Model Box launch

Why am I doing this?

One of the things I love about this hobby is painting. I enjoy using an airbrush and seeing my projects come to life. The one thing that keeps coming up as a problem is researching paint jobs and color schemes, especially when the instructions call for a manufacturer-specific paint I don’t own. I often use one brand I’ve grown accustomed to, and the kit proposes a palette from another. Where do I go then?

You’d think a hobby this old and this resourceful would have solved this by now. The community has produced genuine masterpieces over the years. But the static comparison charts are less than ideal - you can see at a glance that the colors they suggest are far from equivalent. The result is unsatisfying the moment you look at it. It gets worse when you start researching RLM colors or any other specific standard that should have well-established equivalents in this miniature world. A few tools try to compute color difference on demand, with varying results.

This gave me an idea: build my own database, one designed for how I actually work - painting at the bench, preparing palettes, crossing between manufacturers, with my own standards for how close a match needs to be. What started as a side project grew into a tool I can now present to you.

What problem am I solving?

Model Box answers one question: what paint can you actually use instead, and how close does it really look? Today it serves exactly this use case: I own paints from brand X. The kit instructions specify a palette from brand Y. Is there anything in my collection that I can use as a substitute, and how close is it?

Search any paint by name or code. Pick the brands you want. Model Box returns equivalents ranked by perceptual color distance reflecting exactly how close two colors look to the human eye. The lower the score, the better the match.

Save the paints you own and the app will show them in every future search so you can avoid buying duplicates. You can filter results by brand, paint type, and finish. No more guesswork.

Where we’re headed

Model Box is just starting to take shape. A few things are already in the works:

• Palettes. Discover and create color palettes. Plan your paint scheme before you open the box, browse palettes the community has put together, and see which paints belong together.
• Projects. Track your finished models. Log what you painted, which paints you used, and build a record of your work over time.
• Kits. Find model kits where a specific paint is recommended. Know what you’ll need before you buy.
• A growing database. New paints are added every week from manufacturer catalogs. Missing something? Tell me and I’ll prioritize it.

More on the roadmap.

Go try it

Sign up. Search a paint you’ve been stuck on and see what you can actually use instead.