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Reading a thread on here and it got me thinking on how I choose the colors of my models and then it occurred to me, I don't.
For me, it all starts whilst glueing the models together and as my favourite art of the hobby is coming up with fluff and background, I begin by asking myself (In my head, the boss already thinks I'm nuts) 'Who re they?' and it starts from there. With a basic idea behind them the colors just seem to come without thought, each color pick is natural and I just have 'a feeling' and this has been my way for all the models I have painted.

So how about you? Do you have a certain color you always use in some way? (Red for me) or do you plan every detail? Enlighten me

All sorts. With my SM, they're all first founding chapters so I don't have a lot I can play with, but I do try and stick to a theme or style on each army. For example, my Blood Angels are mostly metallic red, and very weathered and beaten, while my Dark Angels are quite clean and neat. My Space Wolves are line-highlighted, my Ultramarines blended and with freehand markings on every model. My GK were all painted in a standard scheme and then washed blue all over for a psychic glow effect.

For my IG, it was just a case of red and brown just looking good on the minis. Red tends to end up featuring in most of my schemes to some degree or other. For IG and BA it's all over, for Ultras and DA it's things like bolter casing and belts, for SW it's shoulder pads and for GK it's all the cloth areas. My Knight, when I get around to it, will also be dark red.

Apparently, I like red...

I do research. I will google images of the model I am working on and start to browse. Then when I see a color or scheme that catches my eye I start to play with the colors using anyone of the online color wheels.

A.

Ill be honest here, i just wing it.
Ill simply grab a few models from a unit and just start painting away and see which one i prefer.
The rest are then stripped and painted up to match.

Yea, even when I decide on colors I have to do a test model. If I dont like how layering and the like came out I have to make changes until I like it.

Then once I think I have it I do another test model to make sure it works.

Those guys go in the stripping bin and then paint the rest.

Especially now with a airbrush I really have to test it out to make sure it works.

I tend to build and basecoat the mini either black or white then just go with my gut. As i dont paint to play its easier for me as i dont have to abide by guide lines or come up with fluff unless i would like to make a diarama where its needed.

I look through history. For SM I look for knight heraldry colors. For IG I look through armies of the 20th century, like Italian WWI color schemes and things like that. For SOB I go with catholic nuns. (They actually do come in different colors.) For chaos, I choose heavy metal album cover color schemes.

For SM it's really based on the chapter whose story I like best. Hence why I ended up torturing myself painting yellow.

For IG I think about the fighting style of the army, what's the current campaign life? What kind of terrain & weather does the theater have? From there it's about deciding what role they will play in the fighting & the like.

For example my Elysians are painted up similar to coalition/NATO troops in the middle east with desert camo. Meanwhile their vehicles & heavy equipment are more of a flat gull grey to represent the more anytime anywhere style of Elysians.

Conversely my Steel legion army infantry is painted relatively true to the original colors but a bit more muted. Their vehicles are camouflaged in a light grey dark grey tan airbrushed organic pattern to give the impression of ash wastes.

I go to history - my Infinity army takes their colours from the heraldry of Godfrey of Bouillon (yellow and white - also noted for being something of a middle finger to the rules of heraldry).

In general, I try not to make up my own paint schemes. Given the huge expanse of existing material in the game universe, I don't feel the need to force my own uniqueness onto the game. It seems more authentic to me to pick an existing force. I usually just pick a sub-force of my army based on fluff, rules, or looks, and then just replicate that.

Exceptions: my Tau aren't a canon sept, because they are based on the White Dwarf 'Tron' color scheme. I also have a small detachment of Space Marines based on my award winning Space Marine chapter, the Tomb Sentinels. That's the only army I have from a sub-force I wholly made up.

History.

Thats about it really.

I go with colours I like and yeah. Pick other colours I like that go well with them.

I do quite a lot of homework if it's not for something original from GW itself.
I use stuff like:
http://www.colourlovers.com/
http://colorschemedesigner.com/
They are some great ways to find stuff that works great.

I use lots of reds and blues. But that's due to my Wordbearers and Crimson Fists.

i dont i just pick up some colours and go with it

Glad I'm not the only one who just picks up paint and goes full steam ahead.
So, for you history inspired people, does that influence the way you play the army or the fluff behind it?

A little bit ya most of my plans are so over complicated that they never fully fulfill lol. aka trick theem into running across river shoot as they cross fall back to knight charge, learn distance of river via this method sat bomb there back line trying to move all reserves to reach river and repeat..

Price wrote:
Glad I'm not the only one who just picks up paint and goes full steam ahead.
So, for you history inspired people, does that influence the way you play the army or the fluff behind it?

Yes, my praetorians are based of the anglo zulu war soldiers. I have no heavy weapons (although soon ill convert a few themed arty pieces and the early rocket launchers), my men unless retreating fight in 2 rank deep firing lines base to base and so on.

But im not limited to history solely. For example I have heaps of Xenos Mercinaries, some Tanks and aircraft and so on.

But yea history is the basis on which my regiment and any future regiments are organised, coloured and how they play.

Once upon a time when I started playing Blood Bowl, my Skaven team colors were bright red and dark blue... but the Skaven themselves were white. Of course, when I got into WFB a while later I carried that color scheme over.

For the Bretonnians, with their individualistic heraldry, I quite literally made charts up for different blazons and rolled each knight individually. They're a riot of color and if I were to do it over I'd do it differently - perhaps a single neutral color for the surcoats and barding, saving the heraldry for just the shields. The peasants (aside from some skirmish archers in dark green and brown) are in faded red and yellow, the colors of Leoncoeur's father, for fluff reasons.

The Dark Elves sorta happened. I wanted darkish green for the hydras and cold ones, and used standard DE purples and pale skin with dark blues. Elite units got bright gold armor, the rest had 'blued' steel. Some of the character kitbashes got a different highlight color, which lead to...

My Dwarves, who took great advantage of a good red I came up with while painting different DE characters. A ruddy skin tone and steel armor (bright silver for Ironbreakers, bright gold for Hammerers) rounds it out.

Across the last three armies (I transitioned from base/wash/drybrush on the Skaven to base/2 highlights/glaze on the Brets) a few of the detail colors remained consistent. Leather, wood, and most armors used the same recipe across all of them. The fun bit is, the leather looks dark on the dwarves and Brets... but appears much lighter against the dark colors of the Druchii.

Now I'm considering a Lizzie army, and I'm not really sure what I'm going to do with them yet. I just know I'm NOT using that ridiculous teal color scheme GW is so fond of.

I find this stuff so interesting, thanks for all the replies guys!

@ Vulcan - Those Skaven sound like something quite special! Albino rats are always good
For the Lizard men, I once saw a pic (Many years ago) of some painted a pale red with brown spots, was amazing! The few models of them I have painted, I did them green to keep a more realistic look for them .