Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Please answer poll. Then comment your opinion. I have mixed feelings.

I think the Citadel paint range is pretty good, overall. Yet there are some things I dislike or think that could be improved.
They could do better at mixing up their metallic colors (I have to mix my Auric Armour Gold with a toothpick every time I want to use it because the compounds they use always separate).
They say their Air Paints are not suitable for hand application or spray guns. Sure, I can see why they aren't suitable for hand application, but not for spray guns? Isn't that what an airbrush is? (Sorry, I don't know much about airbrushes).
Their small ranges (Glaze and Technical) could be merged. Glaze could be merged with Shade (What's the difference between Citadel glaze and Citadel Shade?) and Technical merged with Layer.
They offer their shade range in 24mL pots (I have no idea why they call their paint containers "pots"). I think that's a good thing. But if you offer shades in 24mL pots, why not offer other paints in 24mL pots? Or maybe even drop prices on their paint pots? $2 wouldn't be unreasonable for a 12mL paint pot, and $4 would be all right for a 24mL paint pot.
That's about all I have to say about their paints. What about you?

tip a friend of mine gave me: put metal balls in your paint bottles, so when you shake them they help mixing the components together.

Didn't have time to try it myself yet, but what I saw was convincing.

All those years ago before they started changing all the names of the paints I converted to Vallejo paints and have never looked back.

however saying that I still have some of the Citadel paint kicking around and I still use them. It's their washes I love ! They work very well and give good results when used proplerly.

So hence mixed

Yeah, put some sort of bead into them. I use sprue bitz.
A glaze is a thinner shade, made for tinting a colour, while a shade is for adding shadows.
Layer is literally half their paint range, and is pretty much more diluted base paints. I still love them though.
The citadel spray gun is not an airbrush and should be burned immediately.
Also, you are supposed to shake your paints a lot. Assuming you're a teenager (like me) you've got some experience.

1. Decent paints.
2. Terrible pots.
3. High prices.

That about covers my views on them.

 KaptinBadrukk wrote:
They could do better at mixing up their metallic colors (I have to mix my Auric Armour Gold with a toothpick every time I want to use it because the compounds they use always separate).

It's pretty common to have metallic colours separate out, even in other paint ranges. Having to use a toothpick every time sounds excessive, but I've never tried Auric Gold.

They say their Air Paints are not suitable for hand application or spray guns. Sure, I can see why they aren't suitable for hand application, but not for spray guns? Isn't that what an airbrush is? (Sorry, I don't know much about airbrushes).

Spray guns flow more paint in a wider spray pattern, often in a fan pattern rather than a circular cone. It depends on the spray gun, but spray guns are typically designed to take thicker paint, so if the Air range has been prethinned for airbrushes, it may be too thin for a spray gun.

(What's the difference between Citadel glaze and Citadel Shade?)

A shade is supposed to find its way in to the crevices, a glaze is supposed to cover a surface more evenly. I don't know if Citadel specifically formulates them differently, but since they are used differently they might (a shade might have lower surface tension).


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Aeri wrote:
tip a friend of mine gave me: put metal balls in your paint bottles, so when you shake them they help mixing the components together.

Didn't have time to try it myself yet, but what I saw was convincing.

Make sure if you use a metal ball it's not something that can corrode as it will destroy your paints. It's usually safer to use something like a glass bead.

 Wolf wrote:
All those years ago before they started changing all the names of the paints I converted to Vallejo paints and have never looked back.

however saying that I still have some of the Citadel paint kicking around and I still use them. It's their washes I love ! They work very well and give good results when used proplerly.

So hence mixed

Basically this, with a further comment on the pots. the black octagonal ones with the useful lip inside the lid are what I started with when I got back into gaming, may ro may not have been perfect but were good enough for me. Loathe the new pots, never seal right, drip and are generally a pain. Started with Vallejo for my WW2 models, and used both happily until the pots and the name & colour change - if I had to change the paints I used may as well just have one range.

No idea technically what the new GW paints are like, until they are in a better pot I'm not even looking, and indeed until Vallejo screw up I have no need to look.

