I painted my first goblin a couple weeks ago, but I used my mom's artist acrylics. It looks pretty good for me I think, but the armour/weapon colour is too bright/bold. Other colours might be a tad, i dunno.


Anyway, I wont worry about getting too many paints since I have both Gondor and Mordor armies to paint; I'll just start off with Mordor/morannon orcs. So for orcs how many different colours would I need?

Basic multiuse paints I would recomend for orcs:

Scorched brown
Bestial brown
Chainmail silver
Abaddon black
A colour that you'd like to do the cloth
A colour to do the flesh (I'd recomend a green for orcs)
A black or brown wash

EDIT: just here's an old to new paint conversion chart

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'Though my memory's fading, I remember two things very clearly: I am a great sinner and Christ is a great Savior'
-John Newton

As ever, good solid advise from Sid. You hint in your question that you will start with the orcs. The paints are so expensive, I would recommend you start with one "army" and begin to build up your paint collection slowly.

Artist acrylics (as opposed to really cheap stuff) will give decent results (depending on the make) but you will have to mix the colours.
There is a colour mixing guide somewhere, I'll have a look to see if I can find it and post the link.

You may have to use a spray seal with artist acrylics.

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"Naur an edraith ammen!", no thanks, we have central heating.

£2.10 per pot isn't very expensive, is it?

TBH it is really... especially compared to other companies.... I'd thoroughly recomend Vellejo if you're looking to buy new paints, much better value for money

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'Though my memory's fading, I remember two things very clearly: I am a great sinner and Christ is a great Savior'
-John Newton

Thanks for the replies!

The citadel paints at my local store (not GW) are 5$ which is about £3.17 if I'm not mistaken.

I wonder if Vallejo are available locally for me. Would I need to mix colours with them?

For orc skin, I'd use a light brown (Khaki-ish) instead of green - I find it's much nicer, and much closer to my view of Tolkien orcs too. But it's your choice really - with orcs you can do anything.

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"... Telchar wrought it in the deeps of time."
-On Andùril, The Lord of the Rings

There are no Hard-Fast rules how many paints you need.
But create a palate to work from. This will streamline your workflow.

I use GW paints all the time. I do not mix paints. I sparingly use water.

Know that there are a lot of different approaches for effective painting.

I'll paint a 12-18 models at a time.
Finishing one color and then move on.
Going back over spots for touch-up's when necessary.

I am going to start a WIP for my Mahud soon. Hopefully...

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Ya I'll take a look at what colours there are and which I would like for skin.





So do you just look at the model and then think of what colours you'll use for different parts of the model? I'm wondering, should I even bother with highlighting since I've never really painted before?


Because that's why I was asking since I know that people do highlighting and with all the detail it seems like models take a lot of different colours to complete.

Finding a good paint guide to build your palate will be very helpful.

I tend to use a lot of dry-brushing with the small dry-brush.
I'll also use the fine detail brush, but use the side of it in a rolling fashion.

I try to let the model do the work to pick out the details.
Trying to paint every detail takes hard work and some talent for sure!

Don't bite off more than you can chew, meaning start with a warband.
Work slowly, but deliberately. Let the model show you the way.

I think there are good GW paintguides out there.
But that is just one way of seeing the colors.
You can change it any way you want of course.

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here is one of my recently completed Half Trolls.
I used the old Harad Sourcebook for a paint guide.

viewtopic.php?f=30&t=24414

it's painted like the guide says. but next time I am changing it up!

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okay thanks, are the paint guides expensive?

And the citadel brushes are no different than normal artist brushes right?

You are going to need to post a bit here in the forum for "official" GW paint guides. Or look under the Tomes of Wisdom. The information you seek is here someplace!

Yes, you can use any paints or brushes. I use GW stuff, because I support my local hobby shop. Glad they stock what I am looking for, and want it to continue. If you are a crafty artist and prefer different brushes, you certainly can do that.

Yeah, I know GW may not be the best "value".
I might be buying it for my "perceived" value.
But I do think the quality is there.

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Look for raphael 8404 brushes if you can get them. They are some of the best you can get. I got mine from secret weapon miniatures - http://www.secretweaponminiatures.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=29&zenid=88a9949f9c904a01ab9c9601dc5456a0

Alright thanks guys!

You asked if you needed to highlight as a beginner. strictly speak you don't but it does add a lot to the model. You can always come back and highlight later when you have built of your painting skills and your paint collection.

If you are not going to highlight (yet) I strongly recommend you get a couple of washes. Black at least and maybe a brown or flesh wash. Using washes is sort of the opposite of highlighting, that is making the recesses darker and in turn leaving the raised sections lighter in comparison. They are very easy to use as the wash finds its way on its own.

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I think a drug habbit would be cheaper...

And I'd recommend checking out the suppliers forum and speaking to GreenDragon. He sells them at £1.90 and is superb

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Washing with brown is about the easiest way to get good looking orcs. The idea is that you paint neat flat colours and then paint a lot of Agrax Earthshade or similar brown wash all over the model. The blades and armours turn into nice, rusty-looking metal, the skin and clothes get shading and become dirty and orcish-looking. With that method you can start with a dark silver metal colour, brown for the bows and spears, a colour for the skin and maybe two colours for the clothes and leather bits.

When you buy brushes, get either miniature or watercolour brushes. Even though we use acrylic paints, acrylic brushes are not the best ones for this hobby. Artists' acrylics are typically a bit thicker and heavier than miniature acrylics and therefore the artists use a bit stiffer brushes. The softer brushes meant for watercolour or miniature painting work better for us.

And there's no need to fear mixing colours, it's the purpose of the paint to get mixed with others. I use cocktail sticks to get a bit of colour A on a palette (I have just a white ceramic plate, nothing fancy), another stick to get bit of colour B on top of it, and mix them together by swirling the brush around them. If the resulting colour is not good, you don't even have to paint it on the miniature. The most typical use of mixing for me is to get a harmonious highlight colour and usually it's as simple as adding a small bit of beige to the base colour. But no need to get there too fast, start with neat flat colours and learn washing, dry-brushing or highlighting one at a time and see what you like best.

-- Pasi

Thanks guys, really appreciate it!

edit: just checked the greendragon thread. Unfortunately it says they dont ship GW stuff to Canada.

Also, what is TOR's opinion on using unconventional colours? Once I get some practice in I wanted to paint my morannon (my main force) with purple/pink cloth.

ANOTHER question: White primer or black primer??