Don't have Thunderbird Blue? Get a free step-by-step guide using the paints you own.
Make a free guideLooking for a Thunderbird Blue equivalent? Below are the closest cross-brand color matches to Thunderbird Blue (Army Painter Speedpaint) in Citadel Colour, Vallejo Xpress Color, ranked by CIE76 deltaE color distance. Use them as substitutes, or generate a painting guide from the paints you actually own and let PaintGuide handle the matching and mixing for you.
Closest match in each brand
Own Thunderbird Blue? Put it to work.
Get a step-by-step painting guide built around your paints — exact colors, mixes, and where each one goes. First guide is free.
Shade & highlight partners
Suggested shadow and highlight colors for Thunderbird Blue, picked from the full catalog by color science — not paints you own. Shadows stay richer when they lean cool; pure black just flattens them. Highlights read best warmer and a touch softer than the base; pure white bleaches them out.
- Shade 2Aeldari EmeraldCitadel ColourGreat match
- Shade 1Plasmatic BoltArmy Painter SpeedpaintGreat match
- BaseThunderbird BlueArmy Painter Speedpaint
- Highlight 1Pastel SeafoamArmy Painter SpeedpaintClose match
- Highlight 2Mummy WhiteVallejo Xpress ColorClose match
Mix starting points — real pigment blends shift a little; adjust by eye.
Your paints, one journey — the blends between them live here.
Don't have Thunderbird Blue? Paint with what you own.
PaintGuide builds a step-by-step guide for your miniature using only the paints in your collection — matching colors across brands and giving exact mixing recipes for anything you're missing.
Make a free guide with your paintsMatches are computed by converting each paint's color to CIELAB and measuring CIE76 deltaE distance. A “great match” (deltaE < 3) is very close to the eye; a “close match” is a usable substitute. Finish, opacity, and coverage still differ between brands, so test on primer when it matters.