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Games Workshop put a brand new paint range on shelves on Saturday 24 October 2026: Warhammer Tone Pro. Instead of separate base and layer paints with different names, every colour comes in five numbered tones. This post explains how the numbers work, what the two new mediums do, and whether it is worth buying if you are just starting out.
What Is Warhammer Tone Pro?
- 150 paints: 30 colours, each in five tones.
- Pot size and price: 12ml pots with a UK RRP of £4.10 each.
- Two mediums: a Shading Medium and a Blending Medium, £4.90 each for 18ml.
- New drybrushes: four synthetic drybrushes in extra small, small, medium and large.
Tone Pro sits alongside the existing Warhammer Colour range (formerly Citadel). Games Workshop has not said the older paints are going away, so your current pots are still useful.
How the 1 to 5 System Works
Each colour has the same name with a number after it. Tone 1 is the darkest and tone 5 is the lightest, with a clear step in brightness between each one. In most colours, tone 3 is the middle.
That makes picking shadows and highlights much simpler. A classic approach looks like this:
- Base coat: tone 3
- Shadows: tone 2, or tone 1 in the deepest recesses
- Highlights: tone 4 on raised areas, then tone 5 on the sharpest edges
You don’t have to start on 3. In Games Workshop’s own example for Ultramarines, the armour is based with Ultramar Blue 2, shaded with 1 and highlighted with 3, 4 and 5. You also don’t need all five tones of every colour, and you can mix tones from different colours, for example a blue shadow under a different blue highlight.
A Simple Beginner Recipe
This is how we would suggest a new painter starts with one Tone Pro colour on a unit of troops:
- Prime the model. See our priming guide if you are not sure which colour to use.
- Base the main area with tone 3 in two thin coats.
- Mix a little Shading Medium into tone 1 and run it into the recesses.
- Layer tone 4 on the raised areas, leaving the shadow showing in the gaps.
- Pick out the very edges with tone 5. On rough textures such as fur or cloaks, drybrush 4 and then 5 instead.
What the Mediums Do
- Shading Medium: mix it into any Tone Pro paint and it flows like a shade (wash). Add more for a lighter effect, less for a stronger one. Games Workshop has not published a mixing ratio, so test on a spare model or sprue first.
- Blending Medium: slows the drying time so you have longer to blend two tones together on the model.
Games Workshop says the paints are designed for base coating, layering, stippling, blending, drybrushing and, with the Shading Medium, glazing.
Should a Beginner Buy Tone Pro?
Good points: the numbers take the guesswork out of choosing highlights and shadows, which is one of the hardest parts of learning to paint. One colour family gives you a whole recipe.
Things to weigh up: buying all five tones of one colour costs £20.50 at RRP, and a full army can need several colours. If you already own Warhammer Colour, The Army Painter or Vallejo paints, there is no need to replace them.
Our suggestion: buy the tones you need for your army’s main colour first, for example the Ultramar Blue family for Ultramarines, and fill in the rest with paints you already have. Our paint matching guide helps you find equivalents.
Where to Buy
RRP is £4.10 a pot. When we checked on 27 October 2026, Element Games listed single Tone Pro paints at £3.49, with most tones on back order for dispatch on 6 November. Prices and stock change quickly, so check before you buy.
In Warhammer stores you can try Tone Pro before buying. Stores are also running a Pick ‘n’ Mix offer on Warhammer Colour paints: choose any 10 and the most expensive is free. Games Workshop has not said whether Tone Pro counts, so ask your local store.
Keep Learning
- Choosing the Right Paint: base, layer, shade, contrast and more
- Drybrushing Miniatures: perfect for tones 4 and 5
- Start Here: painting your first miniature
Sources: Warhammer Community, The 1 to 5 system (20 October 2026) and One paint, many techniques (21 October 2026). Pickup Your Paints is an independent fan site and is not endorsed by Games Workshop.