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I'm curious as to what the verdict is on the newest line of Citadel paints compared to other brands. When I last played I had begun to swear by Vallejo, but I have to admit I do like how the new range has things divided up into Basecoat, Wash, Layer, etc. as it seems to be a more "paint by numbers" type of approach which, being a mediocre painter at best, kind of appeals to me - I had bought the latest White Dwarf to see if quality has improved and I did find it interesting how the painting articles were done, even telling you what type of brush to use with that paint.

The major turn-off for me is, surprise surprise, the price. $4.00 for 12mL of paint, when Vallejo is around $3.25 (or under $3 if I order from The Warstore) for 17mL with a dropper to boot. I've also heard good things about other lines such as Reaper's Master Paint series. Really the only thing that I dislike about Vallejo is with that insane amount of colors, it's hard to figure out what is your shade/base/highlight without making mistakes.

The main benefit of the Citadel range is that it seems easier to match exact colors, although trying to figure out what highlights/shades to use doesn't seem to be intuitive, and of course the fact that the FLGS stocks them so it's easy to get versus having to order Vallejo (although I have heard that Hobby Lobby stocks them and there is one nearby, just not sure if that particular store has them), but unless they are really amazing then I can't really justify the increased price for such a small amount of paint. I am of course aware of Vallejo Game Color paints, but with the newest Citadel line it seems even harder to match those colors up.

What are your thoughts on the new range? Still not worth the cost, even with the neat "Use x as a base, use y as a highlight" kind of information? Also, how are their brushes now? For the same reasons as the paints, the brushes being so informative as to what they are used for seems really good, and they aren't that pricey in the scheme of things ($4.95) but they've always been crap quality as I recall.

Do a forum search, you will find this dead horse beaten to a bloody pulp.

I started this thread awhile back: http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/563501.page

There is nothing wrong with them as far as the paint inside is concerned. They are decent paints. I don't like the pots, paint seem to dry out in them for me I also much prefer droppers. The citadel paints are more expensive and smaller than other brands. They are probably the easiest paints to get hold of which works in their favor.

My preferred paints Vallejo, Army painter and Coat D Arms personally.

One good thing about Army painter is that they have coloured spray primers and normal paints which are colour matched to each other. Which can be a great time saver if you are painting models with a large amount of a single colour.

Disclaimer I have only tried Citadel, Vallejo, Armypainter, Tayima and Coat D Arms. There are other brands such as P3 I have never tired.

The paint by numbers aspect that you say you like about the new line, is the worst thing about the new line. It pigeon holes everything into one task, e.g dry paints... could we not drybrush before?
And the fact that all the pale colours were dry paints only (untill they realised the error and released the 'edge' paints... which are sold to be used as edge highlights only... but infact are vital colours in the range. They even tried to make them ltd edition :S which was probably just a stunt to make people rush out to buy these essential shades of colours.

The new range of paints arent bad paints, but frankly the idea that only a base paint can basecoat, only a layer paint can highlight etc etc is stupid, GW just wanna sell you 5 kinds of every colour.

One plus point ive noticed though is; since I played 40k as a kid almost 15-20 years ago, the standard of young childrens painting has risen dramatically. We can probably put that down to GW teaching them how to paint the GW way. Which is a nice thing but also we see lots of identical armies painted with the paint by numbers style scheme.

Haha yeah I meant more that I like the idea of knowing what colors to use for shade/basecoat/highlight without having to eyeball individual paints to see how the tone actually looks. I like the idea of knowing that if I want let's say green, the range tells me what darker color to use for the shade, what color to use for the base and what color to use for the highlight(s). That to me is invaluable

WayneTheGame wrote:
I'm curious as to what the verdict is on the newest line of Citadel paints compared to other brands. When I last played I had begun to swear by Vallejo, but I have to admit I do like how the new range has things divided up into Basecoat, Wash, Layer, etc. as it seems to be a more "paint by numbers" type of approach which, being a mediocre painter at best, kind of appeals to me - I had bought the latest White Dwarf to see if quality has improved and I did find it interesting how the painting articles were done, even telling you what type of brush to use with that paint.

