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There are a lot of Citadel paints out there, and it can be quite overwhelming for someone new to the hobby. Therefore, I started this thread hoping that, as a community, we can figure out which of the Citadel paints are essential.

For me, these are some of the paints that I use most often. Keep in mind that most color schemes will require a few certain paints, such as Death Guard Green for the Death Guard, or Blood Angels Red for the Blood Angels.

Leadbelcher
Retributor Armor
Balthazar Gold
Corax White
Nuln Oil
Agrax Earthshade
Abbadon Black
Stormhost Silver (you can just mix some Corax White into Leadbelcher, but I think that this paint is worth having for convenience)
Guilliman Flesh / Fyreslayer Flesh / Darkoath Flesh (CONTRAST) (This will accomplish all of your lighter skin tones.)
Wyldwood (CONTRAST) (Use this for darker skin tones and wood)
One "Battlefield Mud" Texture Paint (I use Astrogranite, but I prime over my texture paint, so color doesn't matter to me)
One "Crackle" Texture Paint (I use Agrellan Earth)
One Higher Grit "Battlefield Mud" (I use Astrogranite Debris)
Lahmian Medium (Mix your base and layer paints with this to make custom washes, or thin down shades with it)
Contrast Medium (Mix other paints into this to make your own contrast paints, and use it to thin contrast)

If you use the Classic Method:
Maccragge Blue
Mephiston Red
Averland Sunset
Caliban Green
Zandri Dust
Corax White, Chaos Black, or Mechanicus Standard Grey Spray

If you prefer the Contrast Method:
Ultramarines Blue
Blood Angels Red
Iyanden Yellow
Ork Flesh
Skeleton Horde
Wraithbone or Grey Seer Spray

With these basic paints, I have been able to mix most of the colors that I need. This list is not all-encompassing, and you will need to add to it based on what color scheme(s) you are trying to replicate. For example, I purchased Nihilakh Oxide for my nighthaunt.

What do you think of this list? What would you change? Do you have your own list?

I'd note that mixing colors is not quite as intuitive as 'raw' paints with limited pigments.

Some citadel paints mix well to achieve 'expected' colors. Other colors however, are usually of a certain 'recipe' of mixture of various color pigments which can be 'hidden' in plain sight, which causes unexpected color results. (i.e. if you mix maccragge blue with flashgitz yellow, it doesn't yield caliban green)

I don't mix colours, but these get a lot of use:

Leadbelcher
Nuln Oil
Agrax Earthshade
Lahmian Medium
'Ard Coat

Brother Castor wrote:
I don't mix colours, but these get a lot of use:

Leadbelcher
Nuln Oil
Agrax Earthshade
Lahmian Medium
'Ard Coat

Ah, the varnishes. I personally haven't found a lot of use for 'Ard Coat, but it should probably be on the list. What do you use it for?

E3DD wrote:
Ah, the varnishes. I personally haven't found a lot of use for 'Ard Coat, but it should probably be on the list. What do you use it for?

They're good for lenses and drools when brushed on highlights simply doesn't do justice.

E3DD wrote:

Brother Castor wrote:
I don't mix colours, but these get a lot of use:

Leadbelcher
Nuln Oil
Agrax Earthshade
Lahmian Medium
'Ard Coat

Ah, the varnishes. I personally haven't found a lot of use for 'Ard Coat, but it should probably be on the list. What do you use it for?

Mostly before applying transfers (then Lahmian Medium after to make it matt again). Also lenses.

I hate to be that guy, but I have to say none, or at least none without caveats.

The Citadel washes produce low-contrast shading that typically requires reapplying the basecoat. This is a tremendous amount of work and precision for a new painter; I'd much rather start them with the Army Painter (identical to old GW) washes which produce a higher-contrast effect.

GW's metallics are okay, but I find Vallejo Metal Color to have consistently better coverage and finer flake. The line's mostly silver metallics, but there are ways to get rich golds and such with it.

Texture paints for basing are a dead-end as far as technique. There's only so much you can do with them without learning to base the 'traditional' way.

Maybe I'm just a crochety old git that learned to paint before these products existed, but I find a lot of painters get locked into the GW sphere of how to do things, and are very limited as a result. Every time I see someone recommend Lahmian Medium to kill the shine from washes rather than a matte varnish, or a paint process that involves having to reapply a basecoat because the wash shades too heavily, it kills me a little inside.

Vallejo, Army Painter, GW, Reaper, Scale75, and others all do different things. There's no one company to rule them all.

I'd question the notion of a "dead-end technique". Not everyone intends to make painting into some epic multi-stage quest of improvement. Sometimes all you want to do is something basic, and effort spent beyond that is wasted.

