What's new in Model Box

A maintenance release. Most of the work went into stability and the groundwork the next features are built on, plus a few small refinements across the app. The roadmap shows what comes next.

Changes in this release:

• Paint bucket to an existing palette - paints collected in the bucket can be added to any of the user’s own palettes, not only to a new one. The palette is chosen from a searchable list. Every paint in the bucket links to its own page.
• Dashboard, “Color Coverage” card - hovering over a dot on the chart shows which paint it represents: swatch, code, name and manufacturer. Clicking the dot opens that paint’s equivalents with the current filters applied.

Catalog changes

• Measured colors - 40 paints now carry a color measured with a spectrophotometer on a painted sample instead of a value read from the manufacturer’s chart: 18 Mr. Hobby (Mr. Color, Mr. Surfacer, Aqueous Surfacer), 8 Tamiya, 7 Vallejo and 7 AK Interactive. The post Model paint catalogs - what is really in there? explains what this means and how far the charts sit from the paint.

Changes in this version:

More precise paint identification:

• Retired paints - an old paint code works in search on par with the current one. A paint retired from production leads to its successor - on the paint page and in equivalents results.
• Previous names - eight Game Color paints renamed by the manufacturer can be found under their previous names, from Cold Grey (now Neutral Grey) to Heavy Charcoal (now Charcoal).
• Historically accurate colors - in ranges the manufacturer reformulated, retired paints carry the color from their production years, as printed in the catalog of the day.

New in the catalog

• WizKids Premium Paints - 78 paints in a new Vallejo range: pre-refresh Game Color formulas, under their old names, in 8 ml bottles. 44 of them point to their current Game Color counterpart.
• Game Color Special FX - 12 effect paints in the 72.600-611 range.
• Retired numbers - 56 paints no longer in stores:
  • 32 from the original Game Air,
  • 7 from the old Special Effect,
  • 17 from Game Color, including every retired Extra Opaque.

Changes in this release:

• Paint palettes - browsing official manufacturer palettes and community creations. Every user can build their own palettes and control their visibility to others.
• Paint bucket - collecting paints while browsing the app and turning them into a palette in one click. The selection is synchronized across browser tabs.
• Collection import and export - uploading a CSV file or pasting a list of codes, which the wizard matches against paints in the catalog.
• Wishlist - a new place to save paints, kept separate from the main collection of owned paints.
• Palettes on the paint page - a new tab shows which palettes use a given paint.

Catalog changes

• British Standard - 376 colors added across three standards: BS 381C, BS 4800 and BS 2660.

Changes in this release:

• When a paint description mentions other paints it relates to - the ones it recreates or that the description is about (mostly the RLM standard) - those mentions are now interactive elements that also show the referenced paint’s color.
• Smoother checkout
• Security and privacy improvements
• Consistent paint-card styling in the default paint grid - a paint’s finish (matte, gloss, etc.) now sits next to its chemical base, the same as on every other card.

Model Box is out of preview and open to everyone. Sign up, log in, and start matching paints today.

Read the full story on the blog

Paint pages load faster, show brand codes and finishes at a glance, and surface their closest analogs more clearly.

• Faster paint detail pages
• Brand codes shown prominently
• Finish type indicators (gloss, matte, metallic, …)
• Cleaner analog browsing layout

Model Box is now available with a 30 day free trial and a paid Hobby plan.

• Free trial for new accounts
• Hobby subscription plan

A full visual refresh.

• Redesigned dashboard and paint browser
• Streamlined navigation across the app

On the comparison view you can pin paints that look like good candidates, so you don’t lose track of them while you keep searching and adjusting your criteria.

• Pin analogs on the paint page
• Expanded catalog with new brands and product lines

Model Box is now available in Polish, and you can mark the paints you actually own. The matcher surfaces what you already have in your collection.

• Polish localization across the whole app
• Save paints to your own collection
• Paints you own shown first in match results
• Custom Delta E threshold for precise matching

The first version of Model Box is online for closed testing.

• Paint database: Vallejo, Tamiya, Revell
• Browse and filter the full catalog
• Color matching based on perceptual similarity in OKLAB space