145 - a number now synonymous with the new Citadel Paint range, which you can see above in all its Technicolor glory. From greens and blues, through to reds and pinks (yes, we have pink paint again!) you will soon have access to the new and exciting world of Citadel Paint. From today there will be 145 new colours available to order, all with new formulas, to help you paint your Citadel miniatures to the very highest standard possible. Suffice to say, this is a pretty monumental day for us here at Games Workshop - we haven't released this many paints since, well... for a very long time. This is now, to use a Warhammer 40,000 analogy, an Apocalypse-scale paint range.
As you may have guessed by now, there's going to be a lot to talk about in this blog post. With seven new types of paint in 145 varieties, a brand new How To Paint Citadel Miniatures book, new paint sets, a great paint bundle deal and plenty more besides, you should expect nothing less really. To kick off the Citadel Paint range story we invited Alan Merrett, The Head of Games Workshop Intellectual Property, to introduce them for us. Many of you will know Alan as one of the Golden Demon judges and, like the majority of us here at Games Workshop, he is also a keen miniature painter (by that I mean he paints lots of Citadel miniatures, not that he's really tiny). Check out the video on the left and enter the world of Citadel Paint.
As Alan mentioned, there are now seven different types of paint - Base Paints, Shades, Dry Compounds, Layer Paints, Glazes, Textures and Technical paints. Our mission, when designing this new range, was to make painting Citadel miniatures easier, quicker and generally more fun for everyone. Essentially we want every hobbyist to be able to achieve great results on every miniature they paint, whether they are new to the hobby or an experienced artist of many years. Of course, not every painter is at the same level, which is why this paint range has been designed in such as way. There's structure for those that need it and flexibility for those that don't.
To help you get to grips with all the new paints, we've split them all up into their relevant types, including a brief explanation about what they're for and a product slider that you can use to add paint to your shopping cart when you find the ones you like. There are 34 Base Paints and 70 Layers though, so take your time and click along the carousel to look at all the different colours that are available to you. Consider it an exciting journey of enlightenment.
Citadel Base Paints
First on the agenda are the 34 Base paints. Their high concentration of pigment makes them perfect for basecoating your miniatures (the clue was in the name really). As an example, Mephiston Red would make an excellent Basecoat for Blood Angels, whereas Macragge Blue would be ideal for Ultramarines. Like all of our paints, they can be mixed with each other to create new tones, but when you've got so many colours to choose from in the first place, you probably won't need to!
Citadel Shades
Shades are for adding depth to your models, to create areas of darker colour, define details and accentuate recesses. There are 12 Shades in the Citadel Paint range from all across the colour spectrum, including orange, purple, green and black. It's going to be great fun trying them all out.
Citadel Dry Compounds
Drybrushing is one of the first painting techniques that many painters learn; it's an exceedingly handy way of picking out the details on a model, or applying highlights quickly and easily. Despite this, we have never released paint specifically for drybrushing. Until now that is. And there's not just one of them, there are 15. The first thing you'll notice about the Dry Compounds is that they aren't like your traditional paints - they're, well... they're pretty dry. In all honesty, it's really hard to explain how revolutionary these paints are, you need to experience them for yourself to appreciate how good they really are. Conveniently, all of our Hobby Centres will have a selection of the new paints in store this Saturday for you to try out (more on that below).
Citadel Layer Paints
The first thing you need to know about Layer paints is that there are 70 of them. I'll let that sink in for a bit...
...yes, I said 70.
In all honesty, I really didn't know that this many colours existed. Everything from red and yellow to gold and silver are a part of the Layer range. To give you an idea of the scale of it all, there are 12 different greens, including everything from a vibrant turquoise to a putrid yellowy green. Essentially the Layer paints are the main colours of your model. They also make for excellent highlights.
Citadel Glazes
There are four Glazes in the new paint range - yellow, red, green and blue. Their role is to intensify colour, to make an area of a miniature really stand out. On initial examination they look a lot like Shades, but they actually act very differently, and apply themselves evenly over a miniature, giving it a new hue. They are also perfect for restoring colour to an area that you might have over-highlighted, an issue that can happen when you get a bit too excited painting a miniature.
Citadel Texture Paints
The Texture Paints are an entirely new breed of paint. Unlike Layers and Basecoats they contain a mixture of paint and fine grit, which can be used to texture the bases of your miniatures. Even better, there are six different colours, so you can paint your bases to look sandy, dusty, snowy, muddy, or swampy straight out of the pot. Pretty clever stuff.
The Technical Paints
Some of the Technical paints you will probably be familiar with - especially Liquid Green Stuff and 'Ardcoat Gloss Varnish. All of the Technical paints have specific uses.
To help you all out and make life a bit easier we've created a page on the website for Paint Guides. Each of the 43 Guides was designed and chosen by the guys in the Studio to help you paint a specific area on a miniature. If you want to paint Space Wolves, for example, then you would add the Space Wolves bundle to your cart and then use each paint one after another. It's quick, simple and easy to use - great news for aspiring painters.
But that's not all we've got coming out. Along with 145 paints, we also have four new paint sets available, a set of Paint Palettes, a brand new 'How to Paint Citadel Miniatures' book, and one massive bundle deal of paints. All of these can be seen in the gallery below, but we'll be taking a much closer look at them next week to show you more about them. To cut a long blog short though, you'll definitely want to get your hands on the How to Paint book, because the wealth of painting information in it is just astounding. And, for those of you that absolutely must have every new paint available as soon as you can possibly get your hands on it, then the Paint Bundle is for you. Not only do you get one of every paint in the new range, but we'll send you an Army Figure Case to store them in absolutely free.