Paint Recipes
A miniature paint recipe is the colour scheme written down: the paints in order, with the technique tagged on every step. The Mini Mainframe gives you a recipe library to build them in, a share link for every one, and a gallery of schemes from other painters to start from.
Write the scheme down once
Build a recipe layer by layer. Each step holds a real paint from the 7,000+ catalog — or a custom colour if you mixed it — plus the technique it was applied with: undercoat, basecoat, shade, layer, highlight, drybrush, detail. Add a note to any step for the bit you always forget, like which thinner ratio worked.
A live preview shows the scheme as a strip of swatches while you build it, and the finished recipe attaches to a project so it is waiting on the bench next time you paint that unit.
Then repeat it a year later
The reason to keep a paint recipe library is the second batch. Six months after the first ten models, the recipe is still there with the exact pots and the order they went on in — so the reinforcements match the squad instead of being close enough to annoy you.
Share a recipe with a link
Every recipe has a public share link that opens for anyone, no account needed — the whole scheme, swatches, techniques and notes on one page. You can also render a recipe as a share card image, or publish it to the recipe gallery. Sharing and publishing are free.
Start from someone else's scheme
The gallery is browsable signed out. Find a scheme you like, clone it into your own recipe library in one click, and then edit it — swapping steps for paints you actually have in your collection.
Paint conversion, one colour at a time
Painters rarely own the exact range a recipe was written in. Colour Match takes any paint or hex and ranks the nearest paints across the catalog by perceptual distance, filtered to the brands you choose — so a Citadel step becomes its closest Vallejo or Army Painter equivalent. It is a per-paint conversion, done a slot at a time; there is no one-click whole-recipe convert button. Colour Match, the colour wheel, the photo dropper and the layering tools are part of the Sponsor toolkit.
Or describe the scheme and let the AI draft it
Sponsors can write what they are after — a sun-bleached desert armour, a cold grimdark steel — and get a recipe back, built only from paints that exist in the catalog rather than invented colour names. It marks which paints you already own and offers to wishlist the rest. Every recipe it drafts is an ordinary recipe afterwards: edit it, attach it to a project, share it.
Recipe questions
- What is a paint recipe?
- The colour scheme for a model written down as steps — the paints in order, with the technique tagged on each one, from basecoat through to highlight. Save it once and you can repeat it on the next unit a year later.
- Can I share a paint recipe?
- Yes. Every recipe has a share link that anyone can open without an account, and you can publish a recipe to the public gallery.
- Can I use recipes from other painters?
- Yes. Browse the gallery signed out, and clone any published scheme into your own recipe library in one click once you have an account. Then swap paints for the ones you actually own.
- Can I convert a recipe to paints from another brand?
- Slot by slot, yes. Colour Match ranks the nearest paints across the library's brands for any colour and lets you filter to the brands you actually own, so a Citadel scheme can be rebuilt in Vallejo or Army Painter one paint at a time. There is no one-click whole-recipe conversion. Colour Match is part of the Sponsor toolkit.
- Can the app write a recipe for me?
- Sponsors can describe a scheme and get a recipe back, built only from paints that exist in the catalog rather than invented colours. Writing recipes by hand is part of the base app.
Keep looking around
- Paint collection manager7,000+ paints across the major brands — mark what you own and wishlist the rest.
- Project trackerArmies, units, models and terrain with status, priority and deadlines.
- Recipe galleryReal schemes from other painters — browsable without an account.
- Sponsor the Mainframe$3.99/mo for Colour Match, the rest of the toolkit and AI recipes.
Stop keeping colour schemes in screenshots and half-remembered pot names. Free to start, no card needed.