Necromunda is the cheapest painting project in the Warhammer catalogue and one of the most forgiving. A gang is around ten fighters. You will never batch-paint thirty identical torsos, and every model is allowed - encouraged, really - to look slightly different from the one beside it.
That changes the shopping list. You are not buying an army's worth of one armour colour. You are buying a shared underhive palette that every gang in the game uses, plus one signature colour that makes yours a House.
The underhive core: twelve pots
These do the plascrete, the pipework, the guns, the leather, the canvas and the grime. They are the same on an Escher ganger as on an Enforcer, and they are the reason a Necromunda gang looks like it lives somewhere.
Metal and guns
- Leadbelcher - every barrel, blade, chain and plate on the model.
- Warplock Bronze - the industrial brass that runs through everything down here: fittings, valves, buckles, ammo.
- Ironbreaker - the edge highlight that turns a wash-darkened gun back into steel.
Shading
- Nuln Oil - over the metal, over the black, over almost anything.
- Agrax Earthshade - over leather, canvas, wood and skin.
Leather, canvas and cloth
- Rhinox Hide into Mournfang Brown - boots, straps, coats, gun slings. Half of Necromunda is leather.
- Zandri Dust into Karak Stone - canvas, sackcloth, rope, bandages, bone.
- Abaddon Black into Eshin Grey - bodygloves, fatigues, rubber, tyres.
The grime, which is the point
- Typhus Corrosion - stipple it around rivets, seams and the bottom of every plate.
- Ryza Rust - drybrushed lightly over the corrosion, then most of it scrubbed off again.
That last pair is what separates Necromunda from 40k on the same sprues. Weather from the ground up: boots and shins dirtiest, chest and head cleanest. Uniform grime everywhere reads as an accident rather than a choice.
Every one of those has a straight substitute in a bigger bottle - Army Painter Dark Tone for Nuln Oil, Strong Tone for Agrax, Gun Metal for Leadbelcher, Vallejo Beasty Brown for the leather - and the arithmetic behind that swap is in cheaper alternatives to Citadel paints.
Then one colour that is yours
Add one or two pots for your House and the gang is bought. Each of these links to our full recipe for that gang.
| Gang | The signature colour | Start with |
|---|---|---|
| House Escher | Acid-bright green over black | Caliban Green |
| House Goliath | Burnt orange leathers over pale flesh | Jokaero Orange |
| House Cawdor | Layered ochre sackcloth | Zamesi Desert |
| House Van Saar | Cyan circuitry that reads as lit | Stegadon Scale Green |
| House Orlock | Dark working red | Khorne Red |
| House Delaque | Pale grey coats, blank white eyes | Dawnstone |
| Palanite Enforcers | Sanctioned blue and hazard yellow | Kantor Blue |
| Ironhead Squat Prospectors | Hi-vis ochre over gunmetal | Averland Sunset |
| Ash Waste Nomads | Sun-bleached wraps and turquoise trinkets | Zandri Dust |
| Corpse Grinder Cults | Abattoir red and bone masks | Mephiston Red |
| Malstrain Genestealers | Purple carapace, century-old filth | Naggaroth Night |
| Noble Houses | Imperial purple and cloth of gold | Retributor Armour |
| Spyre Hunters | Clean pearlescent hunting rigs | Grey Seer |
Those are our editorial picks for a starting basecoat, not official schemes - each guide gives the full ladder, the contrast shortcut and the substitutes in other brands. You can also load any of them into the scheme generator or browse the Necromunda scheme presets to push a House palette somewhere of your own.
Skin, which you will paint more of here than anywhere
Necromunda models have faces. Two flesh routes cover almost every fighter in the game:
- Living - a dark red-brown base such as Doombull Brown, then Cadian Fleshtone, shade with Reikland Fleshshade, highlight Kislev Flesh.
- Underhive pale - Rakarth Flesh, shaded with Agrax Earthshade for grime or Druchii Violet for bloodless, then Pallid Wych Flesh and a touch of Screaming Skull.
Nobody in the underhive has a tan. Keep both routes cold and keep the highlights small.
Should you buy a set?
For a gang, singles usually win. Twelve pots is a small shopping list, and no set on the market is built around this palette - the browns, greys and metals you need are spread across several. If you are starting from nothing rather than topping up, a broad-spread starter set plus the two weathering pots gets you there for less: compare contents and value on the set ranking, and the Vallejo Game Color Introduction Set covers the neutrals and metals well.
Three things that make a gang look right
- Vary the gangers. Different boot colours, different trousers, one red rag. They are criminals, not a regiment. Only the House colour needs to repeat.
- Base them like a floor, not a field. Necromunda happens indoors. Grey plascrete, grit, a spill of rust - see basing miniatures.
- Ten models means you can afford care. Two evenings per fighter is not madness at this model count, and it is the fastest painting improvement you will get. The same logic drives our Kill Team paint list.
Shop underhive colours
Most of the underhive core is browns, greys and metals - a broad starter set covers it.
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