Imperial Blue

A royal blue for the airbrush

Imperial Blue is a saturated mid blue with no green cast, which is exactly the tone carried by banners, guard uniforms and the cloak linings of noble characters. In a palette it works as a working middle: you can climb from it to lighter sky shades or descend to a night blue without the tone breaking toward purple.

Thinner, water and flow improver are not the same thing

The three products that get confused with one another when spraying comes up each do something different. Airbrush thinner reduces the density and preserves the binder, so the film stays intact. A flow improver extends the open time and prevents drying on the needle, but does not change the density. Water does both badly: it upsets the ratio of binder to pigment and the sprayed layer can then be peeled off with a fingernail. So when the paint thickens, reach for the first; when it settles on the nozzle, for the second.

Before and after

A light base keeps the blue vivid, a dark one mutes it toward navy. The difference shows after the first coat, so it pays to choose the base according to the result you intend, not according to what was left in the bottle. When you are done, seal the model with varnish for the sheen you want and flush the airbrush with a cleaner for acrylics.

Shake the bottle thoroughly before opening it, ideally with a steel ball inside. The pigment settles at the bottom during storage and paint that has not been mixed comes out pale at the start and oversaturated toward the end of the bottle.

The dried film is matte to satin. If you are counting on final polishing or on applying pastel pigments, take that into account when choosing the final coat of varnish.