I currently have: yellow, silver, black, dark green, darker green, orc skin green, red, dark blue, white, raw umber, and they all have flat and gloss options. They are the basic Testors set. Is this a good selection of paint for painting well?
Also, which ones should I combine for dwarf armour gold?

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By all that you hold dear on this good Earth,
I bid you stand, men of the West!

It depends on your painting technique and how many shades you use per colour. I usually use 3-5 shades per colour, so I need quite a lot (I in fact aim to get all of them). If you are only using one or two shades per colour you obviously need fewer.

How many shades per colour do you use? And how many shades per colour would you like to use?

I usually use 2, but less on warriors in mass(I paint 60 models at a time, assembly line production). Warriors of Minas Tirith used silver, blue or black tunic overlay that is dabbed to let silver show through and lighten the top, and skin colour and brown for hair, sword hilt, and shield strap.

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By all that you hold dear on this good Earth,
I bid you stand, men of the West!

The question is a bit too big or vague to answer very well i think.
It depends on:
How many models you have and what factions as you usually want different shades for each.
How much you can afford.
How good of a painter you are (at mixing and blending colours).
How much time and paint you are ok to waste in mixing and blending.

I think most people just buy the few they want when they start a new force which deals with answer 1 & 2. Of course you need to have some main colours before that - black, brown, white, silver (as these are on all models).

Most people get the few paints they want to also save on 3 & 4 as it can be hard to mix how you want it, people generally just prefer a recipe.
If you are asking these questions I'm assuming you are just a normally skilled painter so my advice would be get what you think would be an improvement.
I have about 50 paints (GW and Vallejo) and expect I will get a few more over the years, but not heaps. There are about 6 each of the skin toners, greens, browns and greys as they are the most common ones.
Add in a wash and some thinners and I expect I have what most people do, so about 50 paints. I aim for a very good quality, but am not a good painter, but I don't want the lack of paints to be a weakness.

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My trade thread
http://www.one-ring.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=25957&p=325932#p325932

I use the wargames foundry triads as my main paints and have all of those. I also have lots of GW and Vallejo. I don't like mixing colours so like to have lots of different shades.

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My Blog http://quendilsworld.blogspot.co.uk

So overall idea seems to be have specialized paints or mix paints. Would this be a correct way of thinking?

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By all that you hold dear on this good Earth,
I bid you stand, men of the West!

Having lots of different paints really helps when batch painting armies, especially in "tabletop" standards.
Also helps a lot if sth gets damaged and you have to repaint it.
Trying to figure out what kind of mix did you use 5 years ago takes either lots of time or some skill. (keeping notes can also help )
Also helps if you want to make little variations in your army, for example making some soldiers skin more tanned, or getting some of the armour to look a bit more rusty etc.

Painting single models, having less paints aint that bad, since you have to mix colours for just one model so you are doing it once.
Having a great unstanding of colour theory, you can get any shade with just a limited amount of colours. Having not-so-great understanding like me, well the more the merrier.

If you can afford them, more paints are cool.
Is it gonna make your painting automatically better?
No it won't.
Is it gonna make your life a bit easier?
9/10 times yes.
Are you gonna use all that 12 shades of green that you impulsively bought?
Probably not, but meh maybe sometime.
Are you gonna use the 12 shades of gray you bought?
No way, but but it says London Grey, it's so.. so.. gray and has a british accent and im an impulse buyer and, and and..

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My WIP: http://www.one-ring.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=50&t=22962

Probably will use fewer colours, as I actually like each set of 24 to be different usually. Everyone gets to be different? I dunno, I just like it.

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By all that you hold dear on this good Earth,
I bid you stand, men of the West!

You can fit a little story in every painting choice..

For example it makes some sense that the armour of a veteran unit (like osgiliath vets) is more damaged/dirty than a guard at minas tirith walls..
Or maybe they got hurt and used another type of cloth below their armour etc..

Or for example haldirs elves would be pretty much identical in looks because they strive for perfection.

But it's all about personal choice, some people like a bit of variation and a more "realistic look", others like uniform armies that look more "fantasy?" and "epic". It's all good, as long as you are happy.

Personally I love variation, simply because it's got a storytelling element attached to it. But, I paint like 5 minis per year because I'm a slacker so oh well, they come out different anyway. Partly because I forgot what recipe did I use the last time and partly because I tried a new thing on them.

For variation having more colours also helps, like having 5 different greens.
Lets say G1,G2,G3,G4,G5 from darkest to lighest.
You could make soldier one have a G1-G2-G3 cloak and soldier two a G2-G3-G4 and a third G3-G4-G5.. voila you got 3 different paint schemes. (an oversimplication really, but just to get the point).

Pigments can also help with the weathering and variation of a figure. They are mostly used in tanks/vehicles in military models, but give a nice effect for dusted cloaks/boots etc.

something like that [youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULG3bhT_atg[/youtube]

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My WIP: http://www.one-ring.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=50&t=22962

I find that different colour schemes for different regiments goes nicely. I have WoMT with black, blue, and white garments. It really makes it look like evryone is mildly special.

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By all that you hold dear on this good Earth,
I bid you stand, men of the West!

I would agree with everything posted above. I had to laugh at Whatevier's London Grey comment. My bathroom and laundry room are London Fog. It really is such a beautiful grey, it changes hues throughout the day.

I would say that it is essential to have a good primer, because if you don't, you will put on too many layers that obscure the detail in our small minis. I would also say not to buy the GW base paints unless you are feeling plush. Just get some sand from the beach and glue that on there. Much cheaper.

I do blend paints a lot these days, however, I tend to do this either in batches or on organic models. A horse won't be the identical same colour as all the other horses in my regiment, and I think he looks better for it. I mixed up a batch of wash last night and did enough to do all the zombies at once so they would look more united.

Play with your paints a little bit. Heavens knows most of my GW pots dry out before I get to use all the paint inside anyway...

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"Diplomacy is the art of saying 'nice doggie' until you can find a rock." -Will Rogers

It's actually funny... I don't know what Testors does, but it seems however they do there paints makes them not need primer. I never understood it, but all the solid colours work well. I basically prime them with whatever colour I will need the most. Except yellow. Don't try that one, ever. It does not prime a model well.

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By all that you hold dear on this good Earth,
I bid you stand, men of the West!

Yellow for some reason is a notoriously difficult colour to paint. I've been using GW's yellow range and I seem to be getting good results with it. Yellow also really needs a white primer undercoat. I think part of the reason that it's such a challenge to paint is that our layer paints are by their nature, designed to be semi-transparent.

So remember: For a better balrog, always prime in white!

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"Diplomacy is the art of saying 'nice doggie' until you can find a rock." -Will Rogers

Ah yes, I remember seeing that in the Two Towers book.

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By all that you hold dear on this good Earth,
I bid you stand, men of the West!