The major turn-off for me is, surprise surprise, the price. $4.00 for 12mL of paint, when Vallejo is around $3.25 (or under $3 if I order from The Warstore) for 17mL with a dropper to boot. I've also heard good things about other lines such as Reaper's Master Paint series. Really the only thing that I dislike about Vallejo is with that insane amount of colors, it's hard to figure out what is your shade/base/highlight without making mistakes.

The main benefit of the Citadel range is that it seems easier to match exact colors, although trying to figure out what highlights/shades to use doesn't seem to be intuitive, and of course the fact that the FLGS stocks them so it's easy to get versus having to order Vallejo (although I have heard that Hobby Lobby stocks them and there is one nearby, just not sure if that particular store has them), but unless they are really amazing then I can't really justify the increased price for such a small amount of paint. I am of course aware of Vallejo Game Color paints, but with the newest Citadel line it seems even harder to match those colors up.

What are your thoughts on the new range? Still not worth the cost, even with the neat "Use x as a base, use y as a highlight" kind of information? Also, how are their brushes now? For the same reasons as the paints, the brushes being so informative as to what they are used for seems really good, and they aren't that pricey in the scheme of things ($4.95) but they've always been crap quality as I recall.

IMO Vallejo is still one of the best. Pigments are a little better IMO. There is also a paint chart match for Vallejo and Citadel. Matching paints isn't hard.

Personally, Vallejo is my go-to whenever I need a restock or new paints, but GW ones are nice if a little expensive. The fact they correlate with the painting guides is probably helpful if you're looking to follow those.

The downside (other than the high price/low quantity) is that they do like to sell you 5 of the same colour (base/layer/wash/dry/edge) when I find it easier and more natural to mix paints to vary shades, rather than using a different paint entirely. I'm not sure which method is the generally done thing, but I prefer mixing as it gives more variation and is easier to change.

Mixing can still be done with GW, but only with the base/layer paints, as the Dry don't take well to mixing for obvious reasons.

The washes are nice, and work well. The Dry are nice for what they do, and the technical paints are worth grabbing, as the blood, oil and rust ones are very nice and easy to use, and there's not really an alternative that does the same thing.

WayneTheGame wrote:
Haha yeah I meant more that I like the idea of knowing what colors to use for shade/basecoat/highlight without having to eyeball individual paints to see how the tone actually looks. I like the idea of knowing that if I want let's say green, the range tells me what darker color to use for the shade, what color to use for the base and what color to use for the highlight(s). That to me is invaluable

I can see how its handy, but theyre not the only combinations possible with the range. This is what I mean by pigeon hole-ing you; Youve got a solid set of guides / formula's for certain colours. Great, having premixed tones can be good for getting uniformity, but we didn't need all that before and did just fine with 60-70 shades and mixing lots of colours.

Its not all bad I suppose what I'm saying is that theres more to it than the GW layering formula, Its a great place to start for usre and gets the beginners upto a higher standard faster (which is what I guess its all about) but don't be afraid to try new things out and experiment its half the fun.

I like the base paints in the Citadel range. The layers, meh, they're ok, but I hate the pots. I like how well the base paints cover given how vibrant they are. The older foundation paints covered even better, but were so dull and muted that I usually had to mix them with something to get them to a tone I liked.

I haven't really painted with any of the new Citadel range and thought "that was terrible", the main thing I hate about them is the price and the pots. Then once you buy new pots, they are even more expensive

The big advantage of Citadel for me and why I've stuck with them as my primary paints over the years is simply they are the most readily available and have been the most readily available for the past 18 or so years I've been collecting. The nearest wargaming shop to me sold Citadel was 10 minutes on the train or 10 minutes drive, that shop has since closed and the next closest shop also sells citadel and is 20 minutes on the train or 15 minutes drive. The closest shop that sells anything else is about 40 minutes away. Hence I mostly bought Citadel, lol.

Now that half my Citadel paints have dried out, I'm buying some new pots and will only repurchase the base paints from Citadel and am moving to P3, coat d arms, some army painter inks and vallejo for anything I can't do with the base paints.

Oh, I also have some Gunze paints and Testors, but mostly for specialty things (they make nice candy colours and nice coloured metallics).