You’re probably all getting sick of these new series that I’m introducing, but as I just restarted the blog everything is the first of its thing. Anyway, this is gonna be a semi-regular series, where I’ll give my top 5 or 10 paints from a brand and talk a bit about the range as a whole. Since Citadel is my most used range, and still one of my favourites, I felt it was only appropriate to start with them.

A bit here up front about me and mini paints: I own paints from virtually every popular miniature paint brand on the market and my regular rotation of paints consists of about 5 different brands and about 7 different ranges. While I use many different brands, there is something far bigger then brand that determines how a paint acts (and whether or not I like it): Whether a paint is matte, or satin. This doesn’t just affect the finish; matte and satin paints have a completely different set of unique qualities that affects how they act.

While the mini painting community do enjoy gaslighting themselves into thinking matte paints are the best (matte paint is literally graded as the lowest quality paint period by the coatings industry, the guys who make your paints), I personally prefer satin paints cause they’re categorically better according to paint science. To make a paint matte, you have to add a ton of fillers which have the (not) minor side effect of making all matte paints chalkier, less durable, harder to work with, have significantly less colour vibrancy and can’t even display some colours as intended. And cause they have to lower the amount of binder to make room for all the fillers, matte paints separate badly when thinned with water cause there’s not enough binder to hold the paint together (to be honest, even satin mini paint brands are guilty of skimping on binder too, just not to quite the same extent). Anyway, satin paints are smoother, more durable, easier to work with, can fully display vibrant pigments without dulling them down, and are generally better in every way. Now, I’m not saying you can’t like matte paints, or not to buy them, I’m just telling you the science of how they work and my own personal opinion.

So because of this, I don’t use any of the following paint brands: Proacryl (who are the worst offender in regards to every downside of matte paint), AK Interactive, Scalecolour, and the new Vallejo paints and Army Painter paints as they’re all super matte. There’s also this trend of adding white or black pigment to everything to improve coverage in newer ranges (all of the above except Scalecolour), which makes them darker, duller and/or more pastel. And in all my testing, the improvement in coverage is only evident in weak paints such as yellows, so… Yeah, the massive leap forward in the new generation of mini paints people like to talk about is bullshit. The new brands are no better then the old stuff, in fact they’re lower quality because they’re matte.

Anyway, rant over. TL;DR: Matte paint is bad, satin paint is good, mini painters don’t know anything about how paint works so they’ve convinced themselves the opposite. Let’s talk about Citadel.

I asked a bunch of people on both the LPP and other Discord servers what their favourite Citadel paints were, and they were all essentially the same as mine. Citadel’s best colours are pretty obvious, we all know them and probably use them. The only problem for me was narrowing it down: This list could have been 15 or 20 paints. Citadel probably has the largest number of uniquely awesome paints out of any range. Hating on Citadel is popular, but according to industry grading standards I mentioned above they are probably the best mini paints on the market (excluding a few awful colours). Vallejo Game Colour are close behind but miss out due to binder issues.

So, in no particular order as all of these paints are roughly the same in terms of quality, here’s my top 10 Citadel paints.

10: Incubi Darkness.

This shouldn’t surprise any experienced painter. Incubi Darkness is one of the most versatile colours Citadel has to offer. It’s the colour that appears the most on the ‘Eavy Metal Archive for a reason. Mix it in to nearly any colour to create a shadow tone and it looks awesome, the dark greeny blue is far more interesting then black. Just as Vallejo Ice Yellow is often regarded as the most useful universal highlight tone, this is the universal shadow tone. And it’s not just for mixing, on its own this colour has amazing coverage and is super smooth. Whenever you need a black for a large area such as the robe of a cultist, the scales of some lizard or dragony beast, or the dark leather armour of a ranger, use Incubi Darkness instead. It’s dark enough to be an off-black, but the colour is just far more interesting. Highlight it with greens or blues, or mix greys into it to fade it out.

9: Zandri Dust.

It’s the best covering khaki paint on the market. That’s it. Super smooth and not chalky like many khaki paints, amazing coverage, can be used as a highlight tone for tans and it might be my favourite base colour for bones. Most bone whites are chalky, so just basecoat with this, shade with whatever, and then layer on your bone white and you’ll finally have a nice smooth bone.

8: Mephiston Red (buckle in we’re on to the reds).

