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I don't really have much to add to the title.

So, apparently, the ITC rules state that your models must be painted with 3 colors.

In fact, the minimum number of colors that any given model in my army (once fully painted) will have is 4. (Blue power armor, red right fists, black weapons + silver metal bits on said weapons). The maximum will be 5 (gold bits).

I can see good reason for a minimum number of colors, since it prevents people from showing up with the unpainted power army of the week.

Why 3, though?

It seems like a rather stringent/strange requirement.

I once saw images of models painted in only 1 color (not primed, mind you) and it looked pretty cool.

Why not 2 colors?

Well, this is a rather old rule. I remember in the first GT I was playing back in 2005, this rule has been applied.

 wuestenfux wrote:
Well, this is a rather old rule. I remember in the first GT I was playing back in 2005, this rule has been applied.

Again, I fully understand the intent of the rule. You want to keep the power gaming TFGs out.

I fully agree with that.

3 seems like such an arbitrary number, though.

What if I were playing chaos demons.

Pink Horrors of Tzeentch? Anyone?

Because it's a fairly good way to say "no, not just primed."

Of course there are places where it's out of place, but not on an actual painted army.

A "1 colour army" can probably just be called "Black, Dark gray, Light gray."

If it's cool organisers will make concessions. If you've clearly just primed and then flicked another colour on, calling your army the Jackson Pollock brigade then.... well if you've done it well then I supposed it could be allowed, but you get my point.

 Purifier wrote:
Because it's a fairly good way to say "no, not just primed."

Of course there are places where it's out of place, but not on an actual painted army.

A "1 colour army" can probably just be called "Black, Dark gray, Light gray."

If it's cool organisers will make concessions. If you've clearly just primed and then flicked another colour on, calling your army the Jackson Pollock brigade then.... well if you've done it well then I supposed it could be allowed, but you get my point.

If I played white scars, I'd probably use three colors:

White power armor. Black for main parts of bolters. Silver for metal bits.

But then I think;

What if they wielded sticks?

Then I'd only use 2.

White power armor.

Brown sticks.

Because 3 is a good number.

Look you put a primer on your models... #1

Paint armour or anything else #2

Add any details #3

done.

so 3 is a good way for a min amount of different colours

I am sure there are not that many models that only need 2 colors. the moment you add any highlights, you will end up with 3 colors. Let it be lenses of weapons and such.... Different pars of any armour, skin , .... 3 is a good one. it also helps to make models looking interesting.

even if you just use primer, a color and some way of mixing the primers color and your base color you end up with 3....

Its generally agreed that its not as enjoyable to play against an army of grey models (or primer color) as it becomes difficult to tell what is what as everything becomes a blur of mono color. Two colors gives some contrast but it still makes it hard to tell the important details apart and it can still lack character. 3 colors can give enough contrast to tell things part and have enough character to look decent.

Take a Necron Warrior for example.
Prime/Paint it a metal color
Paint its weapon black
Paint some sort of dynasty/army color on its shoulders (or wherever)
This is 3 colors and it covers basically everything that's needed on a model to look respectable. Extra stuff like highlights, washes, extra detail colors like eyes, OSL, etc will really make the model look good but those 3 colors got the bulk of the work done and gives you something semi visually appealing. Now granted if you had a model with only Black, Grey, and Dark Grey it might not really look all that great as it would seem like its just 2 colors (black and grey).

Now something like a Black Templars could look passable with just two colors but its really going to look incomplete and lacking without at least some detail color like gold, red, or metal.

It's a general "standard" that has existed forever, well, at least the mid 90's when I started.

Why 3 colours? I guess it's enough colours that you can hopefully tell what you're looking at, but not so many colours that you feth over someone who collects an army that doesn't have a lot of colours to begin with (a Tyranid army can probably get away with 2 colours and a wash if you really pushed it, but most people are at least going to paint something like the eyes a different colour).

Traditio wrote:

 wuestenfux wrote:
Well, this is a rather old rule. I remember in the first GT I was playing back in 2005, this rule has been applied.

Again, I fully understand the intent of the rule. You want to keep the power gaming TFGs out.

I fully agree with that.

3 seems like such an arbitrary number, though.

What if I were playing chaos demons.

Pink Horrors of Tzeentch? Anyone?

It has nothing to do with power gamers. This comment holds no actual purpose what so ever other than to assume something from nothing

Traditio wrote:
Pink Horrors of Tzeentch? Anyone?

Pink horrors have teeth. They have claws. They wear braces. They also have eyes and most of them have their tongues out.
"Pink" horrors doesn't mean that they're entirely pink.

