Welcome back to the Colour of the Month, an article where we take a look at not a particular paint, but rather an entire colour family. This month we explore the most luxurious of all colours, purple. Perfect for royal robes, alien skin, or whatever your imagination can conjure.
This simple idea of a colour actually branches out into many of our paint ranges, providing you with plenty of opportunities and options to choose from when it comes to painting your minis.
Colour Primer
When it comes to our Colour Primer range, Alien Purple is the king of the hill, or brood nest if you like. This wonderful colour sits comfortably in the middle of the purple shades, acting as a great basecoat for lighter colours, or a perfect mid-tone with a bit of shading thrown into the mix. Give this rattle-can a shake and basecoat your alien horde in no time flat. It’s even colour matched to paints within our Warpaints Air and Warpaints Fanatic ranges, meaning you’ll have close matches once you go in with a brush to touch up any mistakes.
Warpaints Fanatic
With 216 colours to pick from, it’s no surprise that we have a good selection of purples to peruse. Of course, there’s the traditional and aptly named, Purples Flexible Triad, containing our six purpliest purples—including the previously mentioned Alien Purple. When you think purple, these are it. The Flexible Triad gives you a natural progression to paint from, starting with Terrestrial Titan at the darkest end, and working its way up to Kraken Lavender on the light side. If you want a bit more flamboyance in your purples, we also have the Magentas Flexible Triad. That’s right, six more purple, or near purple colours to pick from! The Magentas straddle the line between purple and pink, with the bottom three sitting comfortably in the purple ranges, and the lighter three leaning a bit pinker. We would be remiss if we forgot to mention the Purple Tone and Magenta Tone washes, perfect for adding a bit of depth to your paint schemes. You can read how Thomas used several of these colours to paint up a Tyranid Screamer-Killer to fantastic results.
Warpaints Air
Looking to flex your airbrush skills? We have you covered with a healthy number of purple Warpaints Air to pick from. The triad of Broodmother Purple, Alien Purple, and Coven Purple fall in line with the traditional purple tones, while the three magentas, Witchbane Plum, Warlock Purple, and Talisman Purple add a bit of pinkish variety into your palette. On the more unique side of things, Royal Purple is a wonderfully reflective purple metallic colour, perfect for enchanted armour or lustrous gemstones. You can even use a bit of Violet Volt from the selection of fluorescent colours to add a bit of the ol’ eye-searing razzle dazzle to your colour scheme!
Speedpaint
Not to be outdone by its more opaque cousins, Speedpaint dives headfirst into the sea of purple with several choices. Purple Swarm, Hive Dweller Purple, Purple Alchemy, and Periwinkle Purple once again hit the classics. You want purple, these are it! From a deep and dark colour perfect for alien chitin, to a more middle of the road, yet still decadent purple. On the more magenta side you can grab Moody Mauve, Moonlake Coral, and even Murder Scene, if you want to go really dark. There’s even a slightly opaque pastel colour, appropriately named Pastel Lavender. Speed is not just part of the name; these paints really live up to it. Don’t believe us, check out the video of Bo and Thomas painting an entire Warhammer 40,000 army in 5 hours, starring Purple Alchemy!
Warpaints Historical
A purple paint? In a WWII themed historical range? Moving on.
John Blanche Masterclass
While the Masterclass range may not have any tried-and-true purples in its ranks, it does feature one of our fan-favourites, Blanched Berry. This paint is part of the Desaturated Violets Flexible Triad Plus, slotting in at the darkest end of those six, now seven, colours. This colour forms the basis of our John Blanche Masterclass Space Marine tutorial, even if it does end up decidedly a bit more red in the end. A more recent addition to this range is the new Nightroot Shade Wash from the Volume 3 set, adding yet another purple wash to your arsenal.
Combat Se7ens: Purple Xenos Flesh
The latest entry in our purple saga here at The Army Painter is the brand-new Combat Se7ens: Purple Xenos Flesh paint set. I mean, it’s right there in the name. Designed with the intention of being able to paint an entire army’s colour scheme in one box with the simple addition of Matt White and Matt Black, this set is the perfect jumping-off point for any amethyst army. Including Terrestrial Titan, Cultist Purple, Purple Tone Wash, and Magenta Tone Wash, it already ticks off four of our purple boxes and is the perfect set for painting up a swarm of alien gribblies, such as the Tyranids of Hive Fleet Leviathan.
Like a purple ork, we’ve snuck our way through our entire catalog of paints to ferret out every purple. Which one is your favourite? Check back in next month as we get gilded with glorious gold!
