other colours and do they thin well?
Lastly, I want to make sure the armour doesn't turn out looking yellow. I was thinking of starting from a base of brown and working up to Ochre or just a bit lighter. Is there a better method or suggestion?


Thanks in advance for any advice, suggestions, or even just checking this blog out. Stay tuned for more

I'd go with B as it looks more subdued but that's just down to my taste.

Foundations are great, I love how more realistic they are compared to regular GW paints. I use Tallarn Flesh as my base and top coat for skin.

They thin down quite well but do tend to get quite thick quicker than GW paints. They taste like a gel based emulsion paint you would put on walls so I think GW has stolen some technology from Dulux *le gasp*

I voted for orange armor grey uniforms, I find that a good way to decide on a guard scheme is to envision how the vehicles are going to look ( that is assuming you will be using them).

Id go for B, It looks duller, less in-your-face, I personally thing it looks better

Yes, B certainely is the better option. Fenris Grey has more of a blue toned grey colour than adeptus Battle Grey. If you went for A, the contrast between the two colours would be quite extreme indeed. If you're going to post pictures up in the future of your painted minis, I'd be interested to see how you manage to go about the orange colour. Everyone seems to have their own ideas about how orange should be painted!


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I'm not too sure how I jumped to the conclusion that it was orange you were thinking of painting them... But kind of orange none-the-less!

infilTRAITOR wrote:I'd go with B as it looks more subdued but that's just down to my taste.

Foundations are great, I love how more realistic they are compared to regular GW paints. I use Tallarn Flesh as my base and top coat for skin.

They thin down quite well but do tend to get quite thick quicker than GW paints. They taste like a gel based emulsion paint you would put on walls so I think GW has stolen some technology from Dulux *le gasp*

Thanks for the input! Because they're so thick do you use retarder with them or just thin with water?

0079 wrote:I voted for orange armor grey uniforms, I find that a good way to decide on a guard scheme is to envision how the vehicles are going to look ( that is assuming you will be using them).

Yes, the vehicles and troops will all have a consistent colour scheme though unlike the troops, the tanks will likely be a single colour. Not sure which though. Depends how the Tau Sept Ochre paints up.

rowan-thats-me wrote:Id go for B, It looks duller, less in-your-face, I personally thing it looks better

Cosmic wrote: Yes, B certainely is the better option. Fenris Grey has more of a blue toned grey colour than adeptus Battle Grey. If you went for A, the contrast between the two colours would be quite extreme indeed. If you're going to post pictures up in the future of your painted minis, I'd be interested to see how you manage to go about the orange colour. Everyone seems to have their own ideas about how orange should be painted!

I'm not too sure how I jumped to the conclusion that it was orange you were thinking of painting them... But kind of orange none-the-less!

Thanks for the suggestions all. Looks like the Adeptus Battle Grey wins out.

Cosmic, I'm sure my colour examples didn't help. It does look a bit more orange than I'd intended.
As it is, I'm not really sure how to go about painting the Tau Sept. I don't want it ending up too light or too yellow and really want the end result to look like TSO rather than start with that. Looks like a little experimentation is in order. Time for a test model perhaps?


First pics to come soon! Stay tuned.

the_ampersand_man wrote:

infilTRAITOR wrote:I'd go with B as it looks more subdued but that's just down to my taste.

Foundations are great, I love how more realistic they are compared to regular GW paints. I use Tallarn Flesh as my base and top coat for skin.

They thin down quite well but do tend to get quite thick quicker than GW paints. They taste like a gel based emulsion paint you would put on walls so I think GW has stolen some technology from Dulux *le gasp*

Thanks for the input! Because they're so thick do you use retarder with them or just thin with water?

Water works just fine with them as they are a water-based paint. Just taste god-awful is all.

I voted B all the way

Ok, so it's been a bit since I last posted and most of that time has been spent looking for a decent camera to take worthy pics.
Sadly, the only pictures I have are from my phone cam, so please forgive the poor quality. Hopefully, I can get better ones up sooner than later.

Ok, so Tau Sept Ochre is a completely new colour for me, having never used it before picking it for my army and I'm not too sure if I like how it turned out.
Mostly what I'm worried about is having the effect look too brown or yellow. Looks like boots, gloves, and pouches are going to be black as much as I find it often looks like it's incomplete.

Thoughts, suggestions, recommendations are greatly appreciated.

