Miniature Paint Brands Compared

The number the brands do not print

Shelf price tells you almost nothing, because the bottles are not the same size. Citadel sells 12 ml pots. Vallejo and Army Painter sell 17 to 18 ml droppers. Pro Acryl sells 22 ml. At similar shelf prices, that is a difference of nearly two to one in paint volume before you get to how far each milliliter goes.

Then coverage compounds it. A high-pigment paint that covers in two coats delivers twice as many finished models per bottle as one that needs four. So the real cost per model is price divided by volume divided by coats, and on that measure the expensive-looking brand is often the cheap one. Our Citadel vs Vallejo comparison does this arithmetic for the two biggest ranges in detail.

Citadel

The default, and the only range whose color names appear in official Warhammer painting guides. That is a real advantage: following a tutorial with Citadel paints requires no translation, and every hobby shop in the country stocks it.

Against it: 12 ml is the smallest pot here, the flip-top pot dries out and welds shut, and you cannot measure a drop out of it for thinning. The Contrast line is genuinely excellent and has no equivalent in most other ranges — see Citadel Contrast paints explained.

The Army Painter

The best brand to start on, for a reason that has nothing to do with the paint: the starter sets include a primer, a brush and a model, so a single purchase gets you from nothing to a painted miniature. Warpaints Fanatic sits in 18 ml droppers with a decent agitator.

Pigment density is middling — reds and yellows take an extra coat compared with Pro Acryl — and the range is narrower than Citadel’s. Speedpaint 2.0 is the strongest one-coat system available, and it is covered properly in Speedpaint vs Contrast.

Vallejo

The volume play. Game Color sits in 18 ml droppers at a lower price than either of the above, with a 16-bottle introduction set that includes three metallics. For a beginner buying a palette rather than a themed army, nothing here is better value.

The trade-offs are consistency and naming. Vallejo colors do not map onto tutorial names, so you need a conversion chart to follow Warhammer guides. Some colors in the Game Color line are noticeably thinner out of the bottle than others.

Monument Hobbies Pro Acryl

The highest pigment density here, in 22 ml bottles, with a glass agitator already inside and a no-clog cap that genuinely does not weld shut. On coverage alone it wins this page: yellow and red go down in two coats where other ranges need four.

The catch is availability and naming. Pro Acryl is built around a painter’s palette rather than a game’s official color list, so tutorials need translating, and it is harder to find on a high street than any of the three above. There is also no one-coat contrast line of its own.

Scale75

The specialist. Scalecolor Games is ultra-pigmented water-based acrylic in 17 ml droppers with a dead-matte finish, and its dark shades are deeper than the equivalents in any other range on this page. For a painter who wants real blacks and deep browns without mixing, this is where they live.

It is also the most demanding. There is no agitator in the bottle, so it needs genuine shaking or the first drop is binder, and it is thicker out of the bottle than Game Color — it wants thinning before it wants using. Not a first brand.

Can you mix brands?

Yes. They are all water-based acrylics and they mix on the palette and layer over each other without issue. The real argument against mixing brands is nothing to do with chemistry: it is that tutorials name specific paints, and a palette assembled from five brands means translating every guide you follow.

The practical approach most painters land on: one main range for the bulk of the palette, plus specific bottles from elsewhere for the things that range does badly. Citadel washes and Contrast paints, Pro Acryl for high-chroma colors, Vallejo for volume.

Which to buy

First set, no paints at all: Army Painter Warpaints Fanatic Starter, for the primer and brush in the box.

Following Warhammer tutorials: Citadel, because the names match.

Biggest palette on a budget: Vallejo Game Color.

Fewest coats and best bottles: Pro Acryl.

Deep shadows and a dead-matte finish: Scale75.

If you only want the beginner answer, the ranked sets are in the best miniature paint sets for beginners, and Citadel vs Army Painter vs Vallejo takes the three mainstream ranges head to head.

If you are painting printed models specifically, opacity matters more than brand loyalty — the best paint for 3D printed miniatures explains why.