Is Citadel Paint Acrylic

Citadel paints have become the gold standard in the miniature hobby world — but one question trips up beginners and even intermediate painters more than most: are Citadel paints acrylic? The short answer is yes. The longer answer is much more interesting, and it shapes every decision you make at the painting table.

What Type of Paint Is Citadel, Exactly?

Citadel paints are water-based acrylic paints. They are manufactured by Games Workshop, primarily for painting Warhammer miniatures, but they are widely used across all miniature wargaming and hobby modeling.

The word acrylic refers to the polymer binder that holds the pigment together once the paint dries. When water evaporates from an acrylic paint film, those polymer chains cross-link and create a tough, slightly flexible coating. Citadel paints use exactly this chemistry — and that has massive practical implications for how you use them, thin them, and clean up after them.

The Acrylic Family: Where Citadel Sits

Acrylics are not one single thing. Think of the category like a family tree with a common ancestor but very different branches.

Citadel sits firmly in the miniature-specific water-based acrylic camp — formulated for fine detail, optimized coverage on tiny surfaces, and fast dry times.

How Citadel Acrylic Paint Works on a Miniature

Every Citadel pot carries a formula engineered around one challenge: covering a small, intricate, three-dimensional surface without losing detail to thick coats or flooding recesses with unwanted pigment.

The acrylic polymer acts as a vehicle — it carries the pigment where you want it, then steps aside as the water evaporates. What’s left behind is a thin, durable, re-workable film that sticks aggressively to plastic, resin, and metal surfaces once they are properly primed.

Why Water-Based Matters

Water-based acrylics separate themselves from oil paints and solvent-based enamels in several important ways:

• Cleanup is done with water alone, no turpentine or harsh solvents needed.
• Dry time is fast — most Citadel layers dry to the touch within 10–20 minutes at room temperature.
• Layering is approachable because each coat reactivates only slightly when a new wet coat is applied over it.
• Safety is excellent — no toxic fumes, safe for use in standard home environments.

The tradeoff? Acrylics are unforgiving of open-air evaporation. Leave a pot open, and the paint skins over quickly. Work in dry environments, and paint on the palette or brush tip dries faster than you want.

The Citadel Paint Range — Breaking Down the Line

Games Workshop doesn’t sell just one type of acrylic. The Citadel range is segmented into distinct formula groups, each engineered for a specific role in a painting workflow.

Base Paints

High-pigment, opaque acrylics designed to cover black or grey primer in one or two coats. Base paints are thick, heavily loaded with pigment, and dry with minimal sheen. They are the foundation layer — the canvas before any artistry begins.

Layer Paints

Thinner and more translucent than base paints. Layer paints build highlights and blend transitions across a surface when applied in multiple thin coats. The reduced pigment load makes them ideal for edge highlighting — the defining visual technique of Citadel’s “Eavy Metal” style.

Shade Paints

These are low-viscosity acrylic washes with a flow improver built in. Shade paints flow into recesses by capillary action, pooling in the deepest areas and leaving raised surfaces relatively clean. This creates instant shadow and depth with almost no effort. Nuln Oil and Agrax Earthshade are probably the two most used products in the entire hobby world.

Dry Paints

An unusual formulation — heavily loaded with pigment but very low in medium, giving them an almost chalky consistency. Dry paints are designed exclusively for the drybrushing technique, where a near-dry brush loaded with paint is skimmed across raised surfaces to deposit pigment only on the topmost edges and textures.

Contrast Paints

The most distinctive formula in the modern Citadel range. Contrast paints use a high-flow, translucent medium that behaves almost like a shade and a layer combined. Applied over a light primer or contrast medium, they flow into recesses while leaving a thin colour layer on raised surfaces. The result: a fully shaded and highlighted miniature in fewer coats.

Technical Paints

A catch-all category for special-effect acrylics: texture pastes (Astrogranite, Stirland Mud), crackle effects (Agrellan Earth), blood and slime effects (Blood for the Blood God), and more. Technical paints are still acrylic but use modified mediums to achieve sculptural or optical effects.

Contrast Medium and Lahmian Medium

Pure acrylic mediums with no pigment. They modify the consistency and transparency of any other Citadel paint. Lahmian Medium thins paint without reducing opacity aggressively, while Contrast Medium replicates the flow properties of Contrast paints.

Are Citadel Paints Compatible With Other Acrylic Brands?

Because all water-based acrylics share the same fundamental chemistry, Citadel paints are broadly compatible with other acrylic miniature paints. You can mix Citadel base paints with Vallejo Game Color, blend Citadel layers with Army Painter Speedpaints, and thin any of them with the same water, flow improver, or acrylic medium.

There are a few caveats worth knowing:

• Contrast paints have a specific medium that doesn’t always play well when mixed directly into other brands. Use Citadel Contrast Medium or a purpose-built Contrast-equivalent medium for best results.
• Shade paints from different brands can behave slightly differently in terms of flow and surface tension. Test on a spare model before committing.
• Dry times may vary between brands even at similar viscosities, which can affect wet blending or glazing techniques.

The takeaway: mixing brands in a single project is completely normal and widely practiced. Brand loyalty is a choice, not a technical requirement.

Thinning Citadel Acrylics — Getting the Consistency Right

One of the most repeated pieces of advice in the miniature community is thin your paints. But what does that actually mean for a water-based acrylic, and why does it matter?

Straight from the pot, most Citadel paints are slightly too viscous for detail work and layering. The binder-to-pigment ratio is optimized for stability and shelf life, not for the smooth flow a fine brush needs when you are picking out a 2mm eye socket.

What to Thin Citadel Paints With

A ratio of 1–3 drops of medium or water per small amount of paint is a reasonable starting point. The goal is a consistency sometimes described as “semi-skimmed milk” — fluid enough to flow freely from the brush without breaking into streaks or beading, but carrying enough pigment to leave a visible colour layer in one stroke.

