Need help picking colours from experienced Vallejo users

[Kokaka]

Hi all.

So one day I woke up and just decided to paint a space marine army to the absolute best of my abilities using Vallejo colours.
But, theres just one small detail. I have never used those colours in my life.

The colour that I was thinking of painting is a dark grey/blue with maybe a tint of green in it for the armour, and blending the highlights up to a very light colour.
The details will be white and a very deep and intense scarlet.

So thats the idea.
As I said I don\'t know any Vallejo colours so if I could get some tips on some good Blues, Grays, Greens (?), Flesh and Scarlet and NMM colours I would appreciate it very much.

 

[Dragonsreach]

Originally posted by Kokaka
I don\'t know any Vallejo colours so if I could get some tips on some good Blues, Grays, Greens (?), Flesh and Scarlet and NMM colours I would appreciate it very much.

OK not an easy question as Vallejo Model Colours aren\'t based around the Shadow, Midtone, Highlight proximity that GW, Reaper & Foundry paints utilise.
I can give you some colours that you can use as a basis but a lot of it is down to trial and error (and personal taste).
Reds; try VMC Flat Red base colour, Cadmium Umber Red as a darkener and either Carmine or Scarlet as lighteners.
GREY BLUE You are looking at colours arounf Field Blue, French Mirage Blue & Intermediate Blue. Possibly Pale blue as a mixin for highlighting.
Greens; Medium Olive, Olive Green as two main colours then Yellow Green as Highlighting colour or Midstone.

As for NMM colours well the best thing I can do is recommend you to go HERE. These are the colours used by Theirry Husser one of the best proponents of NMM painting in miniatures.

 

[Kokaka]

Originally posted by Dragonsreach

Originally posted by Kokaka
I don\'t know any Vallejo colours so if I could get some tips on some good Blues, Grays, Greens (?), Flesh and Scarlet and NMM colours I would appreciate it very much.

OK not an easy question as Vallejo Model Colours aren\'t based around the Shadow, Midtone, Highlight proximity that GW, Reaper & Foundry paints utilise.
I can give you some colours that you can use as a basis but a lot of it is down to trial and error (and personal taste).
Reds; try VMC Flat Red base colour, Cadmium Umber Red as a darkener and either Carmine or Scarlet as lighteners.
GREY BLUE You are looking at colours arounf Field Blue, French Mirage Blue & Intermediate Blue. Possibly Pale blue as a mixin for highlighting.
Greens; Medium Olive, Olive Green as two main colours then Yellow Green as Highlighting colour or Midstone.

As for NMM colours well the best thing I can do is recommend you to go HERE. These are the colours used by Theirry Husser one of the best proponents of NMM painting in miniatures.

Thanks for the tips. VERY helpfull and I\'m going to order all those colours, and some space marines.
Anyway I still got som questions.
Does anyone have some tips on what colours to use to get a great white effect? I don\'t want the white to be \"too white\" but still enough white to give a great contrast on the model.
And also, the most important thing.
You said that it differs from painting with Vallejo since you use darkener and lightener. Whats that? I thought the main different thing between GW paints and Vallejo is the pot design and that its finer particles in the Vallejo. Any info on this would be great since I really want to take my painting to the next level.

 

[In Chigh P.I.]

regarding your \'dark grey/blue with maybe a tint of green in it for the armour\' i immediately thought of VMC 920 \'Uniforme Aleman\' (German Uniform)

Its a lovely colour, its grey/green with the slightest hint of blue in there (unless my eyes are decieving me)

Give that a try as your mid colour, if it dosent suit your needs for this project you will find a use for it elsewhere

oh, and the main different thing between GW paints and Vallejo (VMC) is the concentrated pigmentation in VMC. In my experience you can cut VMC 1:4 with water & it will still (in most cases) cover really well regardless of your primer.

Try cutting GW paints 1:4 & i bet you need another 2 or 3 coats compared with VMC

oh yea, and you get a dropper bottle with V

oh, and they they are 17ml compared with GW\'s 12ml....


and they are cheaper too


Dont know much about the whites tho, i use oil based white most of the time (i find that to be more opaque than any acrylic)

dont take my word for all this though, im not actually a mini painter lol im sure the wiser members of the community will soon be here to give you answers more suitable to your needs

Good luck with whatever you decide to use

 

[Dragonsreach]

Originally posted by Kokaka
Does anyone have some tips on what colours to use to get a great white effect? I don\'t want the white to be \"too white\" but still enough white to give a great contrast on the model.
.

GW foundation Dehneb Stone, Vallejo Flat Aluminium, Vallejo Off White, Vallejo Air Colour White.
Either inbetween the first two colours you can tweak the warm cool ratio by adding washes of either Sepia or Space Wolves grey.