Video: The Citadel Colour “conspiracy”

A while ago, Squidmar and Andy Wardle from Cult of Paint sat down and uncovered changes in the current Citadel Colour range Games Workshop didn’t tell us about. And it’s not just them, I’ve ALSO noticed that the Citadel paints I’ve bought recently seem different from before. In this video, I’ll investigate and tell you what you need to know now if you have Citadel paints in your collection. Is it a change for the better or worse, we’ll find out together in this video.

On my YouTube channel and here on Tale of Painters, I test and review miniature paints. Lots and lots of miniature paints. I’m a huge paint nerd, and this is why this video from Squidmar caught my eye. Together with the multi-times Golden Demon winner Andy Wardle, who is part of the amazing Cult of Paint channel, Emil compared some recently bought red paints from Games Workshop’s Citadel range. They discovered that if you buy a pot of say Khorne Red these days, the colour is noticeably lighter and more pastel than it used to be. And it seems to be the same with the other Citadel reds and rich browns like Rhinox Hide. They asked the community if they had had similar experiences with other colours, and indeed, I have also long suspected that something has changed about the Citadel range. On my Patreon channel, I create hand-painted colour charts for all the major paint ranges. When I got a fresh set of paints for making my Citadel swatch, I noticed the changes in consistency, finish and colour hues compared to the older pots in my collection.

Why all hobby paints are changing over time

I’ll tell you all about this in a moment, but first, it’s important to note that all hobby paints change over time. And I don’t just mean complete product relaunches like Vallejo recently did with their Game and Model Color ranges, which I reviewed here. No, I mean slight changes in consistency or shifts in specific colours that creep in over time and which are hushed up by the manufacturers. Take the old Formula P3 range from Privateer Press, for instance. When I tried to replace some used-up colours I had originally bought in the late 2000s, I noticed that the newer versions were slightly thinner and the colours a bit lighter and weaker in comparison.

While this can sometimes be a batch-to-batch thing, there are usually other reasons why this is happening. Firstly, paint is made from pigments, and specific pigments sometimes just disappear from the market. My friend Drezrale, a paint industry expert, who also has his own YouTube channel, made me realise that the market for hobby and artist paints is much smaller than that for automotive, industry and house paints. So, if demand for a particular pigment drops in these segments and suppliers decide to discontinue it, hobby and artist paint manufacturers have little say in the matter because their purchasing power is significantly lower. As a result, the affected colours have to be reformulated using different pigments.

Paint quality vs profit maximisation

While this can be one explanation, the real reason is usually something else. Changes like these are, most of the time, cost-saving measures. The prices of raw materials are constantly rising, and if a company wants to increase or maintain its profit margins, it may need to cut corners on paint quality by reducing the amount of pigment and adding more cheaper fillers or water, or substituting expensive pigments with cheaper alternatives.

So, is the quiet change in Citadel paints just a case of profit maximisation? After all, Games Workshop is known for its regular price increases, and it’s rather suspicious that Citadel paints haven’t seen a price hike in quite some time. But I believe the answer isn’t so easy. Let me explain why.

Although top painters like Darren Latham or the ‘Eavy Metal team produce amazing paint jobs with Citadel paints only, the range has a somewhat poor reputation among more experienced hobbyists. This might be partly due to the design of the flip-top pots and their high price. But the common sense is that certain colours like yellow, orange, red, and white are notorious for their weak coverage and chalky finish. However, in recent years the hobby paint industry has made significant progress in improving the opacity and brushability of acrylic paint. This was possible because of new innovative techniques that didn’t exist 10 to 20 years ago. And I believe that Games Workshop wanted to jump on this bandwagon.

Old vs new Citadel paints compared

But before I explain further, let me show you exactly what has changed with Citadel paints, what you need to be aware of, and how you can identify the new versions from the old.

First and foremost, I’ve noticed an improved coverage with the new paints, especially with lighter colours and particularly the Layer paints. This means you’ll need fewer coats to achieve an even coverage. Don’t expect miracles, though – colours like Yriel Yellow or White Scar still require quite a few coats, but now perhaps one or two less than before. The finish has also changed slightly. While Citadel paints remain satin, they are now a bit more matte and less glossy, leaning towards the look of, for example, Warpaints Fanatic from The Army Painter. Also, some of the metallic Layer paints have seen significant improvement. In the past, Runefang Steel and Ironbreaker were quite weak, but they now cover much better and have finer metallic flakes. I actually might prefer the new versions over their counterparts Stormhost Silver and Iron Hands Steel.

Although this video/post is mainly about the regular acrylic paints in the Citadel Colour range, I would like to mention for the sake of completeness that the formula of the Shade paints changed when the pots went from 24ml to 18ml. Games Workshop also improved the formula of some of the colours in the first wave of Contrast paints. Dark colours such as Dark Angels Green or Shyish Purple previously dried a little flat, but now produce a stronger contrast effect.

But all this comes at a price. The colours of a lot of the Base and Layer paints have shifted, as highlighted by Squidmar and Andy in their video. I did some tests on this base to compare a random lot of old and new colours.

