The Citadel paint ranges, explained

The word on the lid is not a colour family. It is a job. I got that wrong for weeks, picked paints by which pot looked closest to what I wanted, and could not work out why some of them went on like milk.

Here is what Games Workshop says each range is for, in their words, with the consequence spelled out.

The six, in the order you would use them

Base paints “give strong, solid coats” and act as a foundation for other paints.^* This is the range that is supposed to cover, and the one to reach for when the primer is still showing through.

Layer paints go on top of Base paints “to make them brighter, or to add highlights”.^* On top of. A Layer paint is not a Base paint in a different colour, and using one to block in a whole model is the mistake that produces the milk effect.

Shade paints “flow into the recesses of your models”, making shadows and adding contrast.^* They are meant to go where the light would not.

Dry paints are “ideal for drybrushing”, the technique for quickly highlighting a model.^* See drybrushing for what that actually is.

Contrast paints are “applied over a white basecoat to base, shade, and layer a miniature in one go”, or used to glaze or tint.^* Note the white basecoat. It is stated as the condition, not as a suggestion.

Technical paints “let you add all sorts of special effects”, the examples given being churned earth, grisly gore, corrosion and spectral glows.^*

And Spray, which basecoats in a single application.^*

Shade and Contrast are not two versions of the same idea

This is the confusion worth clearing up, and Games Workshop stated it plainly in 2022.

Contrast paints are “designed to tint surfaces and give an intense finish”. The reformulated Shades are “designed to provide instant depth and easily create stronger shadows”, and they settle “more effectively into the recesses of your miniatures – while leaving the raised parts of your models relatively untouched”.^†

So: a Shade targets the recesses and leaves the high ground alone. A Contrast covers the whole surface and does several jobs at once. One is a shadow tool, the other is a whole-model tool. Treating them as interchangeable is the single most common beginner mistake I have made with paint, and it is contradicted by the manufacturer in writing.

The same announcement puts White Scar spray as “designed specifically for use with Contrast paints”,^† which makes the white undercoat part of the Contrast system rather than a stylistic choice.

How the studio’s own painters use them

Worth knowing, because it is broader than the packaging suggests. Emma Robinson at Games Workshop describes using Contrast as base colours for large armies, glazing it over layers on highly detailed miniatures for extra colour saturation, and thinning it down for effects like a verdigris or a dark wash over metals.^‡

That last one is the giveaway. A Contrast paint thinned down and used over metal is doing a Shade’s job, so the ranges are jobs rather than laws.

The short version

If it needs to cover, reach for Base. If it needs to be brighter than what is under it, Layer. If it needs to sit in a crevice, Shade. If it needs to do the whole model at once and you have a white undercoat, Contrast. If it needs to be mud or rust, Technical.

That is a rule of thumb rather than a rule, and the studio’s own painters break it in print.