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Colour matching tools

HoddieHoddie
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I recently made a mistake by mixing up Medium Blue and Medium Azure, first time ever as far as I know and thankfully I caught it while re-checking, but it made me decide to start my own colour-matching tool. Basically just 2x4 bricks that I'll add to as I get the bricks.

What other colour-matching tools do people use?

Comments

  • 15 Comments sorted by Votes Date Added
  • cameron.thornecameron.thorne
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    I am curious to hear the other answers as well. I am attempting to accumulate a few parts in every color I sell to make my own color reference guide - similar to yours. I am planning on using 2 x 2 bricks instead. I've barely started, but I will be posting some pics when I get more colors added.
  • unbrickableunbrickable
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    Hi i now have 2 color charts slowely built up with plates and bricks . will post a picture soon
  • robernatrobernat
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    What other colour-matching tools do people use?
    My eyes :D

  • HoddieHoddie
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    Aye, me too, but mine are getting old!

    By my count, and without including colours now out of production, there are almost 10 shades of blue, something like 9 shades of purple, pink and lavender, and most other colours have 2-4 different shades. It's easy to distinguish most of these, even those that are very similar providing you have them side by side, but rather be safe than sorry!

    It must be incredibly difficult for those of you who also have volumes of the older colours still in stock on top of all the current colours. I'm thinking gray, dark gray, medium stone gray, etc.

    I've started labelling all my Dark Blue stuff because with tired eyes in poor light (late at night) it looks just like Black!
  • MinifigManMinifigMan
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    I upgraded lamps in my Lego room to bendable very bright LED spots. One is 600 Lumen, flanked by two 400 Lumen spots. Good lighting helps a lot in determining color.

    I also have a stack with named colors as the one above, but a lot of colors don't even have a brick available, let a lone a 2x4 or a 2x2.
  • LawrenceLawrence
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    Agreed lighting is very important, especially at night, standard "Warm White" lighting can dramatically alter the colour of a part compared to daylight bulbs.
  • OvertheBrickOvertheBrick
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    The hardest part is to figure out the color on the BO screen ;)
    Roughly 1/3 of the errors we make are from confusing black, dark gray, or medium gray.
    Maybe we should build an optional colour-matching tools on BO itself (showing a colored square next to the part).
  • bluedragonbluedragon
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    ^You can already enable a circle with the color next to each item on an order (Show Order Color Swatches) under order settings http://www.brickowl.com/mystore/settings/order_settings
  • StragusStragus
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    What about storing different colors (for the same part) in completely different locations, as noted in part remarks? There's no confusion possible. :)
  • HoddieHoddie
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    Yeah I considered that. However, I think for it to work efficiently there'd need to an option when importing bsx files to merge lots and replace the note only if one exists in the bsx file. As it stands, when importing you can either merge and keep the existing note, which means having to add/change notes manually where required, or merge and use the notes in the bsx file, which assuming most of the notes in the file will be blank, removes almost all existing notes from all lots that are being updated.
  • OvertheBrickOvertheBrick
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    Thanks @bluedragon !
  • StragusStragus
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    @Hoddie If using BrickSync, use the "sort" command so that all comments/remarks of a BSX file are updated to match the ones from your inventory.
    sort SomeFile.bsx
  • cameron.thornecameron.thorne
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    I've been searching for a nice floor lamp with a high C.R.I. bulb options for sorting days. Some of my older incandescent bulbs (now mostly unobtainable in USA) make Light Gray and Medium Stone Gray completely indistinguishable. Anyone have some good success? What bulb type? How much light?
  • HoddieHoddie
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    @Hoddie If using BrickSync, use the "sort" command so that all comments/remarks of a BSX file are updated to match the ones from your inventory.
    sort SomeFile.bsx
    Not quite there yet :)
  • pmitchpmitch
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    I have started several color reference bars, but never seem to get to the 'end'. I have several 'in process', but unfortunately, I have lost the stickers on a couple of the mystery colors and now have to re-find definitive these to be absolutely sure (from the box matching to an approved inventory is as sure as I can be).

    I would think that there is a market for a color bar - or even various bars (red/orange/yellow; blue/black/purple; gray....). I know that I would have quickly bought one of these when I was starting out. It would have saved many hours of frustration as well as some dollars from the couple of mistakes that I had to 'eat'.

    I don't know if there is a category to put something like this in, but I suspect that it could be advertised or mentioned (brickset, etc) and bring in some new visitors to BO.

    Just a thought.
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