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Hi all, first question on this board. This site has quite the reputation so I figured this would be the best place to ask about color shift or chameleon paints.

I just received pledge for Deep Madness, a Chthulu inspired underwater board game with loads of creepy minis. I've got an idea to use some very dark color shift paints on some of the minis and I'm curious about what a good product would be.

I've looked at greenstuffworld's chameleon paints and I think they would be great for it, but I would be limited on colors, plus they just seem so expensive, but I've looked around at some other paints like these and they're really not that bad.

I just saw some Liquitex iridescent medium and watched a couple videos on how to use it. Has anyone used this product?

So are color shift and iridescent the same term or different effects entirely?

Does anyone have any other brands that they use? I see Folkart has a line of iridescent paints, but I've not had good results with them int he past.

I’ve used greenstuffworld’s color shift paints, and they seem to work pretty well. They’re basically iridescent paints though. You can get different effects from them based on what you use as an underlying color. They work best with gloss black of course, but you can also use metallics or dark colors to get different looking effects. The bugs on this thing I made have colorshift over floss black and silver for instance.

We have some available through our store (Link in our signature) that are much cheaper than Greenstuffs line and has a much finer grain and a thinner consistency producing a much better finish. We also have a clear one that shines red when the miniature is turned (Called White Red)



The basecoat is important with these colours and is all to do with the shade of grey, Our colours have a naming convention that goes from White to Black so the first part of the name will show the first colour in the name with the second colour being the one that reflects at a different angle and vica versa the more black you go with a neutral grey giving you a mix of the two.

We're planning to add some more next year including multi colour chameleon paints so for units like Harlequins, Eldar, Alpha Legion etc or exotic animals and insects will benefit from these.

Plus with our upcoming matte additive you can take the shine off if you wish, we're hoping that what you'll end up with through testing is a colourshifting paint rather than a metallic

Thank you for posting the tips and supplies! I will check out your store Supershandy.

Late to the party.

I just primed some extra Warlord titan panels tonight to try out some Folk Art Color Shift paint which is like $4 for 2oz at Michael’s since you’re in the US. They’re also on Amazon and I ordered a few from there before checking my local Michaels who had several of the colors. The colors are all shipping different dates so I’ll be staggering them but I’ll post the results.

I’d love to try the blue and orange shifts on Legio Astorum titans and some aqua on Alpha Legion. There other colors that might look good on Bloodbowl armor and even genestealer cultists.

I’ve always heard color shift paints work best on bigger, curved surfaces like cars so I’m interested to see how this looks.

 Fajita Fan wrote:


I’ve always heard color shift paints work best on bigger, curved surfaces like cars so I’m interested to see how this looks.

there is some truth to this.

i did some gold/red colourshift on a GW goldenboy and the effect is only there if a bright lightsource is directly on the model.
the model is simply too small to take any notice.
allso, any form of shade wash(regular or gloss) will dull down the effect ALOT, so you need to do shading the hard way.

but where colourshifts would make a notice, is on eldar. lots of curves on their tanks and "knights".


but i allso have a suspicion that the paintbrand has alot to say, this is afterall somewhat brand new grounds for minis.

 Supershandy wrote:
We have some available through our store (Link in our signature) that are much cheaper than Greenstuffs line and has a much finer grain and a thinner consistency producing a much better finish. We also have a clear one that shines red when the miniature is turned (Called White Red)



The basecoat is important with these colours and is all to do with the shade of grey, Our colours have a naming convention that goes from White to Black so the first part of the name will show the first colour in the name with the second colour being the one that reflects at a different angle and vica versa the more black you go with a neutral grey giving you a mix of the two.

We're planning to add some more next year including multi colour chameleon paints so for units like Harlequins, Eldar, Alpha Legion etc or exotic animals and insects will benefit from these.

Plus with our upcoming matte additive you can take the shine off if you wish, we're hoping that what you'll end up with through testing is a colourshifting paint rather than a metallic

I wish I knew about these when I first did my minies. Question: Does the white red work on any surface? Meaning it will look see through from one angel and red from another?

 Niiai wrote:

 Supershandy wrote:
We have some available through our store (Link in our signature) that are much cheaper than Greenstuffs line and has a much finer grain and a thinner consistency producing a much better finish. We also have a clear one that shines red when the miniature is turned (Called White Red)



The basecoat is important with these colours and is all to do with the shade of grey, Our colours have a naming convention that goes from White to Black so the first part of the name will show the first colour in the name with the second colour being the one that reflects at a different angle and vica versa the more black you go with a neutral grey giving you a mix of the two.

