Fine here it is.

A few weeks ago, I stumbled across a lucky Facebook Marketplace post which happened to contain a whole bunch of Citadel paints from the 1998-2012 range; The middle child of Citadel, in between the iconic 90’s super vibrant range and the current one. If you want some more history on this paint range, check out Stahly’s excellent review from Tale of Painters.

The 2000s are my favourite era of minis and paints (despite the fact I wasn’t even hobbying at the time); I love models from era for reasons elaborated on in my Hobby Blog on D&D minis, and all my favourite paint ranges besides current Citadel (P3, Vallejo Game Colour, Reaper) are from this era too. So naturally, these paints were something of a holy grail for me. Anyway, enough preamble, here’s the review.

I’m running low on Mournfang Brown.

Foundation Paints:

I have 3 of the Foundation paints: Knarloc Green (similar to modern Citadel’s Loren Forest), Calthan Brown (similar to Mournfang Brown but a bit less warm and reddish), and Mordian Blue (basically just Macragge Blue). Since all of these paints behave exactly the same, I’m going to talk about them all as one thing.

Foundation paints are very thick. They seperate a lot, tend to be more pastel (because of white and black pigments added to improve coverage), don’t have the best flow, and tend to leave brush marks if not thinned even more so then usual paints, and are quite matte. However: They are touted as having possibly the best coverage amoung mini paints ever. So, naturally I was quite excited to try them out.

Yeah, they live up to the hype. I thinned then down heavily, much more so then I usually do with basecoating paints to avoid the brush marks, and they still covered black perfectly in two thin coats. Thinned down to a normal basecoat/layer consistency, they’d cover in a single coat (but obviously, they’d be more prone to leaving brush marks). These definitely are the best covering mini paints, ever.

So yeah, I’m quite happy with these. Mordian Blue will probably be the least used, as Macragge Blue is just as good. But Calthan Brown will definitely be in my regular rotation, as it’s a perfect midtone brown and unique tone for Citadel. Knarloc Green has better coverage then Loren Forest, so I imagine it’ll take it’s place.

The camera really struggles to capture the luminosity of Blood Red. Trust me, it makes Evil Sunz Scarlet look pastel.

The Normal Acrylic Paints.

While Foundation paints are generally remembered fondly and still regarded as good by painters of today, the main range of Citadel paints from that era was much more… Mixed. As these paints are all quite different, I’m gonna break the ones I have down one by one.

Blood Red: This red is the most vibrant red I’ve ever seen. It makes Evil Sunz Scarlet, one of the most vibrant reds in mini paints, look pastel in comparison. It is also naturally quite transparent, which I see as a strength, not a flaw. The transperency makes it perfect for layering/glazing, which is the primary thing I would do with this sort of extremely bright red, and it’s now a staple of my bright red colour recipe.

Dark Angels Green: This is the Caliban Green precursor, and it’s awesome. Way less pastel and more satured + vibrant then Caliban, it also has far better coverage; Despite being a dark colour, Caliban Green often takes three or so coats to cover black (even more over grey). Dark Angels green has perfect coverage in two thin coats.

Graveyard Earth: This is basically just worse Steel Legion Drab. It’s not bad, but Steel Legion Drab has much better coverage and is nearly identical in tone. I only see myself using this one for the sake of painting period accurate paint jobs, or maybe the occasional highlight.

Skull White: This white is…. Bad? It was the only pot that had apparently thickened over the years (it was a bit like whipped cream in terms of consistency). It’s coverage is nonexistent. However, it is smoother and less chalky then current White Scar. I will probably use this for highlights and such, as it is smoother then a lot of whites.

Undercoat Black: This is apparently an undercoat/primer black (as subtly suggested by the name). It’s a bit glossy, has average coverage, and is altogether unremarkable. I’ve yet to try it for its itended purpose of priming.

The Burnished Gold doesn’t look so bad in this, but trust me. The thing doesn’t even remotely look like gold. Also there’s no open pot shots cause my lights don’t like metallic paints (much reflection).

Metallics and Washes.

This one was a surpise.

Chainmail Silver: This. Is. Awesome. The best silver I’ve seen in mini paints, hands down. Coverage: Perfect. Smoothness: Unparalleled. It’s got the finest metallic flakes I have seen. It’s so good. Best paint of the range, by miles. Man I wish I had Boltgun Metal, the darker silver (Leadbelcher) of the range.

Burnished Gold: Ok this one is awful. Looks like yellow paint with a small amount of gold metallic flakes added. Has the coverage of water. Get banished to the paint box of shame in my attic.

Badab Black (wash): This is the Nuln Oil precursor. And it’s…. Perfectly fine. It doesn’t have those insane flow properties where you can just drop it on a model and it’ll flow into the reccesses and it’ll do all the work itself like (pre 2021 reformulation) Nuln Oil, but it does have slightly less tinting then Nuln Oil. Dries matte, isn’t super thick. So, it’s a perfectly good black wash. I have two pots of it, so I’ll use it whenever I don’t want to waste Nuln Oil.

Aaaaand that’s it. These paints are solid, I like most of them, and they’ll end up in my regular rotation of paints. Go join the Discord https://discord.gg/646b7T3d99 there’ll be a blog next week BYE.

Man why do all of my outros suck why are they so hard.