Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I have a lot of paints that I have bought sporadically either thinking “I need that one” or “I don’t have that one and I’ll probably need it”. But looking at my yellow I’m pretty sure I could get all the colours I have with 1 yellow and adding a bit of white, brown or darker umber.

Also I have all the GW purples and pinks, I think, and although they look like they should be a good layer progression, they don’t seem to blend well. And I learned on the hobby cheating YouTube Chaney that the best way to highlight purple is by mixing in a flesh tone and it works brilliantly.

So my question is, are we too reliant on collecting loads paint and not just doing something much more simple by mixing colours

Nah, the point of buying lots of paints is so you can recreate something, either te same effect in many models or perhaps a very specific colour (eg a real world camo scheme).

So in that sense, owning lots of colours is good.

If you’re only painting one off models that aren’t based on a specific real world example you’re trying to match, then you can get away with less paints.

It does get a bit crazy when you start also buying airbrush versions of colours, or lacquer / enamel versions.

Hmm, interesting question. I recently got a box of Kimera Kolors (very intense single pigment paints that are explicitly meant for mixing) and sure, it's completely doable and also interesting as an process. BUT I also like 'pre-mixed' colours as shortcuts, which is even more useful if you have lots of minis in a more or less uniform paint scheme. Guess I'm a nerd for both kinds of things though, DIY mixing and hoarding just slightly different paints ^^

I think the way GW's painting system is designed is to get you to buy more paint you "need" and it also perpetuates their painting system and style which may or may not have merit in making people better painters. I would say yes, we are too reliant, but that's only because most people don't know or don't want to know.

Basically, it largely comes down to you as a person. Do you enjoy the mixing process to develop colours? Do you like limited palettes? Is the ease of having separate paints the selling point for you? Mixing is something you have to learn so if you're not fond of it, you're not going to be any less of a painter than someone who does.

For me, I definitely relied too much on GW for years to find the right tones but since getting a wet palette I mix on the fly and when I don't know how to mix a certain colour, I'll google it. Citadel paints are a mix of pigments so they're not perfect for mixing, but you can get decent results.

Mixing for sure. Everyone should learn how to mix paints as part of their painting process. It's such an easy way to get nice transitions between your layers.

Personally, my painting time is lower than my painting budget. I'm happier buying the paints I need, than buying slightly fewer paints and faffing around mixing colours. It also makes it easier to get the same colour again to paint the next unit in my army, some months after doing the previous unit. Sure, I could keep a recipe book - but that's also added faffing I can't be bothered with.

mrFickle wrote:
I have a lot of paints that I have bought sporadically either thinking “I need that one” or “I don’t have that one and I’ll probably need it”. But looking at my yellow I’m pretty sure I could get all the colours I have with 1 yellow and adding a bit of white, brown or darker umber.

Also I have all the GW purples and pinks, I think, and although they look like they should be a good layer progression, they don’t seem to blend well. And I learned on the hobby cheating YouTube Chaney that the best way to highlight purple is by mixing in a flesh tone and it works brilliantly.

So my question is, are we too reliant on collecting loads paint and not just doing something much more simple by mixing colours

Well it depends on how good you are mixing at exact same shade or how much you want to have same shades rather than models looking different to another model in your army.

Since I suck at mixing and don't want to keep huge list of 3/5 of paint A and 2/5 of paint B type of list for my oh....20+ projects it's easier to just use standard shades as much possible. Time is money. If I save money by avoiding purchaces but spend tons of time I'm on negative fast. And if I can't get 100% match then it's going to look weird. It can be hard enough to refigure how did I do colour scheme after 2 years never mind with custom mix! Getting exact equilavence would be lot harder.

Learning to mix is good, there is a rabbit hole so deep with warm/cool, value, tint, tone, shade, etc that your brain will implode!

However, the colours on the outer edge of the colour wheel can not be mixed, you are relying on the existence of a particular pigment in nature (ask anyone in the ancient world how to get hold of purple!).

Some paints are a pure pigment but some are mixed and the mixed ones should be avoided in my humble opinion. For instance Troll Slayer Orange seems to be a pure pigment, but Fire Dragon Bright has the hallmarks (IMO) of a mixture of white and Troll Slayer.

Good Luck!

 queen_annes_revenge wrote:
Mixing for sure. Everyone should learn how to mix paints as part of their painting process. It's such an easy way to get nice transitions between your layers.

Which is great for people who are artistically inclined. Many do the bare minimum painting because they're not. Some don't paint at all. The hobby is broad enough that one size does not fit all.

So are thee any good resources for learning how to mix paints for mini painting? Sounds like a hybrid approach is worth it.

I just notice that GW have much much bigger range of colours than anyone else but I see people get just as good results with just using by other brands so I figure they must be mixing

I recommend looking up Marco Frisoni on Youtube. He has some excellent colour theory videos if you want a place to start learning. The videos are also short enough to digest yourself which is great.

 Tyranid Horde wrote:
I recommend looking up Marco Frisoni on Youtube. He has some excellent colour theory videos if you want a place to start learning. The videos are also short enough to digest yourself which is great.

Just started watching these, they are great. Should be part of a basic curriculum for mini painters.