In case you’ve been living under a rock and aren’t aware, Citadel’s reds are without doubt their best colours. Even people who hate Citadel will grudging admit their reds are great. Smoothness, vibrancy, coverage, no reds I have found in miniature paints can come close to Citadel’s. And since Mephiston Red is their most popular one, lets start with it. So, it has amazing coverage (can cover black in two thin coats), is super smooth, vibrant…. Wait, I already said all that. But seriously. No other red has the combination of vibrancy and coverage that Mephiston has. If you don’t have it, what is wrong with you.

7: Khorne Red.

Ok I love Khorne Red. It is somehow dark but vibrant, saturated, a unique dark red with an interesting purple undertone instead of the usual brownish one of dark reds. It’s beautiful. And like every Citadel red, it’s super smooth and can cover black in one or two thin coats. While Mephiston is the classic bright tomato red, this one is honestly my favourite of the Citadel reds. Maybe my favourite Citadel paint, period.

6: Evil Sunz Scarlet.

Here’s the highlight colour for those other two reds. Honestly, Evil Sunz Scarlet might be the most impressive of the Citadel reds. It’s the brightest and most vibrant of the lot, but still can cover black in two thin coats. While it’s a great highlight colour, if you need a super bright, punchy red, it’s also amazing as a basecoat. It thins down really well (as do the other reds) too. Honestly there’s nothing more to say about the Citadel reds. They’re virtually flawless and great at everything a miniature paint should be great at.

5: Rakarth Flesh.

Here’s another super versatile colour. Need a dead flesh colour? Rakarth Flesh. Ivory tone for horns? Rakarth Flesh. Basecoat for cream or off/dirty white cloth that actually has good coverage? Rakarth Flesh. Parchment, bleached leather, pale skin, pale fur, Rakarth Flesh is perfect as a base tone for them all. It has ridiculous coverage for an off white (can cover black in two thin coats), its nice and smooth unlike most light colours in miniature painting, and is just generally a great paint. Citadel has so many unique colours like this that are just awesome (most of which are on this list), its one of it’s biggest strengths as a range.

4: Rhinox Hide (yeah the browns are the other best thing about Citadel).

If it isn’t Khorne Red, Rhinox Hide is my favourite Citadel paint. It’s a dark warm brown, pretty standard, but like Khorne Red is has this veeery subtle reddish purplish undertone that makes it unique. It has awesome coverage (can cover black in one coat), and is probably Citadel’s most popular/most used colour. If you need a dark brown, Rhinox Hide is undefeatable.

3: Mournfang Brown.

Mournfang Brown is the perfect example of a midtone pure brown. That’s literally it. If you need a good brown that’s not too dark or too light, Mournfang Brown has you covered (I hate myself for that one). It’s Citadel’s most popular brown next to Rhinox Hide, and for good reason. Its the best midtone brown I’ve found. Can cover black in one or two thin coats, smooth, you know it by now. Like I said, Citadel’s browns are pretty much all amazing, so this entry could have gone to Dryad Bark, Steel Legion Drab, or whatever. They’re all good. Get them.

2: Bugman’s Glow.

Ohhhh man I love this paint. It’s a dark tan skin tone that is probably the best flesh colour I have ever used. It is smooth as silk, can cover black in one or two thin coats, and is just the perfect base for every flesh tone that’s not really dark or pale. Mix in whatever smooth fleshtone or bone white for highlights.

1: Retributor Armour.

Citadel’s metallics are not great (better then VGC or Army Painter, but not great). But Retributor Armour is the exception. Gold paints tend to have terrible coverage as a rule in miniature paints, but Retributor Armour is the exception. It can cover black in two thin coats. That’s the best coverage, by miles, of any gold paint I’ve tried. It’s smooth, has a lovely rich reddish tone, and is definitely the best gold paint in my collection.

Here’s a few honourable mention: Averland Sunset, it has awesome coverage and is essential if you want to paint yellow over a black undercoat. Corax White is generally bad but if you get a pot that’s actually smooth and not a lumpy mess it has the best coverage of any hobby white by a mile. Abaddon Black is actually the best satin black out there (beats VGC and Army Painter). Also Citadel’s blues are at least as good if not better then every other paint range’s, they’re just not on here cause most blue pigments are so strong that most brands can’t fuck them up so Citadel’s are about the same as every other brand.

And that’s it from me for now. Probably another Hobby Blog or two coming up next, and I promise I’ll do a full painting tutorial eventually. It’ll either be a guide for those Mantic Games Orcs I reviewed or my recipe for speed painting Space Marines. I’m also gonna continue this series of Top X Paints from X brands; it’ll probably be either Vallejo or Army Painter next. Anyway, go join the Discord there’s cool peeps in there like a bunch of big content creators and paint experts: https://discord.gg/646b7T3d99. Bye.