Testing out custom colors for my Deathguard or how to measure paint accurately

With my current plan to do a Deathguard army next month when the codex drops, I decided to step outside my comfort zone and do some custom paint colors for it.  I tried looking for something that fit the general color I was looking for, but just nothing GW (or other paint lines that I like) exists.  I wanted something like a very pale green, but along the brown tint.  Too much of the Nurgle stuff I have seen is over the top and I want to go with something a bit less in your face with the "OH MY GOD ITS POOP" look. 

I went to my favorite local GW, in Alamo, CA where the manager is an amazing painter and due to having multiple degrees in Art, actually understand color to a level  I find both impressive and terrifying.  I told him what I was looking for, and walked out with three colors to use as a start.

The Death World Forest was the color I was looking for as a base, but much lighter.  He suggested using Karak Stone and Screaming Skull to lighten it up.  My next challenge was how to accurately measure the paint.  My problem with mixing paints has always been repeatability.  Anyone can mix a up a great new color to use, but can you do it again later, when yo need more of it.  My problem with this has always been how to measure amounts so you can get accurate ratios.  The Vallejo line of paint makes it easy, with eye droppers, but what about for GW?  I went looking on the Internet, twitter, forums, and couldn't a solution I liked.  So what did I do?

Pipettes, of the 3ml variety.  I found them on Amazon for about $5 for a hundred of them.   My plan was to use whole pots to mix up a large batch of a base coat, but to get to the right color I needed a way to accurately do test swatches.  The Pipettes let me do this, and in a very economical way.

The Pipettes were a bit tricky to use, I went through more than I thought, about 25 or 30 of them to do my test swatches, but all in all, I can't complain.  It was simple, easy and cheap to use them for measuring.  I tried to reuse them, but the GW paint is just too thick and doesn't want to come out.  After you use a Pipette to measure a certain amount the paint covers the measuring line, making it  tough to reuse them.  If they were pricey it might be an issue, but at the price it's not exactly a deal breaker.

On with my test patterns!!

I really like the last one, though I think it's a bit too "tan" and not Nurgly enough.  While I want to get away from the traditional extreme colors for Nurgle I do want to stay in the palate.  At the suggestion of my paint selector, I am looking at numbers 2 and 4 as my primary color.  I have some time to decide, but right now I am leaning towards 2.  I would like to go lighter so it gives me more to shade down with washes.  My next step is an actual model or two, which I hope to get to this weekend.