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Well, after deciding my armies need painting and since painting is something I absolutely abhore, i've come to the conclusion that i'll take away the most painful part for me. The basecoat. I can't get an even coverage on anything but details, and I obsess about the basecoat more than anything; a single crisis battlesuit takes hours for me to basecoat, yet a matter of minutes to detail.

'Fine,' I hear you shout, 'there are plenty of colours out there, pick your army's'

I would, but (and this is a big but, and unlike Sir Mix-A-Lot, I don't like big buts) my army is an... unusual colour (well, my Tau and Lizardmen are). I've looked all over, and I cannot for the life of me find a colour that is close to GW's Hawk Turquoise and that is available in the UK. The only other option is using an airbrush, but I can't afford one (and by 'one' I mean 'a good one that will not break the first time I touch it, and is forgiving when it comes to inexperienced users').

I'm also wondering if there's a colour that matches GW's Enchanted Blue (or thereabouts)? There are the two Army Painter ones (that in their examples look completely the same) but how do they compare? Also, i've heard things from both ends of the opinion scale when it comes to Army Painter sprays, mostly 'Army Painter are the best sprays, you get a great coverage... etc. etc.' or 'Army Painter are hit-and-miss, and their sprays give a really rough texture and crap coverage... etc. etc.' and other such polar opposites.

So, two main questions:

Is there a spray close to Hawk Turquoise? If so, can I get it in the UK?
Is there a spray close to Enchanted Blue? If Army Painter, which blue, and who's experiences are more of 'the norm' for army painter sprays? If another company, can I get it in the UK?

The Army Painter Crystal Blue is almost the same colour as Enchanted Blue. It's nearly spot-on.

Awesome, thanks. Have you had much experience with it? Does it spray okay and generally evenly?

I've never used that particular colour, but from my experience with other Army Painter sprays, they are really quite good.

If you're going with Army Painter, listen to the cap of the can and shake the can for more than a minute before spraying. I felt that a minute surely was just hyperbole, and went for 40 seconds. The end result was horrible cloggage.

I always shake stuff for longer than it says anyway, i'm far too wary to stop on the time it says (just in case I counted too fast) or before it, just because I have the kind of rotten luck that'd have the can explode in my face or some other disaster happen.

With any can of spray, run a small sink of warm water, and sit it in that for a while.

If you leave it in the cellar (like i do in Manchester) the can gets pretty cold.
after warming it up, then give it a shake.

nice coverage all round

Base coating with a spray is definitely the way forward, if only they did an Iyanden Darksun equivalent my Fisty output would skyrocket.