One of the challenges of painting miniatures is going back to add to a set you’ve painted a long time ago. It can be very hard to remember which paint manufacturer, let alone which shade, was used for a given model. I’ll never be able to replicate the paint job on more models than I care to name, all because I didn’t have a system in place. When I started out I just didn’t think about the need to possibly repair or add to models later on. Once I realized I was going to be in this hobby for the long haul I decided on developing a system for recalling what paints I had used on what models. Using Index Cards came out of my earlier attempts to keep track of all my paints by creating large sheets of paint swatches. Scaling down allows me to keep a well organized library of paint sets by era, unit, anything I desire.
I’ve chosen 4×6 glossy photo paper as my “card” for it’s ability to render the paint colour accurately and without bleeding through to the back of the paper. With that you just need to note what part and what paint you’ve used. Because of the various manufacturers of paints I’ve devised a shorthand to identify them:
VJ = Vallejo Model Colour
VG = Vallejo Game Colour
P3 = Privateer Press P3
RP = Reaper
CD = Citadel (The New GW Pots)
GW = Games Workshop (Older Pots)
Hope whatever system you’ve devised works as well for you.
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