The Dirty Dozen - 12 Colors to rule them all

A recent tread on Spikey Bits sparked my curiosity tonight, and drove me to write an article on it.

Jay Ryan asks:

«  If you could only take 12 paint pots with you, which would they be? »

In the comments were a lot of crazy theories and complex answers ranging from "it's impossible" to "you use more than 3", but it took me exactly 5 seconds to pick 12.  That easy.

The Dirty Dozen - 12 Colors to rule them all

It did take me 5 seconds to come up with a list I liked, and since writing this post, I've only swapped one, for a different tone of the same color.

Obviously, I'd like to add a lot to my list. Everybody would.

But I'm fairly confident that those 12 colors would be the ones I'd buy if I had to make a new paint workshop. In fact, I just might. I'm up for it.

What colors you ask?

Nuln Oil

Agrax Earthshade

Black

White

Kantor Blue

Mephiston Red

Zamesi Desert

Ironbreaker thingy

Bugman's Glow

Rhinox Hide

Ushabti Bone

Catachan Green.

All day, 'er day!

Let me break it down :

I use mostly GW paints, but it's easy to find equivalents with other ranges like P3 or Army Painter.

Nuln Oil and Agrax Earthshade are the fundamentals. They're the first 2 on the list for a reason: with those 2 colors you can do pretty much anything decent. Base color, one of the 2 wash, highlight with base color again, and you get a nice result.

These washes also affect my other choices : I won't have much glowy-funky colors. At least, not using those washes.

Black and white.

Obviously, these mix into everything or almost and bring a lot of dark or light with them.

Zamesi Desert, Mephiston Red, Kantor Blue

Some base colors. I chose a dark blue because it woks well with Nuln Oil and is fine highlighted with white or beige ( later)

I also chose an off yellow instead of some random bright garbage, again because it doesn't work with Agrax Earthshade, but can make a nice bright yellow mixed with beige or white.

Leadbelcher : Cause guns and swords and all the killy stuff.

I chose to not include a gold or bronze, becasue you can get away without these colors and produce fine models.

Bugman's glow is a nice skin tone that is pretty mild. It's easy to shade with either agrax or rhinox (below) and highlight with straight white. You can also mix it with blue and red to get some nice purples and pink.

Ushabti Bone is a go to color for highlighting stuff. It works on black to highlight, on white to shade and every color except silver.

My list could be done, but hey, I have 2 colors foooo free.

Rhinox Hide : I chose this brown because it works well with nuln oil and Ushabti Bone to make the perfect 3-color brown.

Catachan green : or whatever the new name of dark forest green is. That green is dope and works with my other colors ( agrax, beige, name it )

Now arguably, you could mix blue and yellow and some beige to get a green similar, and red, blue and yellow to get some sort of brown to pick other colors, but meh, that's hard.

I could've gone the other way and picked 2 bright colors like a flashy purple and Moot Green to get some deep contrast, but then again, you don't really need these "specialty" colors that will be used sparingly.

You don't need to use every color of the rainbow to make stuff look pretty. Pick colors that work well together and stick with it.

Colors, much like buttholes, are meant to be tight.

I really think I'll do this challenge, maybe for a start collecting, and go from there.