But what do I know, I've been painting for 25 years and my miniatures still look like dog gak.

Essential? Pretty much just the metallics, as they are generally excellent. The rest can be duplicated closely enough using craft paints or acrylic inks and matte medium.

@ catbarf Citadel paints, in terms of quality wise, most of them are good.
The two main drawback of citadel paints is that 1. they're too expensive for what they are, and 2. the bottle shape makes it impossible to not waste usable paint.

The little 'cup' on the cap is well thought out in terms of usability, but 1. when you shake it, there's just so much paint trapped in the cap that 1.a. it gets messy when it begins to drip 1.b. it gets all over the rim when you close it, which is also exacerbated by the little trapezoid shaped nub that helps keep the cap open (which serves its function well, but is ABSOLUTELY terrible when closing it) just splatters the paint all over if you don't get past it properly, and the snap from closure of the cap splatters the amounts of paints as described in 1.a and 1.b everywhere.

If you can get past that, citadel paints are not this devil's invention many of us here in dakka consider them to be. You're just paying the premium for accessibility. Vallejo turnaround is horrible - if it wasn't for amazon & 3rd party sellers, they'd be out of business (all of the FLGS noted vallejo's terrible customer/trade account support where they'd have shipments delayed for MONTHS. I was told they essentially had to 'pre-order' at least half a year in advance.).

 catbarf wrote:
I hate to be that guy, but I have to say none, or at least none without caveats.

The Citadel washes produce low-contrast shading that typically requires reapplying the basecoat. This is a tremendous amount of work and precision for a new painter; I'd much rather start them with the Army Painter (identical to old GW) washes which produce a higher-contrast effect.

GW's metallics are okay, but I find Vallejo Metal Color to have consistently better coverage and finer flake. The line's mostly silver metallics, but there are ways to get rich golds and such with it.

Texture paints for basing are a dead-end as far as technique. There's only so much you can do with them without learning to base the 'traditional' way.

Maybe I'm just a crochety old git that learned to paint before these products existed, but I find a lot of painters get locked into the GW sphere of how to do things, and are very limited as a result. Every time I see someone recommend Lahmian Medium to kill the shine from washes rather than a matte varnish, or a paint process that involves having to reapply a basecoat because the wash shades too heavily, it kills me a little inside.

Vallejo, Army Painter, GW, Reaper, Scale75, and others all do different things. There's no one company to rule them all.

I understand what you mean. Most of my collection is actually not Citadel brand. My goal when making this list was for newbies who are just getting into the hobby. If you want to paint your ultramarines, using calgar blue just makes it simpler - no mixing paint. Using Citadel paints with Citadel Miniatures is just easier for some. The paint pots suck, true, and the paints are overpriced, but the ease of use makes it worth it for some.
I once read somewhere that Citadel doesn't sell paints like Vallejo or Scale75 sells paints. GW knows that any high-level painter will swear by Vallejo or Scale75, so they sell a painting method or system instead.

While most of my collection is citadel, by branching out I've found much more user friendly and better paints out there. That being said, citadel do some paints really well and others not so much.

I am coming around to the notion that their washes aren't the best that people claim, and as someone said above, they don't provide the high contrast shading they absolutely used to in the 00s and early 10s. Badab black is superior to Nuln oil and Devlan mud is superior to Agrax. Before someone cries nostalgia, I have pots of each I mentioned and use them for different purposes. Some of their coloured washes are lovely, reikland fleshshade, seraphim sepia are two standouts.

From their base range, I'd go as far to say that most of them are pretty good, their reds are excellent, such as mephiston red and khorne red. Their flesh tones like bugman's glow and cadian flesh tone are great too. Their sand colours are good too, I'm a fan of XV88 and Zandri dust.

After that, I can't think of many citadel paints I'd recommend, their contrast paints are so limited in use, but they're good at some specific things.

 Vulcan wrote:
Essential? Pretty much just the metallics, as they are generally excellent. The rest can be duplicated closely enough using craft paints or acrylic inks and matte medium.

Eh? A lot of Citadel metallics are consistently junk. The pigments tend to separate on the store shelf, and are often watery, useless gak, or weird semi-solid balls of crud and cruft.
And they've gotten much worse over time. I had a bottle of 'tin bitz' that lasted ages, but the current metallics are often bad straight after cracking them open.

 skchsan wrote:
@ catbarf Citadel paints, in terms of quality wise, most of them are good.
The two main drawback of citadel paints is that 1. they're too expensive for what they are, and 2. the bottle shape makes it impossible to not waste usable paint.

(...)

If you can get past that, citadel paints are not this devil's invention many of us here in dakka consider them to be.

