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Army Painter to Warhammer Colour Paint Converter
Army Painter Warpaints were built to shadow the Games Workshop range, so converting back into Warhammer Colour names is unusually straightforward. Use it to translate a Warpaints collection into the pots a Games Workshop-format recipe actually calls for.
Our Army Painter to Warhammer Colour converter maps every Army Painter paint to its closest Warhammer Colour equivalent. The Warhammer Colour side covers the Base and Layer ranges under Games Workshop's current naming. Both Warpaints and the newer Fanatic reformulation are included, covering the hobby staples in dropper bottles. Matches are ranked by measured colour distance with the score shown on each row — a low number means a near drop-in substitute, a high one means a deliberate compromise.
The comparison runs 389 Army Painter paints against 128 Warhammer Colour colours. 69 come back as very close matches at a distance of 12 or under, while 29 exceed 40 and should be treated as approximations. Median distance across the whole range is 21.9.
Example Army Painter to Warhammer Colour Conversions
| Army Painter Paint | Warhammer Colour Equivalent |
|---|---|
Dead Black | Abaddon Black |
Owlbear Brown | Steel Legion Drab |
Invader Shader | Corvus Black |
Mouldy Wash | Loren Forest |
Wasted Jeans | Calgar Blue |
The full comparison chart lets you filter by paint name, browse all Army Painter paints, and see the four closest Warhammer Colour matches for each — sorted by colour accuracy. Colour distance is calculated using RGB Euclidean distance across our database of a hoard paints from many brands.
Frequently asked questions
What is the closest Warhammer Colour equivalent to a Army Painter paint?
Our converter measures the hex value of every Army Painter paint against the full Warhammer Colour range and returns the four nearest options, ranked by colour distance. Of the 389 Army Painter paints in our database, 69 have a Warhammer Colour match within a colour distance of 12.
Are Army Painter and Warhammer Colour paints compatible on the same miniature?
Yes. Both are water-based acrylics and can be layered over one another without any special preparation. Mixing brands on a single model is common practice; the main thing to watch is finish, since ranges vary in how matt they dry.
Why doesn’t every Army Painter paint have an exact Warhammer Colour match?
The two ranges were developed independently, so exact matches are the exception rather than the rule. 29 of the 389 Army Painter paints here sit more than 40 colour-distance units from their nearest Warhammer Colour option, which is why every result shows its score and hex swatch so you can judge the compromise yourself.
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