Looking for a Black Ink equivalent? Below are the closest cross-brand color matches to Black Ink (Vallejo Game Color) in Citadel Colour, Army Painter Fanatic, Reaper MSP, Vallejo Model Wash, AK Interactive 3rd Gen, Vallejo Weathering Effects, Army Painter Quickshade, Army Painter Speedpaint, Vallejo Diorama FX, Monument Pro Acryl, Vallejo Model Color, Scale75 Scalecolor, Vallejo Xpress Color, Army Painter Warpaints, Army Painter Colour Primer, Vallejo Hobby Spray, AK Interactive Diorama Series, Vallejo Metal Color, Vallejo Game Color Effects, 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
Shade & highlight partners
Suggested shadow and highlight colors for Black Ink, 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 2Matt BlackArmy Painter FanaticGreat match
- Shade 1Nuln OilCitadel ColourGreat match
- BaseBlack InkVallejo Game Color
- Highlight 1Skavenblight DingeCitadel ColourGreat match
- Highlight 2Stormvermin FurCitadel ColourGreat 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 Black Ink? 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.
Create your free guideMatches 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.