Choosing Your Paint Scheme

[Hero of Man]

How do you do it? Do you just go with the studio colors, try and emulate something, or just pick some colors you like? Or something else?

I myself need inspiration to want to paint models, which is why my QK are currently on indefinite standby and my Corregidor is almost entirely painted.

With Corregidor I was originally going to go with inspiration from Desperado Enforcement LLC(From Metal Gear Rising), but ended up watching way too much Tron: Uprising in the meantime, and looking at the models I thought the look could transfer. That and because I've learned to hate working with red as a color, as I can't seem to get it to shade or brighten for the life of me.

With my slowly growing JSA forces I found inspiration from the Shinsengumi, especially their portrayal in the Rurouni Kenshin OVAs; years before I ever actually saw the show. Something about being basically a Feudal SWAT team with the coolest coats in the land has always resonated well with me.

Anyhow, that's my current inspirations/paint scheme reasons. May end up making my QK into Desperado Enforcement at this rate, who knows.

[kidterminal]

I'd love to see that color scheme on JSA.

[Hero of Man]

I'm having issues with getting the white triangles to look like I like, and I added some orange for contrast. I also tried to do the Kanji for Makoto and gave up, because I can't emulate it at that scale. So far the only people to get the treatment are the O-Yoroi and Domaru I got in a trade. Again, when I get a camera that works, you might see my attempt.

[Morze]

I often copy the offical paint schemes, at least to some degree. Sometimes I do my best to "copy" Angels painting, hoping it would improve mine in the process. Some other forces, like Tohaa, are painted with my own colour schemes and in the case of Nomads I decided to use Corregidorish theme one the whole range to have more unified look.

[Arachas]

I usually look around in alternative sources to get some inspiration. My Nomads are golden yellow with grey: somewhat inspired by the Deus Ex Human Revolution game. If I ever get into Yu-Jing I'd paint them yellow/green, following the Liao Chinese theme from BattleTech.

I'm also painting my friend's JSA, where I simply went with something that I though looked cool: I picked a red base and with grey accents. I wasn't inspired for this one, I just though it'd look cool.

I tend to avoid the studio themes, though. You try to copy that kind of a paint job, you're bound to be disappointed by your own work.

[samurai]

I am also trying to avoid studio scheme as much as I can. I usually have an initial idea when I look at the mini, after that it is just playing with a color wheel, such as one here: http://colorschemedesigner.com/

[Section9]

My JSA are in several different color schemes. The Keisotsu and Kempeitai have Green Ochre armor, khaki pants that you can see in the gaps of the hakama, and WW2 Japanese Uniform hakama and upper body cloth (it's pretty much the WW2 Imperial Japanese Army colors). The Kempeitai then have a Shinsengumi coat over that. I went with a dark gray, almost black for the armor of the Domaru, though I've stripped them to try it again. Oyama is getting painted like a Domaru, but his coat is going to be a Shinsengumi 'squad leader' coat (offwhite with blue triangles). Aragotos are mostly in studio colors, with my first biker chick in a yellow riding suit with black stripes down the sides. Haramaki are also in studio colors, with black hakama. My two O-Yoroi are red and white, though the color schemes are reversed. One is mostly white with 3 red panels, while the other is mostly red with 3 white panels.

I also used WW2 IJA color schemes for the Chinese troops, but a more brown uniform color with brown violet (aka US armor olive drab) armor plates. The Zanshi, Shaolin, and Tigers are all painted that way. My two Guilang have snow camo coats with the inside of the coat painted in WW2 German Ambush. Their boots and trousers are painted the same as Zanshi. I haven't figured out what I want to do with the heavy infantry yet.

The Imperial Service is a place where I haven't figured it out yet. They're painted with a more yellow cloth and the same olive drab armor as the Zanshi, but it's very hard to tell the two apart on the table. I might go for a more green uniform, but I will need to play around with that.

I used the tritone gray assault suits for my 'Public Security Section 9' minis. It's amazing how painting the same uniform and weapon colors across multiple different lines of models ties everything together.

I haven't decided on the Ariadna, Hassassin, or Nomad color schemes yet. I was thinking about using WW2 army uniform colors for all the Ariadnans and paint camo only on models that have the CH:Camo special rule. I bought the Hassassin because I wanted to have a near-future military force, so they might get exotic camo. My Nomad forces are all zero-gee capable troops and mostly from Corregidor, so I'm not sure what would make a good uniform for them.

