Using the Deck of Many Colors: Your Shortcut to Pro Color Schemes

Hey again, friends. I want to talk about a problem I've had for as long as I've been painting miniatures. I sit down with a freshly primed model, I'm excited to paint, and then I stare at my wall of 400+ paints and go: "So what colors am I using?"

And that question paralyzes me. Not because I don't know anything about color. But because there are so many options that choosing feels risky. What if I pick colors that don't work together? What if I'm halfway through and realize this blue clashes with that brown? What if I spend eight hours on a paint job and the scheme just looks... wrong?

That anxiety is exactly why I created the Deck of Many Colors. Not as a product to sell you something (though I did make it into a product, full transparency). But because I needed a tool that would take the stress out of choosing colors and replace it with something that was actually fun. Shuffle a deck. Pull a card. Paint those colors. Done.

Today I'm going to show you exactly how to use the deck. Not a sales pitch. A tutorial. Because I've seen people buy the deck, open it, look at the cards, and go "okay cool... now what?" Fair question. Let's answer it.

What's Actually in the Deck

Each deck contains 50 cards. Every card is a curated color palette of five colors that are designed to work together. Not random combinations. These are palettes that were developed in collaboration with a licensed artist, with each set of five colors tested for harmony, contrast, and visual interest.

On the front of each card, you get five color swatches arranged from darkest to lightest. It's a visual reference. You can look at the card and immediately see what the palette feels like. Dark and moody? Bright and vibrant? Earthy and warm? You know at a glance.

On the back of each card, you get the practical information. For each of the five colors, there's a hex code (the digital color code, useful if you're doing any digital work or want to color-match precisely) and paint matches across five major brands: Citadel, Vallejo, Pro Acryl, Army Painter, and Scale75. So you look at the back of the card, find the brand you own, and it tells you which specific paint to grab off your shelf.

There are two versions of the deck. The Fantasy deck leans into the kinds of palettes you'd see in classic fantasy settings. Rich jewel tones, earthy naturals, dark and brooding schemes, vibrant heroic palettes. The Sci-Fi deck skews toward schemes that feel more technological, alien, or futuristic. Neon accents, cold metallics, desaturated industrial tones, alien organics. There's overlap, of course. Plenty of Fantasy cards work for sci-fi models, and vice versa. But the general vibe of each deck is tuned to its genre.

Method 1: The Random Pull

This is the simplest and, honestly, my favorite way to use the deck. Shuffle it. Pull one card at random. Those five colors are your palette for the next model.

Why does this work? Because every card is already a harmonious palette. The hard work of "do these colors go together?" has been answered before you even look at the card. You're not making a risky creative decision. You're accepting a pre-validated one. And that removes the paralysis entirely.

The random pull also forces you out of your comfort zone. I tend to gravitate toward dark, warm browns and deep blues. Left to my own devices, every model I paint would end up in that zone. But when the card tells me to use a bright teal and a warm coral together? I'd never have chosen that combination on my own. And sometimes it turns out looking incredible, precisely because it's something I wouldn't have done otherwise.

If you pull a card and genuinely hate it, pull another one. This isn't a blood oath. But I'd encourage you to sit with the card for a minute before rejecting it. Hold it up next to the model. Imagine the dominant color on the largest surface and the accent color on the details. It might surprise you.

Method 2: Browsing for a Mood

Not everyone likes randomness. That's fair. If you know what kind of mood you want for your model but you're not sure which specific colors will get you there, fan the deck out and browse.

Looking for something dark and ominous for an undead army? Flip through until you find cards with deep, desaturated tones. Want something regal and rich for a fantasy king? Look for cards with jewel tones and warm golds. Need something grimy and industrial for a sci-fi terrain piece? Find cards with muted greens, browns, and steel grays.

Browsing the deck is kind of like browsing artwork for inspiration, except the palette has already been extracted for you. You're skipping the step where you squint at a painting and try to identify what specific shades of blue and brown the artist used. The card just tells you.

Translating Card Colors to Paint

Flip the card over. Each of the five color swatches has a matching paint name for five brands. Find your brand, grab those paints, and you're ready.

Now, here's something important. The paint matches are close approximations, not exact replicas. Every brand has slightly different formulations, and pigments behave differently between manufacturers. So the Vallejo blue on the back of the card might be a touch warmer or cooler than the Citadel blue listed for the same swatch. That's completely fine. Close is more than close enough. You're building a palette, not matching Pantone swatches for a corporate logo.

What if you don't own the exact paint listed? Look at the hex code and find the closest thing you have. Or mix it. Most of the colors on the cards can be approximated by mixing two or three paints you probably already own. The card gives you a target color. How you get there is up to you.