In the pot, the difference between the old and new Wild Rider Red is dramatic, but once dried, the difference is less noticeable. However, the new version is a nuance more pastel, suggesting that some white pigment has been added. For Evil Sunz Scarlet, the old version is a bit warmer, while the new one is slightly cooler, reminiscent of Pure Red from the Warpaints Fanatic range or Bold Pyrrole Red by Pro Acryl. So they probably changed the pigment for this colour.

The difference in Pink Horror is significant—the new version appears more rich and a bit warmer. The new version of Thunderhawk Blue is also quite different, a bit darker and a touch greener. Skarsnik Green is pretty much identical, perhaps the old version was a nuance lighter. Cadian Fleshtone improved dramatically, the old version covered so badly, while the new version just took two to three thin coats straight over black and looks pretty much identical. The new version of Rhinox Hide is slightly cooler and more magenta, it seems to have lost some of its warmth and depth. A change that Emil and Andy also criticised in their video. The difference is also noticeable with Pallid Wych Flesh, the new version is slightly darker and has a slightly more red tint, but the covering power improved a lot. 

My explanation for all these changes is that Games Workshop has incorporated the aforementioned advancements in acrylic paint formulation. This likely means they’ve added more opaque pigment to their paints, which is usually some variation of titanium white or grey. However, the more opaque pigment added to a paint, the lower the proportion of pure colour pigment, making the paint become more pastel and greyish. You can counteract this to a certain degree by bringing back the colour with dyes. Dye is what gives inks and Contrast paints their high tinting power. Ultimately, it’s up to the manufacturer to find a good balance between saturation and opacity. For example, The Warpaints Fanatic range by The Army Painter is a range that boasts high covering power but becomes somewhat pastel in its lighter colours. On the other hand, if you remember the old Citadel range of the 2000s, for which I did a retro review here, this range had super vibrant colours but a quite weak coverage. So, it’s a trade-off, and you have to decide for yourself where your preferences are.

How to spot new formula paints

And how can you tell the old from the new? Games Workshop keeps quiet about these changes, but I found a few clues:

The first is the paint consistency. Many Citadel Colours with the new formula now tend to separate and develop a lumpy consistency if they have been on the shelf for a longer period of time. However, shaking them well usually brings them back to scratch.

The second clue is the time of purchase. From what I got from Peachy from an episode of The Painting Phase podcast, the transition likely occurred around 2019, when Games Workshop apparently shifted production of their paint range from HMG Ltd. to in-house. Of course, we don’t know how much old stock is still out there. If you have pots with the old label design with the large shield, they’re definitely the old formula. I can’t guarantee that all pots with the new label have the new formula, but what you can do is check the year of the copyright. I’m not completely sure about 2019 and 2020, but if you have 2021 or higher, it should be the new formula. So, if you’ve bought Citadel Colour paints in the last two or three years, it’s likely you have the newer iterations. And if you’ve only recently started the hobby, you might not even know them any other way.

Embracing the change (?)

So how do we feel about all this? Let me know your thoughts in the comments, and tell me the colours where you have noticed the most obvious changes. I guess I welcome the change. Citadel paints are the go-to for beginners; after all, who hasn’t started their hobby journey with Citadel Colour? Anything that makes painting easier for beginners, especially mastering tricky bright colours, is a positive in my book. Even as an advanced painter, I find the Layer paints much easier to work with now, and I also prefer the slightly more matte finish.

However, I can understand everyone who is frustrated by the changes in individual colours. I’m someone who keeps paints that are over 20 years old just to ensure consistency in my paint jobs, like when adding something new to my Firstborn Ultramarines collection. The reduced saturation in favour of better covering power is also a matter of taste. Some time ago, I launched a survey on my YouTube channel, and the result was surprisingly fairly balanced. Fortunately, there are now so many paint ranges to choose from that there’s something for everyone.

This hand-painted swatch is available in my Patreon shop for a small donation (or by becoming an Autarch tier member). I also have swatches for AK 3rd Gen, Vallejo Game Color, Warpaints Fanatic, and Two Thin Coats – all cross-compatible with each other so you can compare colours across different brands. Check out my shop for details.

And if the colours have changed anyway, why not turn frustration into something productive and finally make the switch to another paint range. I have hand-painted swatches for all major paint ranges, including an up-to-date chart for the entire Citadel range, including Dry and Air paints as well as all the discontinued paints like the old Gloss Shades, Glazes, and texture paints. My swatches are much more accurate than any other paint database and colour-picking tool, and they are compatible with each other, allowing you to convert your existing paint schemes from one range to another.

For instance, I’ve replaced nearly all my Citadel paints with Two Thin Coats. With the release of wave 3, Duncan’s range now offers over 180 colours. Check out my review here.

If you need to expand your paint collection, check out our 🇬🇧/🇪🇺 partner stores Wayland Games, Element Games, and Firestorm Games, at 🇩🇪 Taschengelddieb and PK-Pro, and at 🇺🇸 Noble Knight Games, which all offer an amazing range of paints and hobby products at a discount. Using our links helps to support Tale of Painters at no additional cost to you, so thank you very much for using them!