For me, it kind of depends what you want to do. I tend to paint single miniatures, so I mix more than Sir Mixalot, I cannot lie. However, if you're painting armies, that's when using colours as they are out the pot (thinned, obviously) comes into it's own, as you get replicatable colour across the whole army. Blending isn't even necessarily a good idea across an army, as you probably won't get consistency across 50 or so models. I have a Dark Angels army, all painstakingly blended, but as an army, they don't look as good as a force that someone has painted with flat colours and neat edge highlights, because the squads all look different to each other. The Aggressors look like they're standing in one kind of light, the Intercessors another, the Tactical Marines look like crap because I painted them when I was just starting out. I used the same colours on each squad, but put next to each other, the subtle differences stand out.

On the other hand, just painting armies and aiming for consistency alone will absolutely hold you back. I'll put it this way - you paint one squad for an army, then spend the next ten years adding to that army, but whenever you paint a new miniature or squad, you just try to replicate that first squad. You're deliberately stopping yourself from improving. You're ensuring that, in ten years, you aren't learning anything.

I think you have to do a bit of both. Mixing paints will teach you so much about colours, but the practicality of the army-painting method is also worth keeping in mind.

I think some paints really are unnecessary. I've recently watched a Warhammer video about painting a Grey Hunter and the guy used 3 different oranges to paint the hair.

I never needed 3 different pots to achieve that, just a singe orange mixed up with white for the highlight. Done. Since it's hair he was painting there's also not the need to replicate the exact same colour in order to paint different models with red hair.

I'd never mix up paints for getting a base army colour like the armour one, but for the highlights I don't think a specific lighter colour is necessary. So are lots of washes, 1 or 2 can be good for anything.

I don't like mixing, as it makes it harder to go back later and re-create the same colours if painting the models again later.

If it's for something specific and a one-off I'll mix paints, but for general colours for my army I'll use pot paints.

I actually like tonal variation in my dudes who are all of a same faction. I feel like it reflects reality more. I paint the models at all different times using no standard formula. Granted I only have a small kill team/combat patrol strength of world eaters and emperors children, so I could see why this might not apply to larger armies.

 queen_annes_revenge wrote:
I actually like tonal variation in my dudes who are all of a same faction. I feel like it reflects reality more. I paint the models at all different times using no standard formula. Granted I only have a small kill team/combat patrol strength of world eaters and emperors children, so I could see why this might not apply to larger armies.

One of the reasons I am building a creations of bile army is so I can do all the units different and say they are from different warbands under contract with bile. I started a DA army and didn’t like doing it all the same. I think most none imperium armies present options for wider variety within units

Even imperium armies could have that though. Look at any military unit in the field. Everyone has different kit in various different states of wear and tear.

When it comes to army/batch painting, with the goal of being able to reproduce your color scheme consistently and repeatedly, less mixing is better. As straight as you can through stepped color progressions ensures that you an replicate your color scheme.

When it comes to one-offs and display pieces, mix away.

That's my approach anyways.

Take it from the others like QAR, DV8 and Tyranidhorde. Mixing paints gives you a better understanding of colors and ABSOLUTELY go look at Marco Frisoni on youtube.

I will add however, that by the very nature of mixing paint you will need to have some interest in a serious level of art. If you're asking the question, odds are you're gonna benefit from mixing. That doesn't mean you shouldn't own some paints for the sake of speed. But you don't HAVE to which is the whole point.

At one point back in the 00s GW discontinued half the paints I used for my army, so mixing was my only option for a while, and involved buying 3 paint pots to get one desired color. Even though they've since reintroduced a similar colors I could probably replicate the original from scratch if I had to. A bunch of my friends' armies I painted involved having to create new mixing pots for them, I think I still have the test swatches and recipes somewhere.

I took a break from the hobby and all of my paints dried up. During early pandemic a lot of stuff was sold out, so I bought up some basic Army Painter matte black, white and grey and experimented mixing them with some Golden acrylic paint sets I got on sale over the years. They're a little on the shiny side but work well enough. I'm not painting armies like I used to, so don't need volumes of the same colors. However there are certain tints and shades I can't make without wasting a lot of mixed paint or require laying thicker layers, so premixed paint pots with heavier pigment makes more sense to buy.

Just to reinforce what most people here seem to be driving at.

This isn't an "either or" situation, and for most people a balance of the two approaches is probably right.

For armies where I want things to look to consistent the base colours will almost always be a colour in a pot or bottle, likewise so will the final highlight stage, this way I can keep them visually coherent but any tones in between will often be mixed.

For "Character/Individual/Centrepiece" models within an army it'll be different, each part of that model should look more distinct from the rest of the army and I likely won't want to reproduce it precisely. So while the general palette of colours remains the same I'll be trying to make them stand out.

Then you have single display pieces, competition entries, busts and practice pieces where I've mixed pretty much every colour on the model with very few exceptions.

There are also some methods that will be incredibly difficult without mixing colours, things like NMM, OSL and Crystal/Power weapon blades all lean heavily into mixing your own colours for the vast majority of steps.

In summary what I'm driving at is that mixing your colours can be viewed as a technique within painting as a discipline and is part of your "skill toolkit" alongside all those other skills such as: drybrushing, glazing, pinwashing, edge highlighting, airbrushing, preshading, zenithal undercoats/basecoats, freehand designs, etc.

Combining these within your projects and using the right "tool for the job" is what lets you get efficient, effective and impactful outcomes on your work.

Rik