There are so many paint brands, it’s can be hard to know where to start. Why should you go with Citadel Paints, Games Workshop’s own brand?
Paint brands all come with their pros and cons. As such, it’s important to figure out what you are looking for in paints before you look for what each brand has to offer.
Why Buy Citadel Paints
Citadel paints offer a lot great perks that make them a solid contender for every painter.
Because it’s Games Workshop’s own line, it’s the best range if you want to follow along their tutorials and replicate the box arts.
Pros
Citadel Paints are offered in a user friendly format.
Their Base paints are darker and more opaque to do base coats. Layers are your classic every day colors, Shades for shading, and Drys for dry brushing.
If you are completely new at miniature painting, this system is easy to understand and easy to follow.
The base paints is one of the greatest strength of Citadel.
Vibrant colors that offer superior coverage are worth heir weight in gold, and that’s precisely what you get.
Most of the time, you can cover dark primer in one coat. You save time, and you get a much smoother finish than with three or more coats of thinner paint that’s much less opaque.
One of the greatest thing about Citadel Paints are the starter sets, which offer great value. The Age of Sigmar one, even if you have no intention on painting Age of Sigmar stuff, has a great color selection and saves you a lot of money.
The same applies to the faction specific ones, where you don’t get the same bargain price, but offers everything you need to get started on a weekend of painting.
Cons
The range falls short in some of the more flashy tones. While they offer a lot of blues and turquoises, reds, violets and oranges are almost non-existent.
The Whites, both White Scar and Corax are terrible. From the texture to the opacity, it does not have a single redeeming quality. For some reason, Ulthuan Grey, their off-white color is perhaps the best off-white on the market.
Not as bad as the whites are the metallics.
The range is very hit or miss, with some colors like Leadbelcher, Retributor Armor or Runelord Brass being some of the best in the business and others that are downright terrible. Looking at you Runefang Steel!
Another thing to note is that Citadel Paints don’s come in dropper bottles. At lot of people see this as a con, but I beg to differ. I paint a lot of models at once, often whole armies. The large pot is much more suited for my needs.
Specialty Paints
The true beauty of Citadel Paints is in the specialty products.
A lot of the range is made to master an effect straight out of the pot.
Drybrushing, while not the most complex technique, can be ruined if your paint is too liquid. The ‘Dry’ range solve that issue with thick, paste-like texture that can’t miss.
The same can be said of the ‘Shade’ range, that provide some of the best washes on the market, without the need to thin and mix with various products to get it right. It’s no accident that Agrax Earthshade, Nuln Oil and Seraphim Sepia are called the Holy Trinity of Washes.
The Contrast line is also very interesting. Offering an alternative for speed painting models, Contrasts are a great tool with a lot more uses than just slamming it down over primer.
The main concern of Contrasts is that the consistency varies drastically between colors, so you need to mix them with Contrast Medium most of the time to get them just right.
The Best Citadel Paints
Here are some of the bangers from the Citadel paint range to consider if you want to add to your palette:
- Base: Mephiston Red
- Base: Retributor Armour (gold)
- Base: Leadbelcher (silver)
- Base: Rhinox Hide (brown)
- Base: Bugman Glow (skin)
- Layer: Ulthuan Grey (off-white)
- Layer: Doombull Brown (reddish brown)
- Layer: Moot Green & Layer: Flash Gitz Yellow (Get both, it’s the best combo for flashy green)
- Shade: Agrax Earthshade
- Shade: Nuln Oil
- Shade: Seraphim Sepia
- Contrast: Apothecary White
- Contrast: Volupus Pink
- Contrast: Gore-Grunta