Are you struggling to come up with a colour scheme for your army? Are you getting ready to paint your first army, and don’t quite know how to make it look good on the battlefield? Kaz has written an article that addresses these issues, as well as several others, for the starting painter. This article is a basic introduction to colour theory, unit cohesiveness, and basing and contains good information for any beginning painter and even intermediate painters as well. – added 07/2005

his is an article on how to choose a colour and basing theme for the entire army, and which things should be watched when you paint an army. This article is not meant for expert painters, as they already know what I’m going to say, it is intended for those who are on their first or second army, and who want it to look good without investing 6-7 hours in each model. The advice given here is intended to help you make your army look nice on the tabletop, not to win you that Best Painted Army Award. In essence, this is a “how to archive a good looking army for the least work possible” article. Note that this if for your army, not your centerpieces or your characters.

The difference between painting an army and painting a single model

As any painter knows, there is a big difference between painting a single good looking model, and painting an entire army that looks good. There are several things that causes this:

1. Most people view an army from between 6″ and 4′ away; they don’t study every single detail.
2. An army has to look like an army to look good. If it looks like a random collection of models borrowed from friends, it doesn’t have the same effect as a unified army.
3. Details are not noticed.

This is important to keep in mind, as it has an effect on how you should paint the models.

Colour scheme

The colour scheme throughout the entire army should be the same, each model painted with the same palette.

To chose a colour scheme, let me introduce something you might or might not have seen before, the colour wheel.

Here you can see the three main colours in the spectrum: Red, Yellow and Blue. Those are the three primary colours which can be mixed to give any other colour. Between those are the secondary colours which are created from a mix of the primary . Remember your knowledge from being a kid? Blue and yellow gives green!

Those are useful for one thing, complimentary colours. Those are the colours exact opposite each other on the wheel. They contrast each other perfectly, and makes each other stand out. Choosing a main colour and then it’s complementary colour as your second can make an effective colour scheme for your army.

A good example by bigrin42 on using complimentary colours.

There are some very classical paint schemes: Red and green, for example, work really well together.

A limited palette

We have all seen it, the army that looks like a carnival marching to war. So many different colours clashing together that it makes the head spin and the eyes ache. You might not call it ugly, but whatever you call it, it doesn’t exactly look good. The reason for this is actually rather simple, there are too many colours on the model.

When you have found your colours, be sure not to use too many others for your accents and details. When you need to paint large areas in some colour other than your main colours, neutral colours work best. That means colour that doesn’t stand out, such as brown, white, or black. One effective way to keep your uniformity is to stick to a limited palette by painting most of the army in the main colour (such as red) and then do straps, sleeves, and other minor things in the complimentary colour (green in that case).

Problem colours

There are certain colours that cause problems, even for highly experienced painters. A good piece of advice is to simply stay away from those colours, or limit the amount that you have to paint them.

Yellow – Apparently it’s impossible to make a good yellow paint , as evidenced by the fact that so few companies can do it. While you can paint yellow it takes a lot of time and layers to get a smooth coat, as it has exceptionally poor coverage. Using yellow for the entire army may not be a good idea.
Black – This is a problem colour from the fact that it is difficult to highlight properly.
White – Again a colour that is hard to highlight. This is due to white’s nature. When you try and highlight it from another colour, the shades will most of the time take on a completely different colour cast. It is possible to make a good white, but it takes a lot of patience.
Red and Purple – These colours can sometimes be a bit troublesome to get good highlights on (pink highlights are not usually desired), but not nearly to the extent of Black, White, and Yellow.

Basing scheme

As a rule of thumb, you should always use the same basing method throughout the entire army. The army is supposed like a whole, and a unit based in a different way greatly distracts from that. For colours you should try and find a colour that contrasts your army’s “feel” well. So, if the army is very dark, find relatively light base to provide contrast – snow for example. If it’s a light army, provide a bit of contrast by a dark base.

Your bases shouldn’t be made to distract to much attention compared to the models. Keep it relatively simple for the rank and file models, potentially making it a little more complex for characters.

Highlights

As you doubtless already know, to make a model look great you need to highlight it. The reason for this is simply that the shadows that is created in real life in cloth and other things doesn’t not appear on a 28mm high miniature. To create those shadows you’ll need to highlight the model, which means that you paint the things that stands out in a lighter colour than the cloth is, thus faking those shadows.

This can be achieved in many ways, which you doubtless already know about, mostly layering, drybrushing, or inking. If you don’t know these, it’s probably a better idea that you make somebody local show you, as it’s a lot easier to show than to explain.

Allow me to take a second to kill a certain myth: drybrushing is not an inferior technique to layering as many claim. It’s just different, and many good painters prefer it for control. But it’s a completely valid technique that has it’s uses, and for many painters (those that aren’t expert painters) can produce just as good results as layering.

The five rules to remember

Here are some rules that you should remember when painting to get a good looking army:

1. People cannot see subtle highlights from more than 2 feet away. Exaggerate them to make them appear even from distance.
2. Use a consistent colour scheme throughout the entire army to make it stand out.
3. Use a consistent basing scheme throughout the entire army to make it look like an army.
4. Use a few main colours that fit together on a model.
5. Drybrush, layering, inking or whatever floats your boat is fine. It’s the end result that matters, not how you got there. If you can drybrush and make it look good, don’t let anyone tell you that it’s inferior.

Kaz has been painting miniatures for 4 years and has painted armies for the majority of races in the WFB world.