Help with basing colours to match mat!

[Hobgoblin]

I'm getting my 28mm Alien Squad Leader project close to the painting stage, and I wanted to try to match the desert scheme of the reversible mat that we have. I thought I'd probably best consult the hive mind here to see if there are any experiences of doing the same - or opinions for those with a better eye for colour than me!

I'm thinking that the base colour should probably be either Vallejo's Amaranth Red or Orange Brown. And then maybe a drybrush of Desert Yellow and either Dark Sand or Silver Grey.

As always, any help much appreciated!

[Captain Gars]

I have no idea what any of those colors are. I would take 6 pieces of mat board that are about the size of the bases and paint three with Vallejo's Amaranth Red and three with Orange Brown. Then apply the different dry brush or washes to the base colors. Place the 6 samples on the mat and pick the one that looks best to you.

[Hobgoblin]

Many thanks - sound advice!

I should have added that I had none of the colours concerned! In the end, I took the photo of the mat to a shop and bought the paints that looked likeliest - which proved to be Amaranth Red and Dark Sand. I realised, too, that hoping to match a 2D mat with a 3D textured base was a bit of a fool's errand. In the end, the key thing was to get sufficient redness in there so that the bases look like the mat 'brought to life' (rather than blending in to it). I think I've managed that, so mission accomplished!

[Major_Gilbear]

Take the mat you have to a good DIY store, and get them to make you a few small "tester pots" to match the various colours you want off the mat. You should get something like 10x the paint volume for the usual price of model acrylics, which is handy if you want to do any terrain too.

I think you're in the UK? If so, I believe that B&Q offer such a scan-and-match service, and I think Homebase do too.

[Hobgoblin]

Thanks - that's a good tip! I've already gone with the Vallejo colours on this and have about 10 bases painted, but I'll certainly bear that in mind for projects designed to fit the other side of the mat (which is possibly more difficult to match).

[Hobgoblin]

I dropped a test element down on another of our mats today; I was quite pleased with how it looked. I've still got to finish the base (maybe another light drybrush and the rocks differentiated in some way), but I think I'm on the right lines for this. We've decided to repaint all of our sci-fi bases in this manner. The match on the big mat seems to be just as good. Hooray for Amaranth Red!

[fred]

That’s a very good match. Took me some time to spot the base

[BeneathALeadMountain]

That looks great. I’ve had a similar problem with my Cigar Box Battle Mat - Arid for my Tunisia project. I found after a lot of staring and pondering (and I think I see it in your mat - or maybe I see it everywhere now) a pale pink was the colour I was missing. I think you’ve done an excellent job matching your bases (whilst my bases look really good to the naked eye in a variety of light conditions I’ve noticed that when you take a photo they don’t look anywhere near as close a match).

BALM

[Hobgoblin]

I’ve had a similar problem with my Cigar Box Battle Mat - Arid for my Tunisia project. I found after a lot of staring and pondering (and I think I see it in your mat - or maybe I see it everywhere now) a pale pink was the colour I was missing.

I think you're right! I am pondering a final drybrush for the bases and was going to go with ivory, but I wonder if Vallejo's pale flesh (essentially a pale pink) might be the very thing. I'll tread carefully and try an individual base first!

Thanks!

[2010sunburst]

Those look great Hobgoblin.  As to the final dry brush, might be worth trying a lightened version of Old Rose.  The Pale flesh is quite translucent, so might not  make much difference?

[carlos marighela]

Quite surprised by that actually. My bottle of Amaranth Red is very orange, almost day-glo. Tried it on the woodwork of a fachwerk house and initially thought it looked the biz, so kept daubing. The cool light of day gave me second thoughts, so all of the wood work now has two coats. Anything that shows through gets passed off as red lead primer.