Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I've recently been working on my Ultramarines and I use Mordian Blue as my base with Ultramarine Blue as my highlights. Now my marines are a little darker than traditional ones but I was wondering if there was any comparable spray color that Army Painter (or someone else) might provide that would match closely with the Mordian Blue color so that I could simply spray a mass group of tacticals and get right to work on highlighting. If the colors do not match however then I'll have to do things the old fashioned way, slow.

Also, I use Catachan Green as the base for my IG vehicles, Camo Green for highlights, and suggestion on a spray can color to mirror the Catachan Green?

I've tried using an air brush with various mixtures of Citadel paint as well, my last attempt seemed to be satisfactory until I sat my tanks down next to a hand based one, the air brushed ones looked like a different color blue (although Mordian was used on both) the hand painted one looked 1000000x better color wise.

The army painter stuff is generally "close" to a GW paint, but often to super iconic ones, such as Ultramarines Blue or Blood Red. I doubt any of their sprays would match foundation paints exactly.

As a very general rule, their stuff is best used from the ground up, not half way into an army.

As a heads up, they are released acrylics that will match the sprays exactly.

So looking like I am going to be hand painting at this point, super.

Any suggestions for Air Brush paints that can mirror the above?

If your airbrushed coat looks too light, it's probably just because it's very matt; try brushing a little water over it once it's dry - this will show you the colour it'll be when varnished. Satin or gloss varnishes will make the colour look a little darker, matt coats will naturally look lighter.

Airbrushed coats will often look lighter because they are very thin layers.
Spraying more layers have helped me with that very problem.

Jstncloud wrote:Any suggestions for Air Brush paints that can mirror the above?

You don't need special paints to match your mordian blue. You just thin your mordian blue with some airbrush medium/thinner (from golden, liquitex or vallejo) and off you go. No worries about matching as you continue to prime the same way and don't overdo it on the spraying.

Arschbombe wrote:

Jstncloud wrote:Any suggestions for Air Brush paints that can mirror the above?

You don't need special paints to match your mordian blue. You just thin your mordian blue with some airbrush medium/thinner (from golden, liquitex or vallejo) and off you go. No worries about matching as you continue to prime the same way and don't overdo it on the spraying.

Could you drop me a link for that product? Any any suggestion on the Catachan Green? I only have 3 of my 16 or so IG Vehicles painted and I am looking to find a comparable Air Brush/Primer to use so that I do not have to resort to hand painting.

If you are confident that the thinner might work with it then I might try that as well, though having some comparable 'air brush' paints might now be a bad idea anyways (I imagine the green is not too terribly hard to find a parallel color for).

winterdyne wrote:If your airbrushed coat looks too light, it's probably just because it's very matt; try brushing a little water over it once it's dry - this will show you the colour it'll be when varnished. Satin or gloss varnishes will make the colour look a little darker, matt coats will naturally look lighter.

I tried taking a test piece from the tanks (the top hatch of the Rhino actually) and went ahead and varnished it, I then compared it to the original tank and it still looked very different, matter of fact, you could literally tell a shade difference from a distance just looking at the 3 air brushed ones sitting next to the hand brushed one.

I don't know how you are getting different shades between hand and air brushing. For space marines I airbrush as much as possible.

The Foundation paints, I've noticed, tend to be very inconsistent when you alter them with things like thinner for airbrushing, etc.

I had two different shades crop up from the same paint pot(Charadon Granite) when I used it for airbrushing.

I have also found that applying foundations is not the easiest thing to do with an airbrush.
How ever it is possible to do and make it look good it just takes some time to experiment with the mixture ratios and such.

As said army painter is better used from the ground up.

Also I didnt know they were making the color primers into paints that would be most excellent.

Ah, I just haven't noticed as I thin my foundations as soon as I get them to airbrush consistency anyway, same for all my paints.

Kanluwen wrote:The Foundation paints, I've noticed, tend to be very inconsistent when you alter them with things like thinner for airbrushing, etc.

I had two different shades crop up from the same paint pot(Charadon Granite) when I used it for airbrushing.

Exactly what has been happening to me.

Aerethan wrote:Ah, I just haven't noticed as I thin my foundations as soon as I get them to airbrush consistency anyway, same for all my paints.

Likely a key difference, still looking for alternatives though. If I have to base by hand for my SM, ok, for my IG though, I'd like suggestions for primer and/or air brush colors that mirror Catachan Green without me having to thin the gw stuff myself.

Jstncloud wrote:
Could you drop me a link for that product? Any any suggestion on the Catachan Green? I only have 3 of my 16 or so IG Vehicles painted and I am looking to find a comparable Air Brush/Primer to use so that I do not have to resort to hand painting.

If you are confident that the thinner might work with it then I might try that as well, though having some comparable 'air brush' paints might now be a bad idea anyways (I imagine the green is not too terribly hard to find a parallel color for).

The one I use is Liquitex. You can get it at most art/craft stores. It's an acrylic thinner with a drying retarder to help prevent tip dry, a malady common in airbrushing with fast-drying acrylic paints. Don't be put off by the milky appearance. It doesn't affect the color. Clear varnishes have the same milky look before they dry too.

I haven't encountered a problem with the colors not matching as you describe. I don't think the thinners are changing the colors. I suspect what is happening is that you can get even, complete coverage with an airbrush much easier than with hand brushing and this can lead to the airbrush spray appearing lighter because it's a less dense coat.

What I have experienced is getting a different tone of red because of using subtly different shades of gray primer (testors vs tamiya) beneath the red.