Value of a Paint Chart

Just a quick post to talk about one of the most valuable tools I have for painting, and that’s my paint chart where I catalog the different color choices for my models.

If you’re like me, you sometimes go weeks between paint projects, and months (or more) between painting specific armies. What happens when the new Ork codex comes out and you can’t remember the colors you used when you originally painted your battlewagon five years ago? Sometimes I can’t remember colors from models I did the previous week!

To solve this issue I created a spreadsheet in Google Docs where I track my color schemes for all my armies. Here is a shot of what it looks like for my new Nighthaunt army I’ve been working on.

This basic model has evolved over time, but basically looked like this,

with the thing I’m painting on the far left column, and the steps towards painting it on the following columns. I used to simply list colors, but now I give brief instructions where I think I’ll need it.

You might notice some entries have question marks next to them. In this case it’s because this is a new army and I haven’t actually finalized the colors, but other times it’s because I forgot to catalog something, in which case I’m guessing, and the question mark helps me to remember to confirm my guess.

Completely blank columns apply to things I have not painted at all for that army, but I know I will, so I went ahead and reserved a spot.

This is a simple tool I’d recommend to any painter. Whether you use a spreadsheet like this, or a word document, or a notepad and pencil, writing down your paint combinations is a good idea.