[TallonHunteR]

for me its whatever works. so my nomads are blue/grey/black (green/grey/black for corri) with yellow glows
my YJ are pretty much studio colours, with some variations

[VisOne]

I'm not a fan of what I call paint by numbers colour schemes. For example looking at the studio/Angel paint scheme on one model and then just recreating that to the best of your abilities.

Note: This is not intended as to sound disrespectful to people who enjoy this. Its just not my cup of tea.

Instead I look at what the studio/Angel (or anyone elses work for that matter) paint scheme is decide what it is I clearly like about it colour/method/concept and then draw only on those aspects so as to create something more original and therefore meaningful to me.

A great example of this is my Haqqislam I took one look at the studio's tans and and greens plus Haqqislams whole middle eastern warrior poets thing they have going on and went yes I love that. But when I went to start painting I realised 1 didn't have allot of greens and certainly no earth based greens but I did have allot of shades of grey at hand and I thought to myself well no one in my Meta plays on earthen tan or green boards its all industrial or clean city terrain I want my middle eastern warrior poets to look like soldiers and to retain the feel that studio has set but still have a narrative component that makes them mine.

So thats where I got my grey uniforms/fatigues from and my tan/green armours. I wanted my force to feel like their being shipped from their normal posting (New Bourak or somewhere similar) off to a new posting and their equipment has not being changed to match the new environment but their uniforms/fatigues have.

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My Nomads on the other hand are clearly and unreservedly directly influenced by Scarecrows work who was in turn influenced by another Infinity player elsewhere. Even then I only took a small component of his idea and changed the colours used and did none of the zenthial highlighting he has because they are purely speed painting project.

[Oreet]

I generally let the studio scheme inspire my color choices, but not dictate them.

So the majority of my Nomads have reds and oranges, but I'm using my own ideas on what should be what color. I also try to get into the head of the faction. I see Nomads as being more independent/less disciplined, so each type of unit has their own color scheme. So Alguaciles will have a certain color palette, and Intruders will have a different one.

[Scorch]

I follow the studio scheme most of the time. I think they are wel thought through, and really give the different sectorials/factions their own flavor. I'm mostly disappointed in my own schemes most of the time because they always end up different and flatter than I hoped they would be.

If I have a better idea though, that differs or deviates from the studio-scheme I'd definitely try it out. I played a little bit with my ALEPH's Asura's hair, for example. Not that rebellious, I know, but it gave a nice touch.
Also, I always try to paint a unit according to the sectorial they are part of. All my Akalis Commandos are painted in the greens of Acontecimento, and not the greys of the studio-scheme. Same goes for my Domaru, who stands out all white next to the orange of the other Yu Jing models (starter pack), and my Zero hacker, who follows the white-orange Bakunin instead of the red,black, brown of Corregidor's units.

[jmeis982]

I generally use the studio paint schemes as loose guidebook. Angel does an amazing job of differentiating different components and pieces of kit on that models that I don't always see until it's too late.

[Kitsune]

I have a look around at various studio and other players schemes, then think about what I fancy for my own force and decide from there. It normally takes me forever to finally decide on which scheme to go for!

[sonicReducer]

I'm about to start a QK collection. As much as I like the studio Haqqislam scheme I'd like to try to keep away from it. I also have some great P3 blue shades I haven't used for a while, so I'll be theming my QK around the navy, i.e. ship flooring for bases, blue / black / brown paint scheme. Hope it works!

[Arachas]

I'm about to start a QK collection. As much as I like the studio Haqqislam scheme I'd like to try to keep away from it. I also have some great P3 blue shades I haven't used for a while, so I'll be theming my QK around the navy, i.e. ship flooring for bases, blue / black / brown paint scheme. Hope it works!

That actually sounds pretty neat. Especially for a merc force. My advise would be to keep the colours light. If you go with dark blue, black and dark brown, you'll end up with pretty drab minis. Instead, layer up the blue and brown to a lighter variant and subtle highlight your blacks. It'll make them pop!

[sonicReducer]

That actually sounds pretty neat. Especially for a merc force. My advise would be to keep the colours light. If you go with dark blue, black and dark brown, you'll end up with pretty drab minis. Instead, layer up the blue and brown to a lighter variant and subtle highlight your blacks. It'll make them pop!

Yup, you described it better than I did! I think the armour will be blue with some nice sharp highlights and some attempts at blending, the fatigues I will probably try to do an urban camo look.