Im expanding my paint collection and im just interested to see what people think are the essential colours (for 40k) that you should have i.e. chaos black, skull white, boltgun metal etc

Hi there,

I think it depends what army you collect. e.g if your a marine player you'll need your chaper colour etc but colours i find usefull for all armies would be

Bleached bone: usefull for purity seals, scrolls, bases etc
several browns like bestial, scorched, vermin : these always come in handy for leather pouches, garments, etc
Codex grey : great for highlighting black
and finally a colour for a gun lens : there arnt many armys (except nids) that dont have some kind of lens on their guns. depends what colour you want to paint it. I use a fe shades of red.

If you post what army you collect I may be able to give you a bit more advice. Hope this helps and happy painting!

Regards, Mark

i collect chaos but i just want to get some generally useful colours

Here's a couple;


Bleached bone is most essential: Perfect for shading many colours, such as by mixing with black, as it is not as harsh as skull white.

Skull white, chaos black. These two should be obvious.

Dwarf flesh: in my mind the best flesh paint out there in the GW range, mix with a little graveyard earth for the base coat, then gradually highlight up to straight dwarf flesh. Most armies will require some kind of flesh tone painting.

Boltgun metal: You will need this. Can be highlighted with mithril silver or similar, boltgun metal provides a great base for almost all metals in the game. Well, apart from gold, brass etc... :)


Hmm, would give more, but must go paint!!!!

lol, thx mate.

A tough question alltogether!

I thought as you when I first started painting... and so I missed a chance of buying the case with the clours GW sells! I thought I will have all the colours necessary and I will be fine!

But as I have seen in the course of my painting activity that is not such a good plan! When you want to really get down to the painting business you have to have many colours for highlights, washes and all the rest of the things that will make your models at least to stand out in the crowd...

To have a fair Bleached Bone colour you will have to put as a base a Scorched Brown (for a darker look) or Vermin Brown (for lighter, cleaner one). And then you need a little of Skull White for the final highlights!

For a good Blood Red you will have to start from Scab Reb then Gore Red and then Blood Red and some Blazing Orange for the highlights.

Codex Grey as sharkimus said can be used as a highlight for black and a base to make White!

Boltgun Metal as Cadaver Junkie proposed... Dwarf Flesh but you will need as a base a Tanned Flesh or Dark Flesh and Elf Flesh as highlight...

The possibilities are endless indeed! It depends on how much money you want to spend and how good you want your models to look, and not just on the battlefield! Practice makes perfect man!