Also not buying any of the new Battlefront paint range for the same reason, silly games with the names

Does anyone know why they're called Pots?

Aeri wrote:
tip a friend of mine gave me: put metal balls in your paint bottles, so when you shake them they help mixing the components together.

Didn't have time to try it myself yet, but what I saw was convincing.

You don't want metal, because if it rusts you'll lose the entire pot. You want a nonreactive material like glass beads.

They're good quality, I'll give them that. But at $4.25 USD for 0.4 oz., they're outside my budget for all but shades - bulk of my paint supply is craft paints at $1-$2 for 2-4 oz.

@KaptinBadrukk
They're paint pots ^^ its just the british way of saying paint containers. Less of a mouthful too =p

 Fieora wrote:
@KaptinBadrukk
They're paint pots ^^ its just the british way of saying paint containers. Less of a mouthful too =p

Thanks!

AllSeeingSkink wrote:
1. Decent paints.
2. Terrible pots.
3. High prices.

Quoting for truth

my fave paints, depend on colour and what I'm doing but generally go like this:

1. Vallejo
2. Reaper
3. Citadel

I'd add humboldt but I don't have much of it anymore as it's hard to get a hold of in my area.

I probably have an equal amount of all of the above, with slightly more Citadel because I started acrylics mostly with them and because they're for sale at my LGS, unlike 1 and 2, which I have to order online.

Separation is worse on Citadel than any other paints I've seen, and I have some really old paints. Otherwise it has good coverage, price is meh kinda, but the one thing I've seen that really helps promote GW paints - or honestly the only thing - would be their paint guides on their boxes.

Other paints are more for people who tend to know what colours they want and/or how to mix. GW introduces their paints better I think.

anyway just my rambling thoughts

I can walk into any town or city in the country and buy the same colours that I need to work with. That's a big plus.

The pots are stupid and quite pricy. That's a medium downer.

kb_lock wrote:

AllSeeingSkink wrote:
1. Decent paints.
2. Terrible pots.
3. High prices.

Quoting for truth

Yep. This about sums it up. For those brightly coloured acrylics they and their competition are much of a muchness with each line having a few paints to avoid and a few must haves. This then means that the main differentials are container and price, at which point P3, Vallejo, Army Painter and Coat d'Arms are streets ahead, coming in larger quantities for less money and in either dropper bottles or flip tops that don't seem to suffer from GW's terrible sealing/drying out issues.

I'd pick Reaper or Vallejo above a Citadel equivalent any day of the week. The only GW paints I own and use with any regularity are those or which I've found no ready equivalent. So I'm basically down to Incubi Darkness, Coelia Greenshade and Ceramite White.

I like them but don't trust them to keep paints I like in production so I prefer to use Vallejo if possible.

In my opinion, I don't really care about their range of paints or any other brand for that matter. If GW does not have the color I am looking for, there is Vallejo, Reaper, P3, and the list goes on.

There are a lot of comments about switching over to another brand of paint and I wonder why people limited themselves to only one brand to begin with. If you limit yourself to GW, you may never get to see how good Vallejo metallics are etc.

I really like the colours they offer, but I hate the bottle they come in. If they just packed them in the Vallejo bottles I'd use them exclusively, but as it stands I use a mix of them and Vallejo.

Edit: The price is a little high, but that's GW for you I suppose D:

 Buttery Commissar wrote:
I can walk into any town or city in the country and buy the same colours that I need to work with. That's a big plus.

Indeed, for years that's why I stuck with GW paints. I don't like buying paints online, if I want a paint I usually want it *now* and I can't see what the colour is. The local GW would let you test paints before you bought them which was brilliant, even if they didn't already have one open the manager would open one up for me to let me test it.

But over the years, less stores stock GW stuff, so that advantage is diminishing. It seems these days each store has a different range. I can get VMC, VMA, Tamiya and Gunze from one store, VGC, VMC, Humbrol and Testors from another store, Citadel, Reaper and P3 from another store. For years the only stores that within 45 minutes drive which carried acrylics only had Citadel.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 KaptinBadrukk wrote:
Does anyone know why they're called Pots?

A "pot" is simply a generic term for "container".

