Influence of Paints

[Angel Barracks]

Now, this probably will not apply to historical stuff but…

Do you choose the colour scheme/uniform/camo of a faction based on what colours you have, or do you decide the scheme and then buy any colours you are missing?

[PatG]

I am cheap so I use what is on hand.

[Paul]

When i started out with wargaming, i would buy the appropriate colours for any figures i bought or ordered. Now that i have been doing this for a long time, i have a fairly comprehensive paint collection, so very rarely need to add a new colour, but rather have to replace colours as they run out.

However, i only use specialist miniature paints for flesh colours, and use artists paints for everything else, so big pots of paint means I seldom replace anything other than the most commonly used colours.

Oh,and also, my wife studied fine arts and is a great (2d) painter, so she is the queen of mixing paint for the more obscure colours.

Those are brave men knocking at our door. Let's go kill them!

[Not Connard Sage]

Bit of an odd question. If your main interest is, say, Napoleonics then a side project of WWII in Western Europe 1944 might be a bit tricky without buying more paint…

But by way of an answer, I buy paint as required. Hang ‘making do’

I’m cheap, but I’m not that cheap.

 

Obvious contrarian and passive aggressive old prat, who is taken far too seriously by some and not seriously enough by others.

[irishserb]

I have a lot of paint, so it is rare that I don’t have what I need.  That said, I will wait and buy what I need, if I don’t have it for some reason.

[PatG]

Not Connard Sage wrote:

Bit of an odd question. If your main interest is, say, Napoleonics then a side project of WWII in Western Europe 1944 might be a bit tricky without buying more paint…

But by way of an answer, I buy paint as required. Hang ‘making do’

I’m cheap, but I’m not that cheap.

Now that’s a different circumstance. For historical projects, I will buy at least the base uniform colours and I will always use model paints for flesh tones. I still find I have to mix and match to get some of the colours I need. For early war green FJ jump smocks, I used a bottle of somewhat decent acrylic craft paint that just happened to be the right colour. Other substitutions are Vallejo Russian Uniform for British webbing and GW catachan green for British helmets and hardware.

As the question asks though, SF factions usually wind up as variations of real world military so the paints are the same, Ancients get earth tones and muted colours often using a wet palette to ensure variation. I’ll use anything on hand for them though, usually tinting a better quality base colour with a cheaper paint.

Fantasy and the a-historical parts of VSF get whatever I think is appropriate. For my martians that meant dollar store yellow ochre skin but I wound up with so many figures to paint that I ran out and had to buy a tube of student grade (but much better quality) artists acrylic paint.

Terrain gets the cheapest paint possible with dollar store acrylics and hardware store miss tints being favourites.

[Piyan Glupak]

Living in Bulgaria, I tend to use what I have available, which is nearly always brought by me from the UK at various times.  Royal Mail got fussy about dealing with parcels containing paints, so paints for my toy soldiers and toy trains became problematic.

[PaintingLittleSoldiers]

I use what I have – some of my Napoloenic french are in Prussian blue !

[Not Connard Sage]

PaintingLittleSoldiers wrote:

I use what I have – some of my Napoloenic french are in Prussian blue !

 

Heresy!!!

So are mine. Vallejo do Prussian Blue and Dark Prussian Blue. The former goes on the French and the latter on the Prussians.

 

…is that the sound of the Napoleonic Miniatures Painting Police helicopter I can hear..?

Obvious contrarian and passive aggressive old prat, who is taken far too seriously by some and not seriously enough by others.

[Don Glewwe]

Not Connard Sage wrote:

 …is that the sound of the Napoleonic Miniatures Painting Police helicopter I can hear..?

No, they’re in stealth mode…

[General Slade]

Piyan Glupak wrote:

Living in Bulgaria, I tend to use what I have available, which is nearly always brought by me from the UK at various times. Royal Mail got fussy about dealing with parcels containing paints, so paints for my toy soldiers and toy trains became problematic.

Hi Piyan,

I don’t know whether you are aware but Royal Mail later lifted its restrictions on the number of model paints you could send through the post.

Royal Mail paint restrictions lifted!

[A Lot of Gaul]

Being a painter of historical miniatures, I purchase the paint colors I need, as I need them. I do tend to buy ‘extra’ bottles of black and white, as I tend to run out of these more quickly.

"Ventosa viri restabit." ~ Harry Field

[Mike]

Not Connard Sage wrote:

Bit of an odd question.

You seem almost surprised…

 

[Piyan Glupak]

Trying to thank General Slade for his information, but the site doesn’t seem to like me quoting him!

[McKinstry]

I have a great deal of paint but if I am doing something I have not painted before and the ‘right’ color is available and not already in hand, I’ll buy what I need.

The tree of Life is self pruning.

[Not Connard Sage]

Mike wrote:

Not Connard Sage wrote:

Bit of an odd question.

You seem almost surprised…

 

Hey, I call it like I see it 

Obvious contrarian and passive aggressive old prat, who is taken far too seriously by some and not seriously enough by others.

[darthfozzywig]

For fictional camo, I usually try to come up with something cool in my head, and then see if I have the paints on hand to make it work. I’ve got a bunch of paints around, though, so it’s usually not too difficult.

[Northern Monkey]

I rarely have to buy new colours these days having built up a decent collection over the years( I still have a load of GW hexagonal pots that are fine), but if the need arises I will buy rather than make do, I do tend to wait for a local show to buy though rather than paying postage on just 1 or 2 pots.

My attempt at a Blog: http://ablogofwar.blogspot.co.uk/

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