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So i have been painting models for about 3 years now off and on. I have always used Citadel purely because i started with them and the slight hue difference in the color between brands always bugged me, so i never changed brands.

Im fed up with citadel. Lately ive been having paint drying in the pot issues and its bugging the hell out of me. Considering i already use ArmyPainter Primer for the purple in my tau, which is the majority of the color, i think this is a good time to try and switch since the only other colors are red/blue lights, a light green, and white/black (its in my siggy if youre curious).

What paint types would be good to go for? I thought about Vallejo but the "pureness" of the colors kinda urks me (not really sure how else to describe that...the colors are very bright and rich and seem to offer very little range of a color like different hues of red).

I like vallejo. While I don't have all their paints or anything, I mostly tend to fill in gaps I was missing originally with GW. You might physically check them out if you're in the US, Hobby Lobby carries the military miniature line colours. I wouldn't say they're too pure o.O but maybe it's the colour you're looking at? I dunno. They have a good range of paints.

I also like to use Reaper paints, they have a great tool on their website for paint matching, their non-HD Paints come in triads, so you'll automatically have a base, and two highlights, which is convenient. Their HD paints are also quite nice, I have a few, very good coverage for not a bad cost imo.

I haven't used others so can't speak to them (like P3 or what not).

You might find this helpful. It shows the old and and new Citadel colors, as well as Vallejo Game Color, Vallejo Model Color, Reaper, and a couple of others. Vallejo Game Color will be the closest to the old Citadel line, in most cases they are pretty exact, in other cases, close enough.

http://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/Paint_Range_Compatibility_Chart

The big advantage to dropper bottles is the fact that your paints won't dry up like they do in pots. It also makes it easier to do custom mixes without guesswork by counting drops, rather than estimating. I've been slowly switching to VGC, as well as using Army Painter Inks.

I wouldn't use the dakka paint chart if you are wanting to compare vallejo equivalents to other paint ranges.
If I ever need to find an equivalent paint I just look at this http://www.acrylicosvallejo.com/en_US/media/e588d28183cec31ffd6dcee6d3718fc3.cms/equivalencias-rev05.pdf
Its made by Vallejo and shows equivalents for citadel paints and reaper to their game and model colour range so its more accurate.

All sounds great, thanks guys. I might try Vallejo again, i might have just been finding bad selections or something.

Army Painter is slowly becomming my goto source..(as I am running out I am replacing with army painter) ..For medium to large terrain I use "Plaid FolkArt Outdoor Acrylic Paint" cause its inexpensive and gives good coverage. (Not for my models thou a bit grainy for that but great for dirt and hills etc)

With Vallejo, you really do have to distinguish between their two main lines.

Game Colour has a smaller selection (though is still quite large) and is more vibrant often with a glossy/satin finish no matter how hard you shake them up.

Model Colour is vast with umpteen greys, khakis and camo greens as well as loads of other stuff besides including some awesome vibrant colours like Blue-Green and Emerald. It tends to have a more matte finish.

Both lines now also had many of their paints made into an airbrush line; this just means that they're thinner coming out of the pot, absolutely fine for use with normal brush (sorry of that sounds condescending, but you'd be amazed the number of times you see people ask if they can use so-called airbrush paints with a hairy brush).

I love Reaper for the width of their range, easy to use triad system and very matte finish. I tend to find that they need a fair bit of thinning, but are great to use once you familiarise yourself with them.

I've also got P3, Army Painter, Coat d'Arms and Scale 75 (super, super matte) in my paint rack.

At the end of the day, all the brands are acrylic paints and are much of a muchness. What will set them apart for you is the type of container they come in, what colours you're after, price and finish.