Not bad at all... It's hard to pick out just what you've done, though, and it's not finished yet to be fair. Is it just me, or does the armour look a little patchy in places? Have you applied a wash of some kind at all? It's just that washes tend to look a little false on clean, smooth surfaces. Leave them in the recesses or whatever - Defining the recesses makes the over-all look more impressive.

However, the colours look great together. Are you going for a sort of urban desert theme? Good stuff, man, keep it up!

Edit: ...Or that could be a good use of blending on the armour. I'm sure that you know what you're doing!

Cosmic wrote: Not bad at all... It's hard to pick out just what you've done, though, and it's not finished yet to be fair. Is it just me, or does the armour look a little patchy in places? Have you applied a wash of some kind at all? It's just that washes tend to look a little false on clean, smooth surfaces. Leave them in the recesses or whatever - Defining the recesses makes the over-all look more impressive.

However, the colours look great together. Are you going for a sort of urban desert theme? Good stuff, man, keep it up!

Edit: ...Or that could be a good use of blending on the armour. I'm sure that you know what you're doing!

Yes, it's pretty hard to tell what's going on in the pic so I might take some new ones later today.

The armour does look a tiny patchy though its less noticeable on the model itself as the actual colours are a considerably flatter cause of the extender medium I used. Washes, I added several layers of Devlan Mud to the TS Ochre and Bedab black to the AB Grey. You're right, the DM washes look a bit funny. I think it the future I might forgo them in favour of doing more blending. Sadly, I was hoping the washes would work since I have so many troopers to paint.

I appreciate the reassurance of the colours I picked cause if I sit and think too long about them I get worried. Really, I don't want to have to start repainting these guys for the upteenth time!
The Carothians primarily come from a dark, ruined, hive world covered in endless ash wastes. Mostly my colour decisions were based on the ones I hadn't used much (or at all).

the_ampersand_man wrote:Sadly, I was hoping the washes would work since I have so many troopers to paint.

How many are you planning on painting?

Cosmic wrote:

the_ampersand_man wrote:Sadly, I was hoping the washes would work since I have so many troopers to paint.

How many are you planning on painting?

At this point I have about 90 regular troopers, plus Commissars and such. Of that, one squad is painted up in my 'original' colour scheme.
Needless to say, Simple green hasn't made my life any easier. The stuff is both a bane and a blessing!

the_ampersand_man wrote:Needless to say, Simple green hasn't made my life any easier. The stuff is both a bane and a blessing!

One Squad? Seriously, that's not worth worrying about. Sure, you can try getting the paint off them, but if it's not working, just take them as a learning expierience. I'm constantly changing my mind on how to paint things. What you want to do is focus on the models that you already have. How are you going to paint them - Squad by squad or in one whole go? Could you manage 80 models all in one go? The one advantage here is that once they're painted and finished, they're all done so you can move on to the next things (like tanks, charecters and such). I really am no expert (at the moment!) in this subject, but the down side is that it is a hard slog all the way. Painting is fun, but doing it this way can seem like a chore or the like. However, it is faster - much faster - in the long run. What do you want to do?

I found this website that may be helpful. The person who owns it also has an account here on Dakka, but what he does is really quick and extreme. He hasn't updated it for 3 months or so, but take a look for yourself, if it helps:

Mike Kan Paint

I'd say he uses simple methods on a large scale to get a high output in the shortest amount of time. Cheers!

Cosmic

I like the yellow armor, you never see that in guard armies. but I think the gray looks a little too dark. What if you went with something like space wolf gray or deneb stone for the unitforms, and gave it a wash with watered down badab black (like 50/50 mix) just to darken the folds and cracks?

Cosmic wrote:One Squad? Seriously, that's not worth worrying about. Sure, you can try getting the paint off them, but if it's not working, just take them as a learning expierience. I'm constantly changing my mind on how to paint things. What you want to do is focus on the models that you already have. How are you going to paint them - Squad by squad or in one whole go? Could you manage 80 models all in one go? The one advantage here is that once they're painted and finished, they're all done so you can move on to the next things (like tanks, charecters and such). I really am no expert (at the moment!) in this subject, but the down side is that it is a hard slog all the way. Painting is fun, but doing it this way can seem like a chore or the like. However, it is faster - much faster - in the long run. What do you want to do?