Method 3: Combining Cards

This is where the deck gets really interesting. Instead of using just one card, pull two. Use one as your primary palette (the main colors for your model) and the other as your accent palette (spot colors for gems, weapons, magical effects, basing, or any area where you want a visual pop).

The trick to making this work is to keep the primary card dominant. Maybe 80% of the model uses colors from card one, and 20% uses colors from card two. If you go 50/50, you'll likely end up with a model that feels like two different paint jobs stitched together. But a restrained accent from a second card can add exactly the kind of visual surprise that makes a model memorable.

I've also used this approach for armies. One card for the rank and file, a second card for the heroes and characters. Same visual family, but the leaders get that extra touch of accent color that sets them apart on the table. It keeps the army cohesive while giving the important models a bit of special treatment.

Using the Deck with Mother Color

If you've read the color theory pillar article, you know about the mother color technique. Pick one color, mix a little of it into every other paint on your model. The result is automatic harmony.

The Deck of Many Colors pairs with this beautifully. Here's how I do it. Pull a card. Look at the five colors. Pick the darkest one (or the most muted one) as your mother color. Mix a small amount of that color into all four of the remaining colors as you use them. The palette was already harmonious. Now it's harmonious AND unified by a shared tonal thread. The result is a paint job that feels incredibly cohesive, like every surface belongs on the same model in the same environment.

This is especially powerful for diorama work, where you're painting multiple elements (figures, terrain, bases, structures) and you need everything to feel like it exists in the same world. The card gives you your palette. The mother color ties it all together.

Fantasy vs Sci-Fi: When to Use Which

As I mentioned, the two decks have different vibes, but the line between them is blurry and intentionally so.

The Fantasy deck leans toward palettes you'd find in nature and classical art. Rich earth tones, deep forest greens, jewel-tone blues and purples, warm golds, weathered stone grays. If you're painting Warhammer Fantasy, Age of Sigmar, D&D models, historical miniatures, or anything set in a world with swords and castles, this is your starting point.

The Sci-Fi deck incorporates more artificial color combinations. Neon greens against dark metallics. Cyan and magenta energy effects. Cold blue-gray industrial tones. Alien skin colors that don't exist in nature. If you're painting 40K, Star Wars Legion, Infinity, or any sci-fi/cyberpunk setting, the Sci-Fi deck will speak to those aesthetics more directly.

But honestly? Pull from whichever deck inspires you. Some of my favorite fantasy paint jobs have used Sci-Fi cards because the unusual color combinations created something I'd never have arrived at on my own. And some of my best sci-fi models used earthy, natural Fantasy palettes because the grounded tones made the alien subject matter feel more real. Rules are for people who enjoy following them. I'd rather just paint what excites me.

How the Palettes Were Designed

I want to give some credit where it's due. The color palettes in the deck weren't just me sitting in a room going "yeah, these five colors look nice together." I worked with a licensed artist on every palette, and each one was tested against multiple criteria. Does the palette have enough value contrast (a range from dark to light)? Does it have temperature variety? Does it work across multiple subject types (armor, skin, cloth, terrain)? Is it distinct enough from the other cards in the deck?

The goal was to make sure that any card you pull gives you a workable, interesting palette. Not every card will be your personal taste. But every card will produce a coherent paint job if you commit to it. That was the design standard.

Getting the Most Out of the Deck

Here are a few final tips from my own experience using the deck (and yeah, I use my own product. Constantly).

Don't add extra colors. When you pull a card, try to paint the entire model with just those five colors plus black and white for shading and highlighting. The constraint is the point. Five colors forces you to reuse colors across different surfaces, which automatically creates harmony. The moment you add a sixth, seventh, eighth color, you're back to decision paralysis.

Photograph the card next to the finished model. This builds a personal reference library over time. After ten or twenty models, you'll be able to flip through your photos and see exactly which palettes work for which types of models. That information is worth more than any color theory book.

Give it to a friend. Deck-based painting challenges are genuinely fun at hobby nights. Everyone pulls a card, everyone paints the same model using their card's palette, and you compare results at the end. Some of the most creative paint jobs I've seen came out of these sessions, because the constraint forces people to think differently.

Use it for army schemes. Pull one card for your army's color scheme. Paint the entire army from that single card. Every model in the force will look like it belongs together, because the palette is inherently cohesive. Add a second card for characters and elites if you want differentiation within the army.

Now get out there and slay the gray.

Some links below are Amazon affiliate links. If you buy something through them, NINJON earns a small commission at no extra cost to you — it helps keep the tutorials free.