ToP Tip: The best P3 brown and petrol paints

For decades, the Formula P3 paint range has been my go-to for bone colours, browns, teals, and petrols. Steamforged Games’ recent relaunch inspired me to put together a visual line-up of my favourite P3 brown and petrol paints for you.

Here on Tale of Painters and on my YouTube channel, I’m constantly testing out the latest paint ranges. However, only the finest colours from each range earn a spot in my rotation. I like to keep my options open and explore a variety of brands, cherry-picking the best paints and colours from each range.

My best paint picks for brown

I first discovered Formula P3’s browns back in the day because the brown and bone shades in the old Citadel and Vallejo Game Color ranges were all very intense and had strong red and yellow tints. P3 offered more neutral cream, mocha, and chocolate browns that still managed to avoid looking flat or dull. For over 15 years, these four colours have been part of my daily rotation, and I’m glad to see they’ve hardly changed in the relaunch. As a fifth choice, I’d say P3 Umbral Umber makes a fantastic extra-dark, almost black brown to round things out.

The P3 range had some of my favourite browns, part of my daily rotation for almost two decades. Happy to report that they stayed very true in the updated range with even better covering power, esp. for Jack Bone and Beast Hide #stahlyspaintpicks More in my review here ▶️ buff.ly/BG2JJfI

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— Stahly (Tale of Painters) (@stahly.bsky.social) 23. Juli 2025 um 19:30

My favourite browns from the P3 range:

• P3 Jack Bone
• P3 Beast Hide
• P3 Bootstrap Leather
• P3 Battlefield Brown

If you want to add these colours to your collection, a click on the links will take you to one of our partner shops.

My best paint picks for petrol

Before there was Incubi Darkness, there was the (near-identical) P3 Coal Black. It pairs beautifully with the three other shades I’ve put together here. I often use P3 Underbelly Blue and P3 Trollblood Base for lenses or glass effects. One word of caution though: P3 Gravedigger Denim has changed a little in the updated P3 range, now being noticeably more intense and bluer in tone. That said, it still fits in nicely with the palette.

#stahlyspaintpicks #P3 edition part two! I really love the petrols in the P3 range and have been using them for years. Before we had Incubi Darkness, we had Coal Black! Still a fan favourite, and luckily the new versions match the older ones very well. Have you tried the new P3 range yet? #ad

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— Stahly (Tale of Painters) (@stahly.bsky.social) 6. August 2025 um 19:30

The peachy coral palette:

• P3 Underbelly Blue
• P3 Trollblood Blue
• P3 Gravedigger Denim
• P3 Coal Black

Here too, I’ve linked the colours, feel free to use the links for your next hobby purchase to support our work.

Find an in-depth review of the changes and similarities of the updated P3 hobby paints range in this video:

Comparing colours with my digital swatches

The colour squares shown above are taken from my hand-painted colour swatches, which I have created for many paint ranges such as Citadel, Vallejo Game Color, Warpaints Fanatic, and Two Thin Coats. All of them are professional reproductions, hand-painted on plasticard and photographed under consistent, neutral lighting conditions, making them much more accurate and true to life than the manufacturers’ colour charts.

Additionally, my swatches are compatible with each other, allowing you to compare different paint ranges to find the best matches for tutorials from sources like White Dwarf or the Warhammer YouTube channel, or to convert your old colour schemes to paints from other manufacturers. You can find my swatches on my Patreon, either for a small donation in my shop or by becoming an Autarch tier member.

My paint range top list

And if you want to know what my current favourite paint ranges are, I’ve summarized my current recommendations for you in this post:

I hope my paint picks might be an inspiration for your next Warhammer or scale modelling project. Feel free to react and let me know in the comments about your staples for painting blue, or which colour groups you’d like me to put together next. Until next time, and happy hobbying!