Horus Heresy – Guess which Legion I am painting next?

So as part of my original plan to determine which Horus Heresy Legion I might start to collect, I am experimenting with the choice of colour paint to use.

This Legion is arguably the most difficult to categorically say what colour they use for their armour.

Historically they were like this.

So a purple with green insignia moving on to a blue with green as a more chaos legion.

I have seen many paint schemes in between these as well and they all look good, well maybe not the purple and green one.

Now the latest version from Forge World looks like this.
This is still blue but with a metallic sheen to it, no green in sight and this is what drew me in as it falls into the way I like to paint my miniatures. The problem is how to replicate the look.

I scoured many forums and blogs looking for the recipe and I came across this paint.
I purchased a pot and began to experiment.

The first thing I noticed is it has a warning on the side so read that first.

Some other observations, it is really thick but apparently can be diluted to use with an air brush. To this end I diluted my paint with a drying retarder which caused it to trap air bubbles within the paint so be wary of that. I also had to apply several layers to get the blue I wanted, this can lead to obscuring detail. Applying a wash for shading can be tricky as the dried paint surface does not 'hold' the shade very well.

Here are my test results on a spare terminator model.

I started with a metal base colour


Then applied the Tamiya x23

Drybrushed with the metal to create highlights.

Re-applied the Tamiya x23

Painted in some of the other detail to see what the overall effect would be.


Not as light as the Forge World stuff but pretty good.

Now that I am happy with the outcome I can start on my Betrayal of Calth Miniatures.

Vitor