Just starting out in tabletop wargaming and feeling a bit lost? Opening your first box of grey plastic miniatures and seeing the endless wall of acrylic paint pots can certainly be intimidating. We are here to ensure your painting experience is enjoyable, rewarding, and completely stress-free. Grasping how each paint formula works is the most vital part of learning the hobby. This complete Citadel Colour guide explains all the paint types developed by Citadel and Games Workshop, showing you exactly how to transform bare plastic into a beautiful tabletop force.
The Essential First Step: Priming Your Models
Never skip priming your miniatures before applying colored pigment. Acrylics require a slightly textured, porous surface to grip; if applied directly to unprimed plastic, the wet paint will simply bead up or scrape off easily over time. Using a specialized Citadel Spray Primer ensures the color sticks permanently while keeping all the delicate sculpted details intact. When picking your Warhammer undercoat, think about the final look of your scheme: warm, cool, or bright foundations will drastically change the layers applied over them. If you are painting dark armor, machinery, or gritty troops, starting with a classic Citadel Chaos Black Spray provides a fantastic, shadowy foundation.
Laying the Foundation with Base Paints
Once the primer has dried completely, it is time to block in your main colors. A Citadel Base Paint features a heavy pigment load designed for maximum opacity over your undercoat. For a perfectly smooth basecoat, we always suggest painting two thin, slightly watered-down layers instead of one thick coat that could clog up the fine details. Applying an iconic color like Citadel Macragge Blue gives you rich, solid coverage across broad surfaces fast. For a flawless finish without streaks, apply it with a brush that has a sharp tip and excellent snap.
Creating Depth with Shade Paints
After you finish blocking in the core colors, your figure might look a bit flat. This is exactly where a liquid Citadel Shade Paint shines. This thin pigment flows effortlessly into the deepest crevices of the miniature, creating instant, realistic shadows. For the neatest outcome, try recess shading by guiding your brush straight into panel lines, armor gaps, and fabric folds. Splashing a dark wash like Nuln Oil over silver metals, or the warm earthy tones of Agrax Earthshade on gold and leather, adds incredible depth with almost no effort.
Refining Details Using Layer Paints
With the shadows resting perfectly in the recesses, your next step is bringing brightness back to the elevated areas. A Citadel Layer Paint features a slightly thinner, more translucent recipe than a base paint, which is ideal for seamless color transitions. By painting these solid colors onto the raised sections and carefully edge highlighting the sharpest rims, facial features, and armor borders, you mimic natural lighting and make every detail pop on the tabletop.
Quick Textures with Drybrushing
If edge highlighting a massive horde army sounds too exhausting, drybrushing is a wonderfully fast alternative. Using a stiff, flat brush, wipe off almost all the moisture onto a paper towel, then gently dust a thick Citadel Dry Paint over the textured parts of the model. Because this chalky, pigment-dense paint only catches the highest ridges, it is the absolute best technique for quickly rendering animal fur, weathered stone, chainmail, and scuffed metal armor.
Speed Painting via Contrast Paints
For hobbyists looking for the quickest way to get an army painted without losing visual quality, the Contrast range is a total game-changer. One generous coat of Citadel Contrast Paint provides a base color, a shadow, and a highlight all at once in one fluid motion. These specialized pigments require a very smooth, bright foundation to work properly. By prepping the model with a dedicated Citadel Contrast Spray like Grey Seer or Wraithbone, the semi-transparent paint glides off the sharp edges and pools heavily in the crevices, producing a beautifully shaded figure in record time.
Elevating Bases with Technical Paints
Your miniature is not truly finished until its base matches the theme and tells a story. A Citadel Technical Paint makes it incredibly easy to add realistic environmental textures. To achieve authentic Warhammer basing effects, you can smear on thick pastes like Stirland Mud to mimic a muddy battlefield, or use Astrogranite for a harsh, rubble-filled surface. These technical formulas also include fluid effects for the miniatures themselves: brushing on Blood For The Blood God leaves a shiny, wet finish that looks exactly like fresh battle gore, adding an immersive narrative presence to your tabletop units.
Navigating Tabletop Painting Standards
As your army grows, understanding the official Warhammer painting standards will help you set realistic goals for your studio time. Striving for Battle Ready miniatures involves applying a neat basecoat, a simple wash, and finishing a textured base – ideal for fielding large armies quickly. On the other hand, if you want to showcase a centerpiece hero or a competition model, you can push your skills toward Parade Ready miniatures. This elite standard requires careful multi-stage layering, precise edge highlights, volumetric shading, and complex base work, taking considerably more time and patience.
Assembling Your Perfect Miniature Painting Kit
Gathering the correct tools from the very beginning saves time and prevents unnecessary frustration. If you are just starting, grabbing a Citadel Starter Set is the smartest way to get reliable synthetic brushes, essential tools, and fundamental acrylic paints all in one convenient box. Whether you opt for a sci-fi themed Warhammer 40k paint set or a fantasy-driven Age of Sigmar paint set, these bundles offer the absolute best foundation for a new painting kit for any hobbyist eager to master color mixing, thinning, and brush application.
Shop Citadel and Warhammer at Art Spices
At Art Spices, we take pride in being your premier EU shop for Warhammer paints. Whether you are expanding your collection in Lithuania or anywhere else across Europe, we make securing top-tier hobby supplies effortless. As a leading Citadel Colour retailer in Lithuania, we carry the complete lineup of sprays, bases, washes, and unique specialty technical formulas. Browse our store to buy Citadel paints online, stock up on official Games Workshop kits, and breathe life into your miniature army today.
When you are ready to assemble your tools and begin painting your next squad, we invite you to buy your Warhammer and Citadel products directly from www.artspices.co.uk.