Warhammer 40,000 · Army painters
Warhammer 40k paint scheme ideas
Studio colors or a homebrew chapter of your own — either way, the scheme has to survive being repeated across dozens of models. See it on your actual miniature before you commit a drop of paint.
No subscription. One credit renders one scheme, guide and PDF.
A Warhammer 40k paint scheme is the set of colors and markings applied consistently across every model in an army or kill team, whether that's an official studio-published chapter palette or a fully homebrew combination. Most schemes use a 2–3 color core, a metallic or trim accent, and one signature color reserved for squad or rank markings.
Official colors vs. a scheme of your own
Games Workshop publishes studio schemes for its major factions — Ultramarines in blue and gold, Blood Angels in red and gold, Necrons in metallic bronze or green with a glowing accent — and painting to those colors means every reference photo, box art and painting tutorial already matches what you're doing. That's the easy path for a first army.
A homebrew chapter or custom kill team trades that reference material for something that's actually yours. The tradeoff is real: without an official example to check against, it's harder to know whether a color combination will read well once it's repeated across ten or twenty models rather than one.
Building a scheme that survives an army, not just one model
- Pick a 2–3 color core and repeat it exactly. A scheme that changes slightly from model to model — a slightly different blue here, a slightly different gold there — reads as inconsistent on the tabletop even if each model looks fine alone.
- Reserve one color for information, not decoration. Squad markings, rank stripes, or a specific accent that tells you which unit a model belongs to at a glance.
- Decide your technique ceiling before you start the army, not on model one. A 6-color layering scheme across 20 models is a real time commitment; a Contrast-paint-based scheme (see the Citadel Contrast guide) gets a whole squad tabletop-ready far faster.
- Save the advanced techniques for the centerpiece model. Non-metallic metal and object source lighting (see the glossary) are usually reserved for a single character or squad leader, not the whole army.
What PaintMini actually does with this
Upload
Start from your own model
Photograph a primed miniature and PaintMini works from that exact sculpt, not a stand-in. Any model from your own paint library works.
Filter
Use paints you already own
Save a collection by brand — Citadel, Vallejo, Scale75 and more — and every scheme sticks to it.
Choose
Pick a technique tier
Beginner, Intermediate or Expert — from a simple wash-and-drybrush plan to full NMM and OSL.
Render
See it before you paint it
A painted preview on your actual model, so a scheme choice is a decision, not a guess. Try it in the editor.
Follow
Step-by-step guide
Each color named by product, in order, so a squad's worth of models paint the same way twice.
A PDF for the bench
The full scheme and guide, printable, so you're not checking a phone with wet fingers. New to painting? Start with the beginner's guide.
PaintMini vs. guessing from box art
| Box art / forum photos | PaintMini | |
|---|---|---|
| Rendered on | A different model, someone else's paint job | Your own uploaded miniature |
| Paint list | Whatever the studio painter used, often uncredited | Matched to paints you actually own |
| Step-by-step guide | Rarely included | Included with every render |
| Cost to try an idea | Free, but no preview | One credit — $0.60–$1.00 depending on the pack |
Prices from PaintMini's current credit packs: Starter $5/5 credits, Studio $15/20 credits, Atelier $30/50 credits.
Before you start
PaintMini generates a scheme and a guide from a photo — it doesn't paint the miniature for you, and it needs a clear photo of a primed, unpainted model to work from. If you want a fully custom freehand design painted by a human commission painter, this isn't that.
One credit covers one render — one painted plate, its guide, and a PDF. New painters get one free credit, so you can see a scheme rendered on your own model before spending anything.
How it works
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Upload a photo
A primed, unpainted miniature — the more evenly lit the photo, the cleaner the render.
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Pick your paints and tier
Filter to a saved collection of paints you own, and choose Beginner, Intermediate or Expert.
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Get the render, guide and PDF
A painted preview on your exact model, a step-by-step guide naming every color, and a printable PDF — for one credit.
Questions painters ask about 40k schemes
Do I have to use official chapter colors?
No. Official studio schemes are a reliable starting point because reference material already exists, but a homebrew chapter or custom kill team is just as valid — the only real requirement is consistency across the models you paint.
How many colors should a 40k scheme use?
Most tabletop-ready schemes use 3–6 colors: a core of 2–3 for the bulk of the model, one metallic or trim accent, and one signature color reserved for squad or rank markings. PaintMini's Beginner tier uses 3–5, Intermediate 6–9.
Should I use NMM or OSL on a whole army?
Usually not. Non-metallic metal and object source lighting are advanced, time-intensive techniques most painters reserve for a single centerpiece model or squad leader, not an entire army — see the glossary for what each term means.
Can I use Contrast paints for a whole 40k army?
Yes, and many painters do — Contrast's one-coat pooling effect is well suited to batch-painting a squad quickly. See the Citadel Contrast guide for what it's genuinely good at and where it falls short.
How accurate is a PaintMini scheme preview to the real paint?
The render is generated from your uploaded photo and the specific paints in your collection, so it reflects your actual model and your actual paint list rather than a generic mockup — but it's a preview, not a guarantee of an exact real-world match to every screen.
How much does a scheme render cost?
One credit per render, which includes the painted preview, the step-by-step guide and a printable PDF. Credit packs start at $5 for 5 credits, and new painters get one credit free.
See your scheme before you commit paint
Upload a photo of your primed miniature and get a painted preview, a step-by-step guide and a PDF — free for your first render.
No subscription. Pay per render, starting at $1.00 a credit.