Painting a decent model using less than 3 colours... sounds really unlikely to happen. I'd like to see this if it even exists.

Yeah, even on a monotone army like White Scars models will have detail colors: Red for eyes, Tan for purity seals, gunmetal weapons, black tires, etc.

As everyone knows, the rule is intended to get people to paint their armies up to a better than disgraceful tabletop standard because painting is part of the hobby and Teh HHHobby..

I think three colours was picked because as some people have said earlier, if your army doesn't necessarily provide a lot of opportunity for variation, like SMs for instance, you can still do the armour, weapon and a unit colour shoulder pad or something. Some armies easily can use five or six colours.

Or another reason may be that you can tell people who moan about having to paint three colours not to be so wet, it's only three colours, just spray them a base colour and whack on a couple of details, it will take no time at all. Now go away and do it, and come back when it is done.

Fortunately most wargamers like having a nicely painted army and will either put in the effort or buy painted figures.

3 colours means that you have done at least 1 thing in addition to just priming your models. It's a carry over rule from the time of official GW tourneys that was implemented to help sell the hobby. Painted armies sell the hobby better than grey masses.

Thinking back I'm pretty certain it originated from space marines *including* the base:
Paint the armour whatever.
Paint the gun silver.
Paint the base green.

 Gashrog wrote:
Thinking back I'm pretty certain it originated from space marines *including* the base:
Paint the armour whatever.
Paint the gun silver.
Paint the base green.

But an ultramarine for example would still have the helmet lenses, the aquila and some tubing. Back when I was a noob the basic marine was blue head to toe, silver gun + aquila, black gun casing/tubing and red lenses. Likewise with the whitescar comments, don't the use colours shoulder pad trim for squad or rank marings? It's hard to think of an army that can be completed in 3 colours, at a push maybe nids - carapace/claws/teeth one colour, the fleshy bits/tongue etc. another colour then the rest of the mini a 3rd but it would be boring/flat.

 Minus wrote:

Painting a decent model using less than 3 colours... sounds really unlikely to happen. I'd like to see this if it even exists.

Oh, it exists...


(not mine)

Look up "monochrome miniature painting"

As far as I remember from the GTs of old the base color wasn't included in the minimum 3 colors. I never understood paying all the money to play in a GT and then not having your army done to at least tabletop standard.

Three colours has always been the the idea, even at GW stores etc. The idea being you haven't gotten primer and then flicked colour on and called it painted. Its to promote fully painted armies. 3 colours derives also from the old (pre-new citadel range) way GW taught painting.

Main colour (ie, Blue for Ultramarines, Green for DA)
Secondary colour (Gold shoulder trim for UM, black or bone for DA, black for Sallies)
Accent colour (eyes, squad markings, shoulder trim, basing, fire or blood effects, edge highlights)

These used to be the minimum for "tabletop standard," whereas today the tabletop standard involves 4 layers, shading, highlights, OSL, NMM and freehand banners.

 SlaveToDorkness wrote:

 Minus wrote:

Painting a decent model using less than 3 colours... sounds really unlikely to happen. I'd like to see this if it even exists.

Oh, it exists...

Well, I've already seen "monochrome" models. But though only 2 pots were used, there are dozen of various shades involved in the painting and a work on textures.
You could go to a tournament with an army painted like the model you show, I don't think it would be refused anywhere. But we're in the case of a qualified painter who made an artistic choice here, not a lazy guy who wanted to paint everything the same color.

If different shades are counted, then I'd say most of my models have a minimum of 15 different "colors" on them.

Just doing a simple bolt gun takes quite a bit. Black primer, gun metal, black wash, medium silver highlight, bright silver edging, dark gold Aquila, brown wash, bright gold highlight, That's 8 different paints for one item.

clively wrote:
If different shades are counted, then I'd say most of my models have a minimum of 15 different "colors" on them.

Just doing a simple bolt gun takes quite a bit. Black primer, gun metal, black wash, medium silver highlight, bright silver edging, dark gold Aquila, brown wash, bright gold highlight, That's 8 different paints for one item.

Even if you leave out the highlighting or don't count washes as a colour, that would still leave you with three colours on the bolter alone.
3 colours is absurdly easy to reach if you are serious about painting.

 SlaveToDorkness wrote:

*A fantastic sepia greyscale model*

That model is well above tabletop quality, but to the point of the topic it's got more than three distinct colours going on.