I didn't mean to imply that GW paint is bad. The paint itself is generally pretty good (with some nasty exceptions- looking at you, Ceramite White). But like you said, it's very expensive and inconveniently packaged for what you get, so at the very least you can consider alternatives on the basis of cost and packaging. More importantly, there are ranges that do certain things better than their GW equivalent, or have no GW equivalent at all.

If we're framing this as recommended 'generic' paints for a new painter, I'd start them with a mix of Vallejo paints (VMC for non-metallics, VGC 'Heavy' for low-opacity colors, and Metal Color for metallics) and Army Painter washes. That gets comparable paint for around half the price, plus washes that provide good results just over a basecoat while they learn brush control.

Like I said before, each brand does different things. Where GW really shines I think are the Contrast and Technical paints, but those are really contextual to what you're planning to paint so hard to frame as 'essential'. Like Typhus Corrosion is great, but might not see much use if you're painting Ultramarines.

All that said- the main advantage of GW paints for a new painter, and GW quite clearly knows this, is being able to copy GW tutorials and buy into their painting system. But in that case, just buy whatever paints the tutorial tells you. When you're ready to experiment and figure out progressions on your own, you can build up your stable of 'essentials' with any brand.

Tyranid Horde wrote:they don't provide the high contrast shading they absolutely used to in the 00s and early 10s. Badab black is superior to Nuln oil and Devlan mud is superior to Agrax.

FWIW, Army Painter Dark Tone is identical to Badab Black, and Strong Tone is identical to Devlan Mud. They're still as great as you remember.

Whilst I only use GW paints (and as a fairly novice painter like the way you can follow their videos, hence using Lahmian Medium after 'Ard Coat for transfers) I agree the pots aren't great. A few of mine are all gummed up around the lid. If they could fix that it would be a big improvement.

GW reds and flesh tones are probably my essentials along with Agrax, Seraphim Sepia and Nuln oil. I own a few contrast paints which I’d definitely recommend to anyone, brilliant for glazes and the recommended way of using them. Also some of the beiges are great, Rakarth flesh and Zandri dust are great and I always find a lot of use for them. My main advice is don’t be blinkered by brands and marketing, experiment and find what’s useful and what works for you. Citadel is a solid but pricey brand, it’s not evil it has annoying pots.

I mainly go with Citadel simply because it's easier for me to pick up a pot or two of paint at my FLGS before/after gaming than order online. Only stores carrying other brands where I live are a Historical Miniatures store/gallery by the coast and one store the town over who's only open when he wants to be.

For me, I like many of the metallics for sure, though I've invested in mixing balls for a few. Contrast paints are fantastic, and I'd say the newer off-white paints are "essential" for painting white (admittedly, I don't know of other opaque off-white colors from other brands). I actually like the washes, though I plan on what effect I want before applying them. Recess shades are almost always targeted washes, my recent forays into actual TMM mean a more broad(ish) application, and worn clothing gets and all over wash, drybrush, all over wash, drybrush.

If I were to say any were "essential", I'd say the fleshtone and more transparent Contrast paints, mostly for batch painting, but the transparent ones make a fantastic glaze over metallics (especially over TMM).

The only Citadel paints I consider essential are their washes, and Contrast. For anything else I wil seek out a Vallejo version of what I am looking for, because I like their dropper bottles.

Voss wrote:

 Vulcan wrote:
Essential? Pretty much just the metallics, as they are generally excellent. The rest can be duplicated closely enough using craft paints or acrylic inks and matte medium.

Eh? A lot of Citadel metallics are consistently junk. The pigments tend to separate on the store shelf, and are often watery, useless gak, or weird semi-solid balls of crud and cruft.
And they've gotten much worse over time. I had a bottle of 'tin bitz' that lasted ages, but the current metallics are often bad straight after cracking them open.

Well, that's an unpleasant surprise to hear. I'm still operating on that same generation of paints (Tin Bitz, Boltgun Metal, Chainmail, etc), and they are excellent. If the new series of metallics (Leadbeltcher and so on) are that bad, I'm going to have to investigate other options. Sadly, craft metallics generally are not very good either.

Voss wrote:
Eh? A lot of Citadel metallics are consistently junk. The pigments tend to separate on the store shelf, and are often watery, useless gak, or weird semi-solid balls of crud and cruft.
And they've gotten much worse over time. I had a bottle of 'tin bitz' that lasted ages, but the current metallics are often bad straight after cracking them open.

You have to mix it. It works fine once it's properly mixed. If it's still too think, add a dash of retarder, flow aid or medium. I too am still on my 10 year old bottles.

 Vulcan wrote:
Well, that's an unpleasant surprise to hear. I'm still operating on that same generation of paints (Tin Bitz, Boltgun Metal, Chainmail, etc), and they are excellent. If the new series of metallics (Leadbeltcher and so on) are that bad, I'm going to have to investigate other options.

