Paint Rage! Aaaaaaaaagh!

[Fitz]

This is something that really gets on my tits. A named colour in two paint ranges by the same manufacturer with entirely different hues.

I'd like to think that I could spray a model in VMA Middlestone, and then if need be, touch it up with VMC Middlestone, and I don't think that's too high a bar to set. This is just shoddy laziness.

[Captain Blood]

Not that unusual I’m afraid. I had a Vallejo Game Color ‘Flat Earth’, and it was a much lighter, more pastel shade than my usual Vallejo Model Color ‘Flat Earth’.
It’s a colour I use a lot, and what’s even more annoying is that the colour can actually vary quite a bit even within the VMC range. I have three different bottles of VMC Flat Earth on the go at present, and they are all slightly different hues.

They have also done something to the composition of the paint recently. I have two new bottles of Bright Orange and Dark Prussian Blue, and they have a distinctly different texture to the previous bottles I had of these colours. Very slightly granular and a bit more sticky. Not as perfectly smooth and flowing as the previous bottles.
Irritating.
The one thing I want from a paint manufacturer is consistency. But they always seem to be tinkering... 

[PhilB]

It is an unreasonable expectation to think that paint from two different manufacturers should be an identical hue just because they share the same name.

Captain Blood's experience of having paint from the *same* manufacturer be significantly different from the same paint purchased at an earlier time is more unsettling, but not entirely unprecedented.

[Fitz]

It is an unreasonable expectation to think that paint from two different manufacturers should be an identical hue just because they share the same name.

ModelAir and ModelColor are both made by the same manufacturer — Vallejo.

[Tactalvanic]

ModelAir and ModelColor are both made by the same manufacturer — Vallejo.

I was still typing that bit..

Anyway

Maybe they all need to do what they do in other industries and get some professionals in to test each batch to ensure color, texture, blend and taste consistency like they do with tea and coffee....

They are going to have weird colored tongues but hey, it might be a great career opportunity.

[Hammers]

This is something that really gets on my tits. A named colour in two paint ranges by the same manufacturer with entirely different hues.

I'd like to think that I could spray a model in VMA Middlestone, and then if need be, touch it up with VMC Middlestone, and I don't think that's too high a bar to set. This is just shoddy laziness.

Chaps, hold Fitz down while I administer the tranquilliser. His suffering is too great to bare.

[has.been]

I once painted a unit's tunics a GW green, looked among my tray of paints
for a lighter green to highlight them. Found a lovely one & was very happy
with the result. Decided (for once) to make a note of the two different colours.
You all know what I found... Same 'colour' supposedly.

[Captain Blood]

ModelAir and ModelColor are both made by the same manufacturer — Vallejo.

Indeed. Vallejo have about eight different paint ranges, presumably, supposedly all with slightly different formulations for slightly different applications. Either that or it’s just a marketing gimmick - ‘these paints are ESPECIALLY for painting tanks. Whereas these paints are ESPECIALLY for painting fantasy figures’ etc.
They use a lot of the same names across the ranges, but evidently the products are not all interchangeable, as there are clear colour variations between some of the same-name colours within the different Vallejo ranges. So maybe it’s not just a marketing gimmick 

Chaps, hold Fitz down while I administer the tranquilliser. His suffering is too great to bare.

Harsh Peder, harsh
Personally I feel Fitz’s pain. It’s not the end of the world, but it is annoying. If the paint is a different colour from a paint of the same name in one of your other ranges, wouldn’t it make more sense just to call it something different?

[Silent Invader]

Vallejo have about eight different paint ranges, presumably, supposedly all with slightly different formulations for slightly different applications.

By way of example, Vallejo Model Color Black definitely has a different formulation and finish to Vallejo Game Color Black.

IIRC Model Color is targeted at discerning model makers who will use subtle layering techniques, etc, whereas Game Color is a more robust (varnishing not required!) finish that was in direct competition with a now abandoned GW range. 

[westwaller]

Game colour is supposed to be thinner and has brighter colours than the model colour range.

I've not seen Game colour 'Flat Earth' although I have a Game colour paint 'Earth' which I believe was their equivalent of GWs 'Graveyard Earth'
Vallejo like to tinker with the names too so that can get confusing too - didn't one of the model colour US military colours change its name?

[Bloggard]

Maybe they all need to do what they do in other industries and get some professionals in to test each batch to ensure color, texture, blend and taste consistency like they do with tea and coffee....

They are going to have weird colored tongues but hey, it might be a great career opportunity.

 

[Mako]

I feel your pain, and hate that too.

There's also an issue with some paint colors not being available in the respective ranges as well, which is really frustrating too, e.g. only some in Model Color, and some in Model Air.

[Hammers]

Harsh Peder, harsh
Personally I feel Fitz’s pain. It’s not the end of the world, but it is annoying. If the paint is a different colour from a paint of the same name in one of your other ranges, wouldn’t it make more sense just to call it something different?

Oh, it is ABSOLUTELY vexing! It was just a badly phrased joke in reference to the topic title and as such not at all constructive to the topic. Sorry, did not mean to slight, Fitz.

I am myself quite dependent on consistency of paint formulas. My projects run over period generally over many years, which is why i keep a painting journal. In it I list (in my sometimes undecipherable handwriting) which paints (brand, name and code) I’ve used for more of down the road.

As I have used this method for several years now I've had a few situations where manufacturers of paints I like have changed the formula (Citadel) or even disappeared (Iron Wind). My approach to this has always been "Oh, well..." and seen it as a moment to improve the paint scheme with some other paints (which I now and then do, regardless..)

[pikeman]

This is a valid complaint. All this business about “game” color, contrast paint, etc, is nonsense. The solution is to use Pantone numbers.
It’s not very sexy though, “Ogre guts” might outsell Pantone 123. But I’m not a child, and want to know what something is actually going to look like when it’s dry.
But also don’t forget that variations are part of reality and unless you’re using numerically controlled cutting machines, things you make ought to have slight differences. At the very least, some will be dirty.

[Jagannath]

I feel your pain, and hate that too.

There's also an issue with some paint colors not being available in the respective ranges as well, which is really frustrating too, e.g. only some in Model Color, and some in Model Air.

As someone who uses almost enitrely Vallejo, airbrushes a lot but doesn't like brush painting with the 'air' paints this particularly drives me mad. Happy to own the same colour in different versions if only they'd let me!