In fact most of the examples people cite aren't very good. A tactical marine with no weapons or laurels of any kind running down the field has the solid colour of his armour, the someone trim on his shoulder pads, trim or mechanical detail on his torso, the grill of his helmet, the lenses of his eyes, the soft accordion texture on the insides of his knees, elbows, and other major joints. More than enough opportunity to have 3 distinct colours.

The classic argument against the three colour rule has been the necron warrior, because "oh, you just prime black and dry brush silver until it's done" but even that doesn't really hold water. Even if you don't paint it's gun a different colour than its chasse (shame on you!) that gun had coils and tunes on it that are clearly not the same material as the rest of the model. It's eyes should have a colour, it's chest symbol and shoulders stand out and are a major potential colour point, and even if you're short, painting the joints a different metallic colour (even a distinctly different shade of silver!) works too!

The thing about the three colour rule is its meant to stop people from dropping a single layer of paint onto their minis and calling them done. It doesn't even necessarily mean three distinctly different colours, just that you can look at the result and say 'yeah, you tried'.

Going back to the space marine as an example, the regular run of the mill ultramarine already has three distinct blues in its armour if you're painting using the base-wash-layer-highlight method GW pushes. It's incredibly easy to meet the three colour rule.

3 colors could have been base, shade, highlights, or a blue space marine with a red bolter and a green base, or whatever. Way back in the GT days, there was a painting/converting/hobby aspect to the game. The best overall winner was supposed to represent the best sportsman, the best hobbyist, and the best general. For the most part, that was true, but as the tournament scene continued, specific categories started to emerge, and the W/L record became more important than the other two combined. But that's a more or less history lesson.

ITC attempts to emulate those tournaments.

People who are going to do Blue/Wash/Highlights on an Ultramarine probably will paint all the rest of the detail too.

My Tyranids have six colours plus an Army Painter shade and I did them mostly with spray cans because I was trying to make the army as quickly as possible.

 Kilkrazy wrote:
People who are going to do Blue/Wash/Highlights on an Ultramarine probably will paint all the rest of the detail too.

My Tyranids have six colours plus an Army Painter shade and I did them mostly with spray cans because I was trying to make the army as quickly as possible.

This is a perfect example of just how easy it is to paint an army. You can "Spray and Dip", then dry brush over the top, paint the base, and Bob's your uncle. You don't have to be a Golden Deamon Painter to have a fully painted army.

Traditio wrote:
Pink Horrors of Tzeentch? Anyone?

1:base/primer (like pink)
2: colour scheme (like black or blue on a horror's flames and/or feathers)
3: details (like gold on jewelery, horrors have bangles and stuff)

OR

Black base, "heavy dry brush" green skin and some sort of gun metal for blades and guns. Guess which army.

I refer to 3 colours as "tabletop minimum", if used like above it is the least that leaves models look painted, if you leave out one of those they look unfinished (too many different\t things having the same colour looks... wrong)..

BTW; if every part of a model is painted with a colour which belongs there , then I'll call it tabletop standard. You usually need at least 5 colours (before basing) for this; e.g. add beaks/teeth and eyes for the horrors.

Back in the day it was said you could win a Golden Demon - or get through early judging - by having a well prepped mini with 3 well painted colours.

I am biased towards playing with painted armies or minis. Even a scrappy paint job is better than bare plastic BUT I reserve judgement for those that don't have the time or confidence to paint. People spend hundreds on the minis and who am I to tell them to pick up a brush.
@DarkBlack- '....tabletop minimum...' I like that.

Please note that 3 colours can literally be...

Basecoat.
Shade.
Highlight.

Technically those are three seperate colours.

Traditio wrote:

 Purifier wrote:
Because it's a fairly good way to say "no, not just primed."

Of course there are places where it's out of place, but not on an actual painted army.

A "1 colour army" can probably just be called "Black, Dark gray, Light gray."

If it's cool organisers will make concessions. If you've clearly just primed and then flicked another colour on, calling your army the Jackson Pollock brigade then.... well if you've done it well then I supposed it could be allowed, but you get my point.

If I played white scars, I'd probably use three colors:

White power armor. Black for main parts of bolters. Silver for metal bits.

But then I think;

What if they wielded sticks?

Then I'd only use 2.

White power armor.

Brown sticks.

Chances are you'd at least use a wash of some kind on the sticks. Voila, colour #3

Realistically even "single" color models can look amazing due to different shades of that color. It's essentially just stopping people from dumb loopholes.

 IronMaster wrote:
Realistically even "single" color models can look amazing due to different shades of that color. It's essentially just stopping people from dumb loopholes.

Well, those different shades would be a different color in terms of fulfilling the ITC requirements. Unless dark blue, medium blue and light blue only count as one color.