How to Make Your Paint Scheme's More Interesting

This post is part of the Notts Hobbies 30 Day Army Painting Accelerator, Click here to get your free copy.

When painting, we aim for a 25/50/25 split between the highlights, midtones and shadows. As most of each part of the model is the midtone, the eye will read this, as the colour of each part of the miniature.

This allows the painter to use more interesting colours in the highlights and shadows, while the colour still reads as the midtone.

An easy way to save time is to use the primer as the shadow colour and layer up from it.

This removes the step of base coating and makes your models more interesting.

The Guardsman below was painted up from a purple basecoat but none of the colours read as purple.

If the main colour of the model is warm, we use a warm brown or a dark red primer. If the main colour of the mini is a cool colour, we use a dark blue or a cool purple primer.

Painting this way lends itself to drybrushing and overbrushing, click here to find out more.

This post is part of the Notts Hobbies 30 Day Army Painting Accelerator, Click here to get your free copy.

Glossary

Highlight – painting the bright colours on raised parts of a model so they stand out.

Midtone – the mid point of a surface that isn’t highlights or shadows

Primer – prepares the surface of the model for paint, applied from a spray can or an airbrush.

Shadows – The deepest parts of a surface, that receive the least light.