I found this website that may be helpful. The person who owns it also has an account here on Dakka, but what he does is really quick and extreme. He hasn't updated it for 3 months or so, but take a look for yourself, if it helps:

Mike Kan Paint

I'd say he uses simple methods on a large scale to get a high output in the shortest amount of time. Cheers!

Cosmic

Well one squad in my original Green/black colours that are going to stay the way they are. Everything else will benefit from the new colour scheme and I'll explain in fluff reasons why the one squad looks different.

The reason I say Simple green is a bane and a blessing is that the stuff works like magic in stripping paint. It means instead of painting up newer models first and then going back to the older ones I've stripped all the older models I had painted first, including the tanks. Even the 6 squads of steel legion models I'm no longer using got stripped. Just cause I could.

Like you, I can't decide on one scheme and constantly want to restart from scratch. The hope was that the Ochre/Grey combo would be the one that would stop that but you know how things go.
As far as method, the plan is to spray on the AB Grey, as many as I can do at one time, then highlight/ detail them five at a time. Dunno if I'llwork on the five till they're complete or stop at some point and do another five. I guess whatever keeps my interest.
Honestly, I'm not sure if I could do the entire army in one go or not but luckly I get to break up the monotony with my buddies Orks that I'm also painting.

Thanks for the site. Your comments are muchly appreciated.

Necros wrote:I like the yellow armor, you never see that in guard armies. but I think the gray looks a little too dark. What if you went with something like space wolf gray or deneb stone for the uniforms, and gave it a wash with watered down badab black (like 50/50 mix) just to darken the folds and cracks?

Thanks Necros. I picked TSOchre, and abandoned my old scheme for that reason. Hmm, what about the ABGrey looks too dark? Is there too much contrast with the Ochre? Truthfully, beyond Shadow Grey and Adeptus Battle Grey I didn't look at any of the others. Besides the poll the big decider was that AB Grey would give me the coverage that I don't think SW Grey could (at least in as few coats). I was hoping to go for a darker colour scheme overall though I guess I threw that whole idea out the window with the Ochre. This colour scheme isn't set in stone though I am anxious to get started on my army as a whole.

Thanks for the suggestions/ advice.


PS: Does anyone know if the old IG colour picker that GW had up still exists? Might be more efficient if I could test out colours virtually.
Still trying to get new pix. My phone just cant do it adequately enough.

the_ampersand_man wrote:PS: Does anyone know if the old IG colour picker that GW had up still exists? Might be more efficient if I could test out colours virtually.

Well, there's always Bolter and Chainsword's virtual painters. That shouldn't be too different. Just try putting some colours on a SM and see whether or not they look good together.

P.S. GW's IG colour picker doesn't exist any more, BTW.


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the_ampersand_man wrote:Hmm, what about the ABGrey looks too dark? Is there too much contrast with the Ochre? Truthfully, beyond Shadow Grey and Adeptus Battle Grey I didn't look at any of the others. Besides the poll the big decider was that AB Grey would give me the coverage that I don't think SW Grey could (at least in as few coats). I was hoping to go for a darker colour scheme overall though I guess I threw that whole idea out the window with the Ochre. This colour scheme isn't set in stone though I am anxious to get started on my army as a whole.

Don't forget about your original Fenris Grey idea. I once posted an article here on Dakka when I first signed up, and in the end went for something totally different. (I posted it in the 40k General Discussion section, too. No wonder that it didn't do too well!) I don't know how you paint, but a serious army painter would do something like:

1. Basecoat Fenris Grey.
2. Shade Badab Black.
3. Highlight Fenris Grey.
4. Extreme Highlight Shadow Grey.

That would give you a nice and sinister blue-grey look. If you're going to batch-basecoat all of your IG with Tau Sept Ochre, it sould go on nice and easily too. The same idea applies for your Adeptus Battle Grey idea:

1. Basecoat Adeptus Battle Grey.
2. Shade Badab Black.
3. Highlight Adeptus Battle Grey.
4. Extreme Highlight Codex Grey.

Go with your with your heart on this one. Just because the poll (and myself, to be fair) says that Adeptus Battle Grey is the best option shouldn't be the absolute answer. It's just something to think about. Paint something because you want to do it that way, not because of anybody else's opinions. Yes, you've done a test model, but you've also got Simple Green... Curse you! (*Sniff* I've got to get me some o' that stuff!)

