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In the 18 months since I first picked up a brush I have seen a lot of comments on here basically rubbishing citadel and saying to avoid them. So I tried vallejo and other brands an now Green Stuff World are my go to for most new paints. However I did get a lot of citadel paints at first and I still love some of them but, but some do suck. So I wondered which paints specifically from the citadel paint range people really rate highly so I can keep them in consideration.

I’ll start by saying I have a large number of metallic paints and frankly you can’t beat leadbelcher either as a base or final colour. Looks great thins down well and applies to the model really well.

Also the purple and pinks I have standout in colour and function, kakophoni purple and emperors children are a great pairing.

Citadel’s fine, the problem is the pricing. Waaagh flesh is a great colour.

The darkoath flesh contrast paint is great for doing (tanned) skin. And the old staples of agrax earthshade and nuln oil...

Great I have guilliman flesh on the way if they works the way I want then I’ll put darkoath my list


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 DalekCheese wrote:
Citadel’s fine, the problem is the pricing. Waaagh flesh is a great colour.

Cool I need a good base for Orky skin

Citadel paints are fine, they are just expensive and I hate the pots. Some of them are also prone to drying out (not as bad as the old days, but still sometimes happens), my Corax white turned into a blob and I've had an Averland Sunset turn crusty.... but they are also really nice colours before they dried out so I just bought more of them when they became unusable.

Usually when a colour in citadel sucks, it's because it's a tricky colour and if you buy the same colour elsewhere it'll likely also have problems (e.g. vibrant reds and yellows are always problematic regardless of which brand you buy).

A lot of their base range paints are simply awesome, great coverage in one coat when thinned down.

GW do red very well so I'd go for mephiston or khorne red from their base range.

Zandri dust, bugman's glow and XV88 are also firm favourites.

I personally like Sotek Green, my only complaint is that it should have been named Sotek Blue. Blood for the Blood God is another good one

 Conservative Heretic wrote:
I personally like Sotek Green, my only complaint is that it should have been named Sotek Blue. Blood for the Blood God is another good one

Just had some blood for the blood god arrive today!


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Tyranid Horde wrote:
A lot of their base range paints are simply awesome, great coverage in one coat when thinned down.

GW do red very well so I'd go for mephiston or khorne red from their base range.

Zandri dust, bugman's glow and XV88 are also firm favourites.

I agree about the bases, I find they really don’t need to be thinned down much and if you have to rebase to cover up a mistake they cover up in one layer

I love Lupercal green and sons of Horus green.

Second bugmans glow for flesh. Rhinox hide for gold base.

The edge paints are worth the money too.

 queen_annes_revenge wrote:
I love Lupercal green and sons of Horus green.

Second bugmans glow for flesh. Rhinox hide for gold base.

The edge paints are worth the money too.

Edge paints?

The base paints and shade's are great, some of the best in class. No other company makes a wash as good as Nuln Oil. A lot of the technical paints are good too. Not a fan of their layer paints though

(Many of) The Contrast paints are great. The more transparent ones are phenomenal over metallic to get a colored metallic. A Contrast layer followed by some drybrush makes a great look for clothing for basic troops.

I also like their recent off-white colors; great coverage when thinned and far easier to work with than any white paint I've ever used.

To be fair, I mostly use citadel paints because that's what the FLGS has, and most have been good.

mrFickle wrote:

 queen_annes_revenge wrote:
I love Lupercal green and sons of Horus green.

Second bugmans glow for flesh. Rhinox hide for gold base.

The edge paints are worth the money too.

Edge paints?

Edge paints are designed for edge highlighting, but also allow for nice light tones or pastels.

 queen_annes_revenge wrote:

mrFickle wrote:

 queen_annes_revenge wrote:
I love Lupercal green and sons of Horus green.

Second bugmans glow for flesh. Rhinox hide for gold base.

The edge paints are worth the money too.

Edge paints?

Edge paints are designed for edge highlighting, but also allow for nice light tones or pastels.

To add: edge paints are high pigment density, high flow formulation.

They're loose paints with good coverage (think watered down paint but not actually watered down in terms of coverage).

 queen_annes_revenge wrote:
I love Lupercal green and sons of Horus green.

Second bugmans glow for flesh. Rhinox hide for gold base.

The edge paints are worth the money too.

Is Lupercal green the new Caliban green? They look the same

mrFickle wrote:
frankly you can’t beat leadbelcher either as a base or final colour. Looks great thins down well and applies to the model really well.

Ooh, couldn't disagree more. I was really disappointed with leadbelcher when I first got it. I found adding any water to it just made it unusable. I started using straight from the pot, which did improve it's usage immensely for me, but I still find it to be patchy at best. It's not a patch on the old Boltgun metal.