Had this discussion elsewhere. My relationship with GW paint lines:
Customer: I really like your paints but they dry out so quickly.
GeeDub: Awesome! Glad you like them! We're changing them ever-so-called slightly, just enough that they'll almost match what we had before!
Customer: Ok, took me a while to get used to the new paints but I still kinda like them. I still have a problem with them drying out too quickly.
GeeDub: Awesome! Glad you like them! Now we're changing the tubs!
Customer: Really! That's great! Are they dropper bottles like we wanted?
GeeDub: Awesome! Glad you like them! No dropper bottles, just different.
Customer: Huh?
GeeDub: Awesome! Glad you like them! Now we're 're-doing the entire line! Engineered from the bottom up to be just what the customer has been asking for....legally defensible, trademarked names! Some other stuff too!
Customer: Like dropper bottles?
GeeDub: Awesome! Glad you like them! Our new range has lots of cool new stuff!
Customer: I hear good things about Reaper and Vallejo paints.
GeeDub: Awesome! Glad you like them! Now we've added even more stuff to our new paint range!
GeeDub: Awesome! Glad you like them! Now we're removing some things from our new paint range!
GeeDub: Awesome! Glad you like them!

GW's paints may be high priced, but I swear by them. I've never been disappointed by them yet, other than Imperial Primer. They have every color I could possibly want and plenty more I don't think I'll ever want (not because they're bad, but because I simply don't need those particular colors!).

Personally, I swear by Tamiya paints. However, there is one GW paint product I would recommend to everyone. Lahmian Medium technical paint. It works very well with every Tamiya paint I combine it with and it lets me make a wash out of exactly the colour I'm looking for.

Generally speaking, I really like GW paints. The broad color range is appealing to me, especially in the type of models I like to paint (scifi/fantasy), and they are pretty readily available. Plus, I like pots over droppers for paintbrush paints. The level of glossiness of the finished model is great if you're not sealing it, too.

Also, there are a few standout paints, like Leadbelcher, Retributor and Liberator gold, Mephiston Red, and some of the reallly bright blues that I just like a lot better than some alternatives.

It's worth mentioning, though, that I use plenty of other paints from PP and Vallejo.

 KaptinBadrukk wrote:
They could do better at mixing up their metallic colors (I have to mix my Auric Armour Gold with a toothpick every time I want to use it because the compounds they use always separate).

That's strange... I just have to shake mine the same as any other metallic paint. I mean, they do separate, but not to the extent where I must use a toothpick. I'm pretty sure if you take it to a GW store, they'll swap it for you. Vallejo is the worst for me in terms of Metallics separating.

 KaptinBadrukk wrote:
They say their Air Paints are not suitable for hand application or spray guns. Sure, I can see why they aren't suitable for hand application, but not for spray guns? Isn't that what an airbrush is? (Sorry, I don't know much about airbrushes).
Their small ranges (Glaze and Technical) could be merged. Glaze could be merged with Shade (What's the difference between Citadel glaze and Citadel Shade?) and Technical merged with Layer.
They offer their shade range in 24mL pots (I have no idea why they call their paint containers "pots"). I think that's a good thing. But if you offer shades in 24mL pots, why not offer other paints in 24mL pots? Or maybe even drop prices on their paint pots? $2 wouldn't be unreasonable for a 12mL paint pot, and $4 would be all right for a 24mL paint pot.
That's about all I have to say about their paints. What about you?

I think the spray gun they mean is the old citadel hunk of scrap that wasn't worth the plastic it was molded in

Shades and Glazes are really similar, but their purposes are a little different. The obvious: shades are dark and glazes are bright. In a perfect world, shades would roll smoothly into all the crevices and barely colorize the rest of your model; this is why gloss coating a model before shading can produce good results. In contrast, shades are meant to tint the entire model evenly; there are many reasons to do so, but one reason may be to reduce the harshness of drybrushing. Usually, a less smooth surface, like a matte coat, provides a better surface to glaze with. But yeah, they are similar, and not immediately obvious Way back when (like 20+ years ago), I recall Citadel acutally made inks for shading purposes.

