Picasso, van Gogh, Dali, Vermeer, Monet, etc., They all used one. Every artist has them. Paint Palettes have served every artist through time, and if you paint structures, vehicles, figures, backdrops or whatever is on your project list, you do too. Now you may not consider yourself an artist but believe me, you become one the moment your brush hits your subject. Sure, you may not be Da Vinci, but your work is as equally important, Right?
A paint palette is your minds color wheel. You think about what colors you will use as you work, and you put it on some form of flat surface so that you can easily access it with your brush. On it you will fill your brush with paint, mix colors and even thin them out. You might use a chunk of cardboard, a paper plate or a gold plated palette from Michelangelo himself, but bottom line is, it’s a palette. This writer has an odd obsession for them and has a collection of all sorts of various types (it is borderline certifiable).
You Deserve Better
Sure you could use the backside of a cereal box, or a plastic cool whip container lid or whatever, but there are advantages to using an actual palette from one of the box art and craft stores. Just the idea that you are using something designed for artists can give you some confidence in your working environment and put you in a frame of mind that you are in fact creating a work of art. Art is after all, in the eye of the beholder. Is that hunk of plastic going to paint your model for you? Well of course not. Will it make your work better? Perhaps not, but you might. No matter how good an artist you actually are, any one will tell you how you feel about yourself and your work is expressed in emotions. So why not have a few cheap palettes to make you feel professional, even if you may not be? Did I say cheap? Why yes I did.
As I said, you can find an array of different palettes in the box art and craft stores from small to gigantic. The styles are a great selection too. There are small stackable bowls, cups, and completely flat palettes with a large hole in them to slide your thumb or fingers in to hold while you paint. Some have divider cups or divided flat regions molded into them, and the number of cups or dividers varies from six to thirty plus! So let’s get back to cheap. You can pick these up at the stores for anywhere from .99 cents to $7 for most versions. You want more, you pay more of course, but even the ginormous ones can be had for no more than $10.
But you aren’t really going to pay that much for one are you? No silly! Of course not! You have a coupon! Yes, every single big box store has an app for your phone where you can get daily coupons that are generally forty to seventy-five percent off, and if you go to their website you can sign up for coupons delivered each day to your email. If you go to one of these stores and pay full price for anything, I will personally call you a fool for not using what is made easy for you to receive 50 percent off any one regular priced item. Sorry, but it’s true. So now take about half that price off. Try getting a pack of paper plates worth a damn at that price. Plus those plates don’t last forever. In the long and short of it, you save $.
“But Todd, I just use some chipboard cardboard.” How does that work out for you when you go to thin your paint with water or paint thinner? Big mess huh? The plastic cups are always reusable, easily cleaned, always ready, and your significant other won’t be busting your chops because the back of the Cheerios box is missing again.
Convenience is a Godsend
A few of the things we here at HO Scale Customs enjoy about a real palette is the variety and the benefits of convenience. The small cup dividers which you can see on the photos are awesome because you can put 6 to 10 or more colors into each cup and you have everything ready at the brush tip to paint multiple colors to figures, small details, etc.
Plus we derive some sort of weird pleasure out of removing the acrylic craft paints from them when they dry up. Something about picking at an edge and peeling the entire blob out is therapeutic to us and many other modelers we have spoken with. Yes, we are a strange bunch. Whatever.
They are so easy to clean and leave no residue, maybe stained a little but that too eventually comes out in a few washes. But with that medium we never really even wash them out. just a clean peel. However, yes, cleaning them in the sink is easy and pain free. Having a few of each available makes that task easier to wait until you finish for the day. Having clean ones the next day is a great feeling.
We also use the plastic cup style palettes, especially for when you have to water down your paints to make washes. These are also easy to clean, but also very stable on the workbench and take little room. Sure you can still spill them, but we can’t account for your clumsiness when we can’t explain our own.
Lastly I like the big giant flat plastic palette with the thumb hole for mixing colors and shades. It allows you to blend better when you don’t lose pigment into the cardboard board box lid or paper plate, and you will. You will get a truer color when they mix on the plastic or coated metal surface, or even glass. You don’t waste any paint from soaking into something and it will use each drop efficiently and effectively. Hey, the paint isn’t free.
When you shop for these things, remember you don’t have to have my paint palette fetish, just one or two should suffice for most modelers. You also want to always check the craft paint section of the store first for them, and then check out the fine art paint section. They are for some reason cheaper in the craft section and labeled differently in packaging. I don’t have a clue as to why, just is. I suppose they think the fine artist will spend more which is silly if you think about all the phrases through time about “starving artists”. Just be smart and shop first. I pick a new one up nearly every trip to the store. You may not want to be that guy.
I realize many modelers are on tight budgets. If not all of us. And if you don’t want to go the route of a store bought palette, do yourself a favor and use things made of washable materials. I do this as well. Plastic food containers are great for mixing paints. 
A glass top surface from an old picture frame or end table top works great if it is tempered and has smooth edges. Dig around in that crusty old box in the corner of the garage and get out that 4th set of corelleware you got as a wedding gift but didn’t use because it had pictures of pirates and circus clowns on it. The plates and bowls in those would work awesome and they too are easy to clean. As I said at the beginning, the palette is what you make of it. Just do yourself a favor and make it work for you, not something that you have to keep throwing away.