We're planning to add some more next year including multi colour chameleon paints so for units like Harlequins, Eldar, Alpha Legion etc or exotic animals and insects will benefit from these.

Plus with our upcoming matte additive you can take the shine off if you wish, we're hoping that what you'll end up with through testing is a colourshifting paint rather than a metallic

I wish I knew about these when I first did my minies. Question: Does the white red work on any surface? Meaning it will look see through from one angel and red from another?

Apologies, I didn't see this!

It will work on absolutely any colour or surface and will only be seen when the model is viewed from a certain angle depending on where the light source is.

It's a very dramatic effect and we're planning to add some more colours soon!

 Fajita Fan wrote:
Late to the party.

I just primed some extra Warlord titan panels tonight to try out some Folk Art Color Shift paint which is like $4 for 2oz at Michael’s since you’re in the US. They’re also on Amazon and I ordered a few from there before checking my local Michaels who had several of the colors. The colors are all shipping different dates so I’ll be staggering them but I’ll post the results.

I’d love to try the blue and orange shifts on Legio Astorum titans and some aqua on Alpha Legion. There other colors that might look good on Bloodbowl armor and even genestealer cultists.

I’ve always heard color shift paints work best on bigger, curved surfaces like cars so I’m interested to see how this looks.

Update: this Folk Art stuff might be either really old stock or junk. It had the consistency of honey and even Vallejo glaze medium isn’t working to turn it into a workable body. Water causes it to turn into slop, it’s just sliding around a primed panel and falling into recesses on test grots.

The colors look really cool when squeeze them out but the consistency might only be workable on canvas or a porous surface, this may not be workable for miniatures. I don’t know what to do with these.

Any updates on the craft paint? Multiple thin coats?

I am currently testing out some of the colors from Green Stuff world. I've found them to be extremely thin and nearly impossible to work with properly using a paint brush. They are really meant to be airbrush paints apparently. I've tried cobalt blue, celestial azure, toxic purple, martian green, burning gold, and nebula cooper so far. Basically they're so thin you need about 15 coats before the primer stops showing. However, building up so many coats creates a white haze that interferes with the color shift effect. I'm really disappointed as I wanted to do my whole army in these but now I either have to pick something else or order an airbrush. Anyone else have experience with these paints and know how to get better results with a brush?

 Rabenga wrote:
Any updates on the craft paint? Multiple thin coats?

The stuff is impossible to thin and get sticking to primer, it just doesn't look great. The black flash paint has gold flecks in it and seems okay over black primer if you're going for a kinda glittery appearance, I might try the blue or aqua over a blue or turquoise base to see if it needs a similar color underneath. Overall I'm just not impressed for miniatures.

Update:

So I was working with the aqua color last night since the whole point of this was to do Alpha Legion the way you see it on the cover of “Legion” with a purple changing to blue and green like the 1996 Mystic Cobra (google it) and again, thinning it was a mess. The green sank to the recesses and the blue sat on the heights, it just swirled everywhere on the test grots. I also painted some Incubi Darkness on a couple of primed AT Warlord panels and it’s a streaky mess, I can’t get the stuff to lay flat because of the way the pigments clump if you thin the body of the paint.

So I took a gamble and just smeared it straight from the bottle with a cheap flat brush, kinda like a wet dry brush. The first grot with the rifle is when I thinned it and you see it’s like a blue metallic with a green wash. The next grot with the pistol is just smearing it straight on black primer, I waited a bit and put a second coat so it sorta...works? The third got with the sword had a thinned coat and then another coat straight from bottle smeared on lightly.

The fourth grot has a thinned purple coat (a mess) with the aqua smeared on like a zenthial coat aimed at the top. For Alpha Legion that I’m trying to make look like their armor has a color shift to it I sorta ended up with more like the candy over metallic look that FW did for their AL. I need to test this on some push fit marines but this might actually work for what I had originally planned. It’s not a flat, perfect color shifting armor look but more a metallic purple/blue/green that’s meant to look it color shifts. I don’t know, I might actually be able to use this.

Now as far as flat armor goes I think this isn’t going to work so tanks will be a problem but luckily I had planned to do an all infantry AL army with a bunch of infiltrating killers rather than a true 30k ground and pound list.

/shrug

 Fajita Fan wrote:
Update:

So I was working with the aqua color last night since the whole point of this was to do Alpha Legion the way you see it on the cover of “Legion” with a purple changing to blue and green like the 1996 Mystic Cobra (google it) and again, thinning it was a mess. The green sank to the recesses and the blue sat on the heights, it just swirled everywhere on the test grots. I also painted some Incubi Darkness on a couple of primed AT Warlord panels and it’s a streaky mess, I can’t get the stuff to lay flat because of the way the pigments clump if you thin the body of the paint.