The Coat d'arms range in the UK is made by the same company (HMG Paints) that produced the original, round-pot Citadel paints, and is essentially the same stuff. I think that the Privateer Press Formula P3 line is also an HMG Paints product. Certainly, I have a pot of original Citadel Colour Boltgun Metal and a recent-ish pot of Formula P3 Pig Iron, and they seem a really close match.

Coat d'arms is currently sold by Black Hat Miniatures at https://www.blackhat.co.uk/product-category/coat-darms-paints/.

 Vulcan wrote:
If the new series of metallics (Leadbeltcher and so on) are that bad, I'm going to have to investigate other options. Sadly, craft metallics generally are not very good either.

If you do end up branching out to other brands, do your self a favour and check out Scale75 metallics. They are absolutely fantastic.

 Snrub wrote:

 Vulcan wrote:
If the new series of metallics (Leadbeltcher and so on) are that bad, I'm going to have to investigate other options. Sadly, craft metallics generally are not very good either.

If you do end up branching out to other brands, do your self a favour and check out Scale75 metallics. They are absolutely fantastic.

I really like the Scale75 metallics, but for silvery metallics I think the Vallejo Metal Color have a bit finer flake and better coverage.

The super cool thing about the Scale75 metallics, though, is that they come in colors other than 3,294,183 shades of silver plus a lonely brass Vallejo calls 'gold'. If you want colored metallics stop, do not pass go, do not collect $200, proceed directly to Scale75.

Speaking of gold, though, I've seen some amazing results from the Vallejo Liquid Metal range, but they're alcohol-based so have that added inconvenience factor to consider.

 catbarf wrote:
I really like the Scale75 metallics, but for silvery metallics I think the Vallejo Metal Color have a bit finer flake and better coverage.

I'm a big fan of the game colour metallics. Glorious Gold is my go to gold currently. Only Vellejo metallic I wasn't impressed with was Gunmetal Metal. Found that to be quite useless. Big gaps in the pigment and way to glittery and not "solid" enough to properly replace boltgun metal.

The super cool thing about the Scale75 metallics, though, is that they come in colors other than 3,294,183 shades of silver plus a lonely brass Vallejo calls 'gold'. If you want colored metallics stop, do not pass go, do not collect $200, proceed directly to Scale75.

I must confess that despite loving them, I only have 2 of the S75 metallics. Thrash and Decayed metal. But i've got my eye on the Golden paintset once they start shipping to Oz again.

Speaking of gold, though, I've seen some amazing results from the Vallejo Liquid Metal range, but they're alcohol-based so have that added inconvenience factor to consider.

I've heard this quite often, but the fact that it's alcohol based as for some reason, always been something of a turnoff for me. As you say, probably for the inconvenience factor. That and I think they really need to be applied via airbrushed rather then regular brush.

I've heard this quite often, but the fact that it's alcohol based as for some reason, always been something of a turnoff for me. As you say, probably for the inconvenience factor. That and I think they really need to be applied via airbrushed rather then regular brush.

You can brush them on quite happily. I've got some Liquitex Windsor & Newton brush cleaner (and brushes just for metallics) and they're fine for the Vallejo Liquid Gold stuff.

 Snrub wrote:

 catbarf wrote:
I really like the Scale75 metallics, but for silvery metallics I think the Vallejo Metal Color have a bit finer flake and better coverage.

I'm a big fan of the game colour metallics. Glorious Gold is my go to gold currently. Only Vellejo metallic I wasn't impressed with was Gunmetal Metal. Found that to be quite useless. Big gaps in the pigment and way to glittery and not "solid" enough to properly replace boltgun metal.

Vallejo Metal Color >>> Vallejo Game Color metals. Intended for airbrush use, however.



Edit: Downside of the Metal Color range is that it has one gold and one copper, and the rest are various silvers. I fill in those gaps with Scale 75.

bone, rotting flesh, space wolf grey - all great for highlighting as well as for base colours.
I might go to enamels for my metallics in future.

I don't use that many but I've always got at least one pot of Averland Sunset and one in reserve. I use it as a solid base coat for all sorts of colours and it will cover just about anything!

 sniffer_squig wrote:
I don't use that many but I've always got at least one pot of Averland Sunset and one in reserve. I use it as a solid base coat for all sorts of colours and it will cover just about anything!

Yes, averland sunset is magic when it comes to coverage. If I want to paint any yellow, I will paint averland sunset as the first coat, then my special yellow on top. Gets good coverage in 2-3 coats, including the averland sunset. For other colors, using a 50/50 mix of my base color with zandri dust gives a very opaque first layer.