I'll always recommend Mephiston Red. Absolutely superlative colour. Works great as a mid tone over a darker red or a dark brown.
Bugmans glow is also a great starting point for skin. And I was suprised at how much I liked Cadian skintone, after I started using that recently.

With the contrasts, you can't beat Guilliman Flesh for a "standard" Caucasian skintone. Works really well for shading Bugmans Glow. Darkoath flesh is also quite nifty.
Wyldwood and Flesh Tearers Red are both unbeatable. Wyldwood is almost a perfect match for the old citadel Brown Ink and is great for shading leather and wood. Flesh Tearers makes for a fantastic glaze once thinned right down.

I have around 200 different pots, mostly GW, some vallejo. What you need to do is get some acrylic mediums(both regular and metallic from Hobby Lobby) and a gallon of distilled water to regularly keep your pots fresh(5 drops and some distilled water), the paint itself goes a long way if you do this.

My favorite pot is lahmian medium, its the best for decals and helps even out the surface if your paint texture is uneven. I highly recommend all the wash tones from GW, metallics such as leadbelcher, iron warriors, layer/base such as rhinox hide, eshin grey, it depends on the army scheme you're painting.

Cynista wrote:
The base paints and shade's are great, some of the best in class. No other company makes a wash as good as Nuln Oil. A lot of the technical paints are good too. Not a fan of their layer paints though

Have you tried the Army Painter shade paints as an alternative to Nuln Oil? I quite like them. I don't necessarily think it's better, but find it as good and the dropper bottle is much more consistent over time (Nuln Oil I've found if I paint a model a year after opening the pot, it looks different to one I painted a day after opening it, but the Army Painter ones don't change over time).

Some of the confusion may be that that there is no such thing as ‘Edge’ paints any longer. They were intended as third highlights, and for a while only came in a set together. The colors, like Dorn Yellow and Gauss Blaster Green, have been relabeled and sold as Layer paints now.

AllSeeingSkink wrote:

Cynista wrote:
The base paints and shade's are great, some of the best in class. No other company makes a wash as good as Nuln Oil. A lot of the technical paints are good too. Not a fan of their layer paints though

Have you tried the Army Painter shade paints as an alternative to Nuln Oil? I quite like them. I don't necessarily think it's better, but find it as good and the dropper bottle is much more consistent over time (Nuln Oil I've found if I paint a model a year after opening the pot, it looks different to one I painted a day after opening it, but the Army Painter ones don't change over time).

this is because you didn't shake/stir it before application; if you just paint with what's on top then the result looks wet/semi glossy, whereas if you get to the bottom the result looks like dried powder work. Also take notice couple have a Gloss and regular of the same color, reikland flesh for example. for best consistent result you should stir it before application, also add some distilled water.

 totalfailure wrote:
Some of the confusion may be that that there is no such thing as ‘Edge’ paints any longer. They were intended as third highlights, and for a while only came in a set together. The colors, like Dorn Yellow and Gauss Blaster Green, have been relabeled and sold as Layer paints now.

Oh I didn't know that! I bought mine from Warhammer world years ago. I think that was the only place you could buy them individually. I bought most of them, and all but one are still going today.

mrFickle wrote:


Is Lupercal green the new Caliban green? They look the same

No I don't think so. Lupercal green has more blue value, to be used as a base for the sons of Horus sea green.

I exclusively use Citadel for sprays and washes, I haven't found an alternative as good. Anything else I'd happily use Vallejo.

Two Vallejo colours that have been bad for me are the bright red and yellow, both are watery and not worth using. Can't remember the specific names. I'll only buy Citadel versions of those going forward. I tend to avoid bright colours anyway so this hasn't been much of an issue but I will be needing a yellow next time I order models

 Big Mac wrote:

AllSeeingSkink wrote:

Cynista wrote:
The base paints and shade's are great, some of the best in class. No other company makes a wash as good as Nuln Oil. A lot of the technical paints are good too. Not a fan of their layer paints though

Have you tried the Army Painter shade paints as an alternative to Nuln Oil? I quite like them. I don't necessarily think it's better, but find it as good and the dropper bottle is much more consistent over time (Nuln Oil I've found if I paint a model a year after opening the pot, it looks different to one I painted a day after opening it, but the Army Painter ones don't change over time).

this is because you didn't shake/stir it before application; if you just paint with what's on top then the result looks wet/semi glossy, whereas if you get to the bottom the result looks like dried powder work. Also take notice couple have a Gloss and regular of the same color, reikland flesh for example. for best consistent result you should stir it before application, also add some distilled water.

No I definitely mixed it properly, I'm aware of the matting agents that can settle out so I always mix my washes well after not using them for a while. The army painter ones are the same, if you let them sit too long the pigment and matting agent goes to the bottom. It's just the citadel ones always seem to degrade over time after opening them.