I’ve recently taken the plunge and painted up a bunch of HBG 3D printed units to colour match the A&A and HBG plastic pieces (see ‘Base Set 2’ thread for reasons why).
I didn’t want to paint the plastic pieces I already owned to match, as I think the best finish is the naked plastic!
When I’m not playing A&A I like to nerd out in a completely different way by playing with and painting Warhammer miniatures, and over the years I have picked up almost the entire range of Games Workshop model paints, and I am a fairly experienced model painter.
Having such a large range of paints allowed me to explore for some really good colour matches to the plastic colours of the A&A pieces. I thought I’d share here in case useful for people.
Note if you want a good colour match with GW paints you’re going to be getting a brush out (with 1 exception). For a good finish I recommend two thin coats and thinning the paint slightly with water. There are loads of videos on Youtube on how to apply acrylic paint well.
I’ve also indicated the undercoat spray colour in each case, as that will affect the overall darkness/lightness tone of the finish. Its usually white.
Finally I spray finished with ‘semi-gloss’ varnish from Rustoleum, which does a fairly good job of mimicing the sheen of plastic. I think gloss is too much.
Germans, ‘black’ The Germans are your best friends when it comes to colour matching. I used Chaos Black spray by Gamesworkshop but you can get cheaper alternatives. Personally I don’t mind paying a bit extra for a high quality model paint. Then semi-gloss varnish. Dead easy. Great match for the out the box/HBG pieces.
Japanese, ‘pumpkin orange’ There is a GW paint which gives an excellent match to the OOB A&A Japanese figures - Skrag Brown over white undercoat (I used GW Corax White spray for the undercoat, you can probably use cheaper alternatives).
UK, ‘Tan’ There is a GW paint which gives an excellent match to the OOB A&A UK figures - Karak Stone over white undercoat (I used GW Corax White spray for the undercoat, you can probably use cheaper alternatives).
France, ‘Blue’ There is a GW paint which gives a good match to the OOB A&A French figures - Caledor Sky over white undercoat (I used GW Corax White spray for the undercoat, you can probably use cheaper alternatives). It is very slightly too dark so is actually a better match to the HBG French colour, which is also slightly darker than the OOB figures. You could lighten slightly with a small amount of white paint should you wish to match exactly to the OOB, but given it matches the HBG colour, I leave it as I have plenty of their sculpts as well.
ANZAC, ‘Grey Brown’ You can mix two GW paints to achieve an excellent match to the OOB A&A ANZAC figures - Dawnstone 3 parts to Baneblade Brown 1 part (easiest way to do ‘parts’ is take 3 loaded brushes of dawnstone to a pallet, wash your brush, and then 1 loaded brush of the baneblade brown, then mix thoroughly). Again this is applied over white undercoat ( used GW Corax White spray for the undercoat, you can probably use cheaper alternatives).
Italy, ‘Brown’ There is a GW paint which gives a very good match to the OOB A&A Italy figures - Mournfang Brown over white undercoat (I used GW Corax White spray for the undercoat, you can probably use cheaper alternatives). Like the French pieces this seems to match HBG Italians more than the OOB colour, but again given I have a mix of both I am happy with this.
Soviet Union, ‘Red Brown’ You can mix two GW paints to achieve an excellent match to the OOB A&A Russian figures - Doombull Brown 1 parts to Dryad Bark 2 parts. This is applied over black undercoat (I used GW Chaos Black spray for the undercoat, you can probably use cheaper alternatives).
US, ‘Olive Drab’ This one is a b*&^h. You can mix two GW paints to achieve an ok match to the OOB A&A US figures , this was the only one I wasn’t able to attain a very high quality match with but it was still pretty good - Elysian Green 3 parts to Loren Forest 1 part). Again this is applied over white undercoat ( used GW Corax White spray for the undercoat, you can probably use cheaper alternatives).
Note that often the paint colour when wet does not look the same as when dry. Varnish also darkens colours slightly in my experience.
I hope this helps people.
And if anyone else has any good quality matches please share them here!