Acrylic Vs. Oil: Using Both on the Same Miniature

Many advanced painters use oil paints alongside Citadel acrylics to achieve smoother blends and richer shadow work. This is a well-established technique in the hobby, and it works reliably because of how different the two paint types behave.

The golden rule: acrylics underneath, oils on top.

Once acrylic paint has fully cured (24+ hours for safety, though surface-dry is much faster), oil paint can be applied over it and manipulated for far longer than any acrylic. Oil paints thin with odourless mineral spirits or turpentine — never mix these solvents into your acrylic layers, as they can lift and damage the coating.

The acrylic basecoat and layering work acts as a sealed foundation. The oils sit on top, blend freely, and when sealed with a varnish layer, the final effect is cohesive.

Storing and Preserving Citadel Acrylic Paints

Acrylics dry by evaporation, which means airtight storage is everything. Citadel’s flip-top and screw-top pots both seal adequately when properly closed, but they are still vulnerable to the gradual loss of water through imperfect seals over months and years.

Best practices:

• Store upright to keep the seal clean and prevent pigment settling on the lid.
• Add a drop of distilled water or medium to pots that have started to thicken before the paint becomes unusable.
• Paint storage racks that hold pots upside-down after shaking help keep pigment in suspension.
• Avoid direct sunlight and temperature extremes — heat accelerates evaporation and can break down the acrylic medium over time.
• Dropper bottles — many painters decant Citadel paints into aftermarket dropper bottles (Vallejo-style) for better flow control and longer-term preservation.

Priming for Citadel Acrylic Paints

Primer is not optional when painting with Citadel acrylics. Water-based acrylic paint has relatively low adhesion to bare plastic or metal without a key coat to grip onto. The primer creates a micro-textured surface that the acrylic polymer can mechanically interlock with.

Citadel sells both spray primers (Chaos Black, Wraithbone, Grey Seer, Zandri Dust, and others) and brush-on primer (Chaos Black base paint used as primer). Third-party primers from Vallejo, Army Painter, and Stynylrez also work perfectly with Citadel acrylics.

The colour of the primer is a painting decision as much as a technical one:

Varnishing Citadel Acrylic Miniatures

Once a model is fully painted, a varnish coat protects the acrylic layers from handling damage, chipping, and UV fading. Citadel sells Munitorum Varnish (matte) and ‘Ardcoat (gloss), both water-based acrylics themselves.

The industry standard workflow is:

1. Gloss varnish first — a gloss coat creates the hardest, most durable protective film.
2. Apply any final oil washes or pigment powders over the gloss layer.
3. Matte or satin varnish last — knocks back shine to the desired final sheen.

Aerosol varnishes carry a risk of frosting in high humidity. Apply in controlled conditions — ideally 40–60% relative humidity and above 15°C.

Key Takeaways

• Citadel paints are water-based acrylic paints, sharing fundamental chemistry with all other acrylic art and hobby paints.
• The range is segmented by formula — Base, Layer, Shade, Dry, Contrast, and Technical — each designed for a specific painting technique and stage.
• Water-based acrylics are safe, fast-drying, and easy to clean up with water, making them ideal for home hobby environments.
• Thinning with distilled water or medium is essential for smooth, detail-preserving application on miniatures.
• Citadel acrylics are fully compatible with other acrylic brands and can be used alongside oil paints using a simple layering protocol.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Are Citadel paints water-based or solvent-based? Citadel paints are water-based acrylic paints. They use water as their primary carrier solvent, which evaporates during drying. No harsh chemical solvents are needed to thin or clean them — plain water handles both tasks.

Can I thin Citadel paints with water? Yes. Distilled water is the most common thinning agent for Citadel acrylics. Tap water works in most cases but carries minerals that can occasionally affect paint film quality over time. For delicate techniques like glazing, Citadel Lahmian Medium or a flow improver gives more control than water alone.

How long do Citadel acrylic paints take to dry? Most Citadel layers and base paints are touch-dry within 10–20 minutes at standard room temperature. Full cure — where the acrylic polymer has completely hardened — takes closer to 24 hours. For techniques requiring a fully inert base (such as oil washes), waiting 24 hours before proceeding prevents lifting the underlying acrylic coat.

Are Citadel Contrast paints a different type of acrylic? Contrast paints use the same water-based acrylic chemistry as the rest of the Citadel range, but their medium is modified to increase flow and translucency dramatically. This gives them their characteristic behaviour of pooling in recesses while leaving thin colour films on raised surfaces — but they remain fully acrylic, not a different paint type.

Can I use Citadel paints in an airbrush? Yes, with appropriate thinning. Citadel base and layer paints can be airbrushed after thinning to a roughly 1:1 ratio with airbrush medium or isopropyl alcohol. Shade paints are often already fluid enough. Contrast paints can be airbrushed but tend to behave differently than brush application. Citadel does not manufacture a dedicated airbrush range, but Vallejo and Badger airbrush mediums work well as thinners for Citadel acrylics.

Are Citadel paints non-toxic? Citadel paints are water-based and non-toxic under normal use conditions. They are safe for use without respiratory protection in well-ventilated spaces. As with all craft paints, avoid ingestion and prolonged direct skin contact. Aerosol primers and varnishes from Citadel require standard precautions — outdoor use or strong ventilation is recommended for spray products.

Do Citadel acrylics work on surfaces other than plastic miniatures? Citadel acrylics adhere well to resin, metal, MDF terrain, foam board, and wood when a compatible primer is applied first. They are not formulated for fabrics or flexible substrates, where cracking and flaking will occur. For non-standard surfaces, testing adhesion on a small area first is always the right approach.