TBH, I don't think I want regular paints in 24ml, unless the 12ml is also available. In most colors, the 12ml last me a really, really long time. Even colors I like, such as Administratum Grey or Moot Green can last me nearly a year. So, I'd rather just get a fresh pot The shades, especially Nuhln and Agrax, you can just drink up, so 24ml is great. I would love $2 paint pots But I don't think it will ever happen. They just sell too well at their current price, and perhaps in Europe or some parts of the US, Vallejo is cheaper, but here, it's exactly the same price per pot as GW (though you get more).




Automatically Appended Next Post:

 ZergSmasher wrote:
GW's paints may be high priced, but I swear by them. I've never been disappointed by them yet, other than Imperial Primer. They have every color I could possibly want and plenty more I don't think I'll ever want (not because they're bad, but because I simply don't need those particular colors!).

OMG. The first time I got an Imperial primer, I thought it was broken, because its application never dried (seriously, days later, it was still wet). Then someone told me to shake it like crazy... like... 20 minutes type. I ended up stirring it with a metal rod and then shaking for probably half an hour. It worked.... I guess.... but it wasn't nearly worth the effort, LOL LOL. It also wasn't really all that great a primer.

Black Acrylic Gesso for the win

 ZergSmasher wrote:
GW's paints may be high priced, but I swear by them. I've never been disappointed by them yet....

Have you tried many ranges that you have been disappointed with, if so, why?

Frankly I see all the acrylic ranges as being quite similar. I've never been disappointed by any of them (other than when a colour turned out different to what I thought it would be).

It mostly comes down to pots, price and having the colour I want because the actual quality of the paint isn't all that different from one range to the next. Tamiya and Gunze are the only ones that are slightly different because they are alcohol based. I quite like them except for their pots, I hate their pots even more than I hate the GW pots (not because they dry out but because they get jammed and become almost impossible to open).

Like the range of colours though they seem to dry for me a lot quicker than the old range.
Don't really like the new pots, prefer the older version.
Didn't like having to learn a whole new set of colour names.

I'm mostly using Vallejo now. Though I do like GW's metallics... at least those from about 5 years ago when I last bought any

AllSeeingSkink wrote:
1. Decent paints.
2. Terrible pots.
3. High prices.

That about covers my views on them.

What he said.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Ghaz wrote:

Aeri wrote:
tip a friend of mine gave me: put metal balls in your paint bottles, so when you shake them they help mixing the components together.

Didn't have time to try it myself yet, but what I saw was convincing.

You don't want metal, because if it rusts you'll lose the entire pot. You want a nonreactive material like glass beads.

Metal is fine, as long as it is marine grade stainless steel.

Guildenstern wrote:
my fave paints, depend on colour and what I'm doing but generally go like this:

1. Vallejo
2. Reaper
3. Citadel

I'd add humboldt but I don't have much of it anymore as it's hard to get a hold of in my area.

I probably have an equal amount of all of the above, with slightly more Citadel because I started acrylics mostly with them and because they're for sale at my LGS, unlike 1 and 2, which I have to order online.

Separation is worse on Citadel than any other paints I've seen, and I have some really old paints. Otherwise it has good coverage, price is meh kinda, but the one thing I've seen that really helps promote GW paints - or honestly the only thing - would be their paint guides on their boxes.

Other paints are more for people who tend to know what colours they want and/or how to mix. GW introduces their paints better I think.

anyway just my rambling thoughts

Don't buy Scale 75 then. Amazing paints, but they separate worse than any GW paint I've ever seen.

I love them! I have bought almost the entire range since I have been back in the hobby this past year. My only qualms are a few of the paints can be very clumpy - Ceramite White and Mephiston Red are two culprits.

Also they need to sell Agrax Earthshade. Nuln Oil and Lahmein Medium in litre bottles in my opinion :-p

Ceramite White is an utterly useless paint that even armies/craftworlds/septs/chapters/regiments/WAAAGH!s/other factions that use white opt for Ulthuan Grey over a white primer. Thank Duncan. GW washes,dry and technicals are to die for.


Also, when closing your pots, make sure that you close it
1. Without that little tab at the back going underneath the lid,
2. ALL THE WAY AROUND.