"Color recommendations (15mm sci-fi & near-future)" Topic

Hi folks!

So I'm getting back into serious painting; it's been a bit of a gap since I last was an active painter. Most of what I know skillwise is still there, so I'm feeling up to snuff, but I wish I could say the same for my paints.

My Citadels are all dried up (no surprise there, eh?). Most are more than a few years old. I need to replace my old pots and I'm deciding what colors to look at. I've only really used Citadel in the past and now I've had my mind on trying out other brands.

For gaming, I've switched over from 28mm (GW, etc.) to 15mm, so I'm not as want for detail, although I'd still like to paint to a high standard. I still work on larger minis from time to time, but mostly for D&D or Pathfinder characters and for fun. I'm mainly focused on military colors, and I'm pretty fond of the triad system Reaper's got. Makes things easy for working up to highlights and so on.

In summary, I need a good core set of colors that'll work well for military minis – greens, tans, browns; more neutral, realistic shades that can do camo well. But I'll also need a few brighter colors for more sci-fi parts, like visors, screens, panels and so on. Maybe the themed Vallejo sets would be of value here.

The Acrylicos Vallejo ranges are good. I still have some from several years ago (when first came into UK) that haven't dried up. Worth buying their large pots if thinner & washes.

You've plenty of choices.

I invested in the Wargames Factory trio base set a few years back and offers a solid resource of paints.

I can also say that the Vallejo stuff is good (Model and Game colour). Really like their washes.

I also love the Scale75 paints I have BUT do not think that the qualities they bring to painting 15mm is seen in the end results. Some comments here link

Hope that helps a little.

Polly's if u can find them….or model master. (Testors brand acrylic)

I have some reaper paints and Vallejo paints too.

Are there specific colors or mini-ranges of the brands you use that you find to be 'essential' or use on a large percentage of your models?
For example, I know I've read quite a few people swear by P3's Coal Black, Menoth White Base, and use them very often, etc.

Being old school I have some Tamiyas that are some of my favourites – their NATO brown, desert yellow, red, blue and dark green are ones I use all the time – I do like the GW washes, both the previous and current iterations

I like Vallejo but they are hard to get locally versus the Tamiya and GW that the GW Store and the FNGS stock

Reaper Minis Master Series Paints are the best

reapermini.com/Paints

They're constantly adding new colors, in both the Core Colors and HD Colors. They work equally well applied with brush or sprayed through an airbrush.
They're formulated for wargaming usage, and stand up to handling better than Vallejo. I've been using them for the last 6 years and like them much better than Citadel or Vallejo, both of which were my "go to" paint brands before.

I mostly use Vallejo Model Color.

Are there specific colors or mini-ranges of the brands you use that you find to be 'essential' or use on a large percentage of your models?
For example, I know I've read quite a few people swear by P3's Coal Black, Menoth White Base, and use them very often, etc.

I swear by Reaper Master Series skin tones. All 30 of them.

For metallics, I swear by the Vallejo Model Air and Game Air metallics. superfine metal flakes and incredible coverage.

I also use the various Citadel Foundation series, but I'm planning to replace them with Reaper Master HDs as they die out. At the very least, Red, Orange, yellow, and white foundations.

I have a set of the Citadel Washes, though I've mostly replaced those with Army Painter Soft, Strong, and Dark tone, plus P3 inks.

Judging by the movies, everything in the future will just be shades of blue anyway…

LOL @ Javelin98.

Seriously, my own SF has been painted with everything from Dulux/PPG spray acrylics to Citadel colours to Tamiya, with a few Vallejo when I can get my mitts on them.

I initially had GW, but have been replacing them with Vallejo, and am happy, I have at least a 100 them now.

I use Army Painter color spray primers and washes. Then Vallejo for details. In fact, I don't start a project without consideration for which Army Painter spray will be the base color. Saves me a ton of time.