PaintCards

Turn every paint job into a card.

Note the paints, the order and the technique while it is all still fresh, add a photograph of the finished model, and you have a recipe card the size of a trading card: one you can read at the desk, or print into a deck.

Create your first cardOpen your library

Every recipe starts private. You publish only what you want to.

Grey Stone

Difficulty
Terrain - Stone
No photograph yet
Paint recipe
  1. 1BaseCitadelMechanicus Standard GreyPure
  2. 2ShadeCitadelNuln OilPure
  3. 3LayerCitadelDawnstonePure
  4. 4HighlightCitadelAdministratum GreyPure
  5. 5EdgeCitadelPallid Wych Flesh2:1
Range: Citadel10-15 min001 / 100

Six months later you find the model on the shelf, and the only record of how you painted it is the model itself.

A model is not a recipe

You can hold it to the light and guess at the base coat. You cannot read how far you thinned the glaze, which of three greys went on the edges, or whether the wash went down before the highlight or after it.

Written down while it is fresh, that list is the difference between painting the rest of the unit and starting again from scratch.

How it works

Three passes and the card is done

  1. 01

    Note the steps

    One row per pass: undercoat, base, wash, layer, highlight, whatever you actually did. Pick the paint from the catalogue or add your own, note how far you thinned it, and save the mixes you use often so you never have to work one out twice.

  2. 02

    Add the photograph

    Drop in a photograph of the finished model and drag it into place in the card window. Nothing is cut away, so you can move it again later without going back to the original file.

  3. 03

    Keep it at the desk

    Read the card on your phone while you paint and the screen stays awake, so you never have to touch it with a loaded brush. Print it when you want it standing beside the model.

The card

Laid out like a card you already know

Title along the top, art in the middle, the recipe where the rules text goes, and a collector line at the foot. Anyone who has ever sleeved a trading card can read one of these at a glance, and every card in your deck reads the same way.

Verdigris

Difficulty
Effect - Weathering
No photograph yet
Paint recipe
  1. 1BaseCitadelMechanicus Standard GreyPure
  2. 2ShadeCitadelNuln OilPure
  3. 3LayerCitadelDawnstonePure
  4. 4HighlightCitadelAdministratum GreyPure
  5. 5EdgeCitadelPallid Wych Flesh2:1
Range: Citadel10-15 min004 / 100
  1. 1Title barThe name you gave it, and how hard it was
  2. 2Type lineYour tags, along the top
  3. 3Art windowThe finished model, framed by you
  4. 4Section barThe heading over the recipe
  5. 5Recipe rowsOne row per step, up to six
  6. 6Collector lineThe paint range, the time, and the number

Colourways

Six looks, and the choice is yours

Stone, steel, flesh, verdant, crimson, umbral. Pick the one that matches what's on the model, weathered stone for a ruin, deep crimson for a banner, and your library starts to look like one deck instead of six.

  • Grey Stone

    Difficulty
    Terrain - Stone
    No photograph yet
    Paint recipe
    1. 1BaseCitadelMechanicus Standard GreyPure
    2. 2ShadeCitadelNuln OilPure
    3. 3LayerCitadelDawnstonePure
    4. 4HighlightCitadelAdministratum GreyPure
    5. 5EdgeCitadelPallid Wych Flesh2:1
    Range: Citadel10-15 min001 / 100
    Stone

  • Burnished Steel

    Difficulty
    Armour - Metal
    No photograph yet
    Paint recipe
    1. 1BaseCitadelMechanicus Standard GreyPure
    2. 2ShadeCitadelNuln OilPure
    3. 3LayerCitadelDawnstonePure
    4. 4HighlightCitadelAdministratum GreyPure
    5. 5EdgeCitadelPallid Wych Flesh2:1
    Range: Citadel10-15 min002 / 100
    Steel

  • Northern Skin

    Difficulty
    Figure - Skin
    No photograph yet
    Paint recipe
    1. 1BaseCitadelMechanicus Standard GreyPure
    2. 2ShadeCitadelNuln OilPure
    3. 3LayerCitadelDawnstonePure
    4. 4HighlightCitadelAdministratum GreyPure
    5. 5EdgeCitadelPallid Wych Flesh2:1
    Range: Citadel10-15 min003 / 100
    Flesh

  • Verdigris

    Difficulty
    Effect - Weathering
    No photograph yet
    Paint recipe
    1. 1BaseCitadelMechanicus Standard GreyPure
    2. 2ShadeCitadelNuln OilPure
    3. 3LayerCitadelDawnstonePure
    4. 4HighlightCitadelAdministratum GreyPure
    5. 5EdgeCitadelPallid Wych Flesh2:1
    Range: Citadel10-15 min004 / 100
    Verdant

  • Faded Crimson

    Difficulty
    Cloth - Cloak
    No photograph yet
    Paint recipe
    1. 1BaseCitadelMechanicus Standard GreyPure
    2. 2ShadeCitadelNuln OilPure
    3. 3LayerCitadelDawnstonePure
    4. 4HighlightCitadelAdministratum GreyPure
    5. 5EdgeCitadelPallid Wych Flesh2:1
    Range: Citadel10-15 min005 / 100
    Crimson

  • Obsidian

    Difficulty
    Armour - Black
    No photograph yet
    Paint recipe
    1. 1BaseCitadelMechanicus Standard GreyPure
    2. 2ShadeCitadelNuln OilPure
    3. 3LayerCitadelDawnstonePure
    4. 4HighlightCitadelAdministratum GreyPure
    5. 5EdgeCitadelPallid Wych Flesh2:1
    Range: Citadel10-15 min006 / 100
    Umbral

Print

Nine to a sheet, and the deck grows

Print your recipes nine to an A4 sheet, front and back, cut them out, and you have a deck to flick through at the desk. Each back lands behind its own front when you turn the stack over, so you can cut with confidence.

A calibration sheet sets your printer's margins before you spend good card stock finding them. After that it is sleeves, a box, and a deck that lives next to the paints.

Size
Trading card
Per sheet
Nine, on A4
Sides
Front and back
Sleeves
Standard fit

Your own words

The tags are yours to invent

You make the tags yourself; there is no starter list and no borrowed taxonomy to work around. Call it Northern Skin, call it Squad Two, call it That Green I Like: if it helps you find the recipe again, it belongs on the card.

And they are yours alone. Two painters can each keep a tag called Stone without ever colliding, and deleting one never deletes a recipe; the cards simply lose the label.

Sharing

Keep it to yourself, or pass it on

Publish a recipe to the community when you want other painters to find it, and they can save it straight into their own library. Or send a private link to one person and publish nothing at all.

A link can be given an expiry date and withdrawn whenever you like, so lending a recipe never has to mean giving it away.

Start with one recipe

The next model you finish is the one you will wish you had written down. Begin the deck with that one.

Create your first cardSign in