So I took a gamble and just smeared it straight from the bottle with a cheap flat brush, kinda like a wet dry brush. The first grot with the rifle is when I thinned it and you see it’s like a blue metallic with a green wash. The next grot with the pistol is just smearing it straight on black primer, I waited a bit and put a second coat so it sorta...works? The third got with the sword had a thinned coat and then another coat straight from bottle smeared on lightly.

The fourth grot has a thinned purple coat (a mess) with the aqua smeared on like a zenthial coat aimed at the top. For Alpha Legion that I’m trying to make look like their armor has a color shift to it I sorta ended up with more like the candy over metallic look that FW did for their AL. I need to test this on some push fit marines but this might actually work for what I had originally planned. It’s not a flat, perfect color shifting armor look but more a metallic purple/blue/green that’s meant to look it color shifts. I don’t know, I might actually be able to use this.

Now as far as flat armor goes I think this isn’t going to work so tanks will be a problem but luckily I had planned to do an all infantry AL army with a bunch of infiltrating killers rather than a true 30k ground and pound list.

/shrug

This is why you should buy colourshifting paints from companies like ours, we've already done the work to ensure that they work properly on miniatures.

I understand that you wanted to go down the cheaper route and while there's nothing wrong with experimenting, these were designed for something totally different.

Not flaming, just a shame that you've gone through all this to be disappointed by the results

They work with a brush and not just an airbrush?

 Fajita Fan wrote:
They work with a brush and not just an airbrush?

Our ones do

Sounds good, I’ll look.

 Toofast wrote:
I am currently testing out some of the colors from Green Stuff world. I've found them to be extremely thin and nearly impossible to work with properly using a paint brush. They are really meant to be airbrush paints apparently. I've tried cobalt blue, celestial azure, toxic purple, martian green, burning gold, and nebula cooper so far. Basically they're so thin you need about 15 coats before the primer stops showing. However, building up so many coats creates a white haze that interferes with the color shift effect. I'm really disappointed as I wanted to do my whole army in these but now I either have to pick something else or order an airbrush. Anyone else have experience with these paints and know how to get better results with a brush?

ye, unlike what they claim, this range is airbrush only.

i have to do 4 layers with AB to get a solid coat, but when it is done the colour and shift are exactly as described.
but unless it is large round shape, the effect is very hard to spot.

the range dont like GW shade washes as it dulls down the paint alot.

 FrozenDwarf wrote:

 Toofast wrote:
I am currently testing out some of the colors from Green Stuff world. I've found them to be extremely thin and nearly impossible to work with properly using a paint brush. They are really meant to be airbrush paints apparently. I've tried cobalt blue, celestial azure, toxic purple, martian green, burning gold, and nebula cooper so far. Basically they're so thin you need about 15 coats before the primer stops showing. However, building up so many coats creates a white haze that interferes with the color shift effect. I'm really disappointed as I wanted to do my whole army in these but now I either have to pick something else or order an airbrush. Anyone else have experience with these paints and know how to get better results with a brush?

ye, unlike what they claim, this range is airbrush only.

i have to do 4 layers with AB to get a solid coat, but when it is done the colour and shift are exactly as described.
but unless it is large round shape, the effect is very hard to spot.

the range dont like GW shade washes as it dulls down the paint alot.

Our's work fine even if brushed on, you'll normally see the effect after one pass with a brush, but you can also get them through an airbrush too with very little thinning (and I mean very little)...and we're also far cheaper with the same quality!

Normally you don't need to bother with washes on these, or if you are going to you're going to want to pinwash rather than coat the model as these will get rid of the effect.

We are working on getting some more colours sorted for next year including some more exotic ones

We did do a Space Marine a while ago with our Blue Purple Flip, we still need to get a good picture of it but the effect is phenomenal, depending on where you're looking at it from it will either be a very nice deep purple or a dark blue.

Definitely catches the eye!

Blue purple sounds cool, I haven't barely started my 30k Alpha Legion so I'm curious if the blue/purple would work with a green glaze on some areas unless you make a green/blue shift.

 Fajita Fan wrote:
Blue purple sounds cool, I haven't barely started my 30k Alpha Legion so I'm curious if the blue/purple would work with a green glaze on some areas unless you make a green/blue shift.

We are looking into Blue Green shifts for next year