Hey all, If you want a way to visually find similar colors no matter what
brand, finish, thinner, (etc), check out my website at www.paintmatcher.com. The previous version of the site died about 2 yrs ago. This is a much improved site with better filtering of data. Please, check it out and let me know what you think.

TF

That's really very impressive. It took me a while to navigate around the site, without reading the instructions of course, but once I did I found it pretty useful. For example I looked up Model Master colors, chose one, Military Brown, then hit the "details" and "sim acrylic" which then gave me about 30 other paints that were similar. What is very interesting is the fact you included Delta, the inexpensive acrylics paints available at places like Wal-Mart and Hobby Lobby. That makes it a bit easier to find cheap paint that comes close to the more expensive "model" paints.

One comment, and this certainly isn't a criticism. One drawback with the Internet, and computers in general, is the limitation of how the colors appear. Unless the computer and monitor are exactly calibrated the colors aren't always going to appear the same. For example while Tamiya Dark Yellow looks pretty close on the screen to what I see on my model when I use it, it's not exactly the same. Still unless you're an absolute fanatic it seems to me it's close enough.

Your page is going right to my favorites.

Thanks for great feedback. So you know, to get the color values, I download the catalogs (also available on the site). I set my screen to 16 million colors (or higher if possible), open the catalog, do a screen capture and then paste that capture into a new image in Paint Shop Pro (any decent paint program will work). I float the mouse over each swatch and enter the color value into the database. What comes up on the web page should be identical to what's in the catalog, barring my fat fingers. Of course there are always variations between what's on the catalog and what's actually in a bottle of paint. FYI, I'll be adding additional color catalogs soon. Applebarrel, more Model Master, etc. Thanks again.

Hey all,

Just a heads up. I just added Gunze Sangyo to Paint Matcher. Here's the link:

www.paintmatcher.com

Thanks for using the site!

Great website. Best paint cross reference I've seen. Keep up the great work.

Mike

Working Link!l

Oh, u da man,tforward!Even if swatches are not 'true'-exact,it's still a fantastic way to find equivalents of brand/type colors.
Many thanks!

That's pretty cool. You ever think of putting any Vallejos into the mix?

Thanks. I know a lot of people use Vallejo so I'd like to put Vallejo in it but I haven't found a electronic version of that paint line (not scanned because the colors will be completely different due to reflection off the original). To me, the colors from the company's color chart are it's "official" paint selection. Maybe someone here has one or knows where to get it?

great site definitely worth a save....be nice if you can get white ensign enamels for us ship kit builders. ask john Snyder if he can provide you a list . call sign is dign25 he used to mnitor this site pretty heavily..especially in the ship section.

You may want to ad the RAL classic and RAL designer standards aswell.

One problem with RAL: some colours have disappeared over time, because of environmental regulations ( Cadmium Yellow comes to mind ).

A google for RAL will give you a lot of details/ colors for the RAL classic series, but for RAL designer colours, you may have to do some more probing.

Thanks for the lead on White Ensign paints. I'll check it out.

Thanks for the RAL tip. Is RAL a standards-based color like FS and BS?

Nice work, I've just checked a couple of colours and one of these the Gunze H423 (Dark Green RLM 83) is often matched with blacks, may be you want to check it...
Ciao
Fabio

Yes, RAL is a German standard which is used in pretty much all of Europe.

RAL website.

You can find most, but not all, of the colours online in HTML or hexadecimal format... just google

My advice: search for more than one site.. I haven't found any site that had them all yet.

Just checked it out. H423 is just like it appears in the GS color chart I used. I've never used GS; is that color really that dark? If so, then it's normal for some black colors to appear on the list too because the way the site selects all colors within a mathematical range of the one you clicked. I hope that made sense.

TF

No TF it's a bit dark but not so much to be put together with blacks. This is a real life example



Ciao
Fabio

Wow! Nice Sherman (I think). What scale is it? The color chart I used has for that color has it as very nearly black. I just looked a little deeper and found that Polly Scale's RLM83 is much closer to your Sherman on my site. So, until I can find a better chart, I have to dispatch the offending color with extreme prejudice. Thanks for the heads up.

Hey all,

I have taken the site down starting April 12 so I can address some technical and non-technical (legal) issues with the site. I hope to have these issues worked out and the site up and running again by the end of April. I will keep you posted on the Armorama, ARC, StarshipModeler and CultTVMan's forums.

This is a temporary situation and thanks again for using PaintMatcher.

All issues were resolved much quicker than expected so PaintMatcher is up and running again.