P.S. You'll definately want to spray the Tau Sept Ochre if you're still going for that one. Why? Because it's harder to paint the cloth by hand than it is to do the armour. Plus, it's also a lighter colour, too. Wait, hang on a tick... You're doing the armour Tau Sept Ochre! Forget what I just wrote... So then you'll want to spray the grey colour. I think I'd better log out now! =S

Cosmic wrote: P.S. GW's IG colour picker doesn't exist any more, BTW.

Too bad!

Cosmic wrote:
Don't forget about your original Fenris Grey idea. I once posted an article here on Dakka when I first signed up, and in the end went for something totally different. (I posted it in the 40k General Discussion section, too. No wonder that it didn't do too well!) I don't know how you paint, but a serious army painter would do something like:

1. Basecoat Fenris Grey.
2. Shade Badab Black.
3. Highlight Fenris Grey.
4. Extreme Highlight Shadow Grey.

That would give you a nice and sinister blue-grey look. If you're going to batch-basecoat all of your IG with Tau Sept Ochre, it sould go on nice and easily too. The same idea applies for your Adeptus Battle Grey idea:

1. Basecoat Adeptus Battle Grey.
2. Shade Badab Black.
3. Highlight Adeptus Battle Grey.
4. Extreme Highlight Codex Grey.

Go with your with your heart on this one. Just because the poll (and myself, to be fair) says that Adeptus Battle Grey is the best option shouldn't be the absolute answer. It's just something to think about. Paint something because you want to do it that way, not because of anybody else's opinions. Yes, you've done a test model, but you've also got Simple Green... Curse you! (*Sniff* I've got to get me some o' that stuff!)

P.S. You'll definately want to spray the Tau Sept Ochre if you're still going for that one. Why? Because it's harder to paint the cloth by hand than it is to do the armour. Plus, it's also a lighter colour, too. Wait, hang on a tick... You're doing the armour Tau Sept Ochre! Forget what I just wrote... So then you'll want to spray the grey colour. I think I'd better log out now! =S

Yeah, I haven't forgotten it (the Fenris Grey) as an option and I've definitely got my own ideas for a colour scheme but tend to second guess them all the time. Since I'm the sole painter for my gaming group it's hard to get any suggestions from any of them. I'm always met with "whatever looks good" or "Just pick something". That means the unfortunate task falls to whomever reads this. At this point I'm pretty use I'm sticking with the AB Grey and will probably continue with the TS Ochre. I think the issue is really an unfamiliarity with the colour. I'm sure it will be fine once I start playing with it more to see what it can do.
Simple green is some magic stuff. Definitely worth picking some up if you can.

As far as painting methods, mine isn't too much different than yours. Maybe just a couple of additional steps is all.
Yes, the grey is being sprayed on. Too much base coating the same colour on that many models will drive me mad!

PS: Once I'm done the couple of Ork characters I'm painting for a friend there should be some new pix/ updates.

I reckon that you should use a Dark Flesh and Tau Sept Ochre mix for the body armour and Adeptus Battle Grey for the cloth.

Thanks for the suggestion, Tim. Gave it a try ended up looking like an earthy orange, mildly similar Calthan Brown. Too brownish for my tastes.

Ok, so better pix than the earlier ones (if only just). Tried a few more test models, all of different colours but kept coming back to this one.
Now that I've settled it's a matter of going and doing the details which should be done tonight with a new pic or two.

Really njice tone on the orange and grey looking good can't wait to see him done!

There's nothing wrong with this guardsman. I'm looking forward to seeing the completed product!

So, it's been a little bit since I've updated and in that time I haven't had a lot of time to paint anything but Orks.
What guard painting I have been able to do has mostly been testing out Tau Sept Ochre, a colour I'm not too familiar with, to try and get more experience with it.
For the most part I've found that I haven't been able to get a consistent look that I'm satisfied with and so I don't plan on sticking with the colour. That means back to some colour picking. *SIGH*

Below is a better pic, with the colours more accurately represented.


While practising with TSO It got me thinking about tweaking the uniforms as well. Adeptus Battle Grey is a good colour but I wanted to try something different and perhaps broaden my paint range from just the GW line. After testing a few I've finally settled on the Vallejo model colour, Field Blue.
The big concern I have is that the Vallejo paints might not stand up to the wear and tear of the tabletop.

I've heard Vallejo holds up just fine. Some folks well and strongly prefer it over GW's stuff even. Besides, if you're in doubt, you could always seal them with dullcoat.