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Been slowly building up my Word Bearers Army. However, the one thing that seems to elude me is finding the exact shade of red for them.
http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/The_Horus_Heresy/Legiones_Astartes/Word_Bearers/WORD_BEARERS_MK_IV_TORSO_UPGRADE.html
This is what I'm ultimately trying to emulate.


And here is an example of my work. Don't remember what the exact formula was, but something like using a layer of Red Gore (old paint), and then another layer of Mephiston Red, then stopping it all down with Badab Black. It's a nice ruby red, but it still doesn't seem dark enough, without going into blue or green enough. Any advice?

Scab Red (old color) or it's new equivalent is a bit darker than Red Gore. I would start with that as a base coat over black primer. Wash with black or Devlan Mud equivalent. Layer on 50/50 Scab Red and Red Gore. Make Red Gore your final specular highlight. I think that would get you at least closer. You could glaze with black if it needed to come down a little.

I like it the way it is, but I totally get wanting something to look a certain way.

I agree with Ultra Grey - I actually like the scheme you have going so far. All it really needs is some shading/washing/glaze to bring the red down and give it some depth. You look like you have the boots done well enough, but from the thighs up it could use some technique to create this depth. Just my opinion, but I like your colors better than the Forge World example. Theirs just seems... off to me. Try a thin wash of something like Nuln Oil with a little Earthshade added in, then cut with a little distilled water and medium. You just need to play around with the ratio. After you do that and add a few highlights, I wonder how a very thin glaze of a dark blue would look? Something really subtle.

As someone who uses Scab Red as one of the main colours on his chapter I can safely say it will be too bright, even when shaded with washes, to emulate that FW scheme.

From the looks of it the FW Word Bearers area sort of red-brown like Vallejo Model Colour Burnt Cadmium Red or Reaper Master Series Deep Red (don't know GW Equivalents).

Hey, thanks for all the replies, so far! I'll start hunting for the Burnt Cadmium Red sock mentioned, as well as start experimenting with mixing the colors I already have.

I paint my Word Bearers using The Apathetic Fish's work, you may want to take a look and see if it can help you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5Y7slYoUMQ

To get that almost purpley red, there's two things I'd try, one which I've used on WB myself and one which I haven't but works in theory.

The one I have tried is the more labour intensive one:
Prime black
Mix red with a dark blue in about a 2:1 ratio for the basecoat
Slowly mix in more red for highlights, until you get to almost neat dark red for the highlights.
Hit with a dark brown or black wash, rehighlight if needed. Looks something like this one:


The other would be simply to try hitting your scheme with a dark blue wash (Asurmen blue if that's still around?), it should take it a bit closer to the darker, warmer red.