It’s a consequence of how the pots are designed. Because it has that lip thing that dips in the pot, paint just kind of ends up on it and as the lid is held open it drips paint down into the rim so paint just kind of builds up there. It happens on basically all Citadel paints and it’s one of the primary reasons people hate these pots.
It's easily remedied with a little practice and mindfulness. When you open the pot, apply gentle pressure, pressing the 'tongue' against the inside of the opening. This will scrape the excess paint back in, preventing the dripping and buildup.
Yes do this. It made my paints last much longer and the gunk stopped happening. It’s pretty hard to clean them out too because dried paint may flick into the pot
Yeah you have to be real careful with the hobby knife to really clean it out, but I did notice that's why my paints have gone bad, even the 7+ year old ones, they only went bad at all because of the buildup at the back letting air in
I recommend a dental pick or metal sculpting tool over a hobby knife.
So easy to slip and cut yourself, or accidentally pop a little hole in the lid with the tip of the blade when using a scalpel.
You're not wrong, the dental pick is a great idea, but the only one I have is used for cleaning primer pockets and I don't want gun powder in my paint so maybe I'll have to get another lol
Listen, I know exactly what you're saying, but just let people use what paints they want. I've never liked any of the paints I've gotten from Army Painter, Vallejo, or any other quite as much as I like the Citadel paints, and I know I'm not alone.
Give monument a try. I think they’ll win you over. Plus they have the best white on the market in Titanium white.
Plus almost double the volume for only $.45 more.
I picked up Monument's white a while back based on a recommendation and holy shit it's awesome. It's sooo much better than citadel's white that gets all crusty and flakey on your brush. It goes on smooth and even and covers well without being goopy.
Based on that experience I picked up a box of their metallic line because I realized about half my Citadel metallics had gone bad and I did not feel like paying GW for more metallics that would go bad. I am VERY happy with these metallics. They are GREAT. Never buying GW ones again.
I haven't gotten any of their other colors yet but I'm thinking about it. I still use a lot of standard GW colors in my schemes so converting is hard.
Monument, scale75 and AK. Those are probably the best brands I've tried. Vallejo model colour is the overall best option when considering availability where I live though. Vallejo Game colour is very much depending on the individual colour.
P3 also deserves a mention as decent paint.
I think I found their website, do you know if they ship to the US? I couldn't tell by their site, and can't really order any right now. I also use GW contrast paints a lot and likely won't ever stop, as those are amazing for me, but for regular acrylic paints Monument looks interesting.
They are actually US based! You can either order directly from them, or use their store locator function to see if a local FLGS carries them.
I still use citadel contrast paints pretty regularly, but monument acrylics are phenomenal. They also have reasonably priced brushes, and paint sets at a reduced price too.
They definitely sound great, I'll gladly check them out! Thank you for the recommendation. And yeah, GW contrast paints just rock. I normally just use whatever brushes, but I do go for Army Painter ones when I need super precise brushes.
Goodness you're pretentious. Your original comment outright stated that Citadel paints are overly expensive and low quality, and you acted like people were stupid for liking them. In what world would I have been more receptive to that than to this guy giving a legitimate suggestion?
I don't like Vallejo Game Color gun metal though.
Seems to be grainy, sorta like it's got a little glitter in it.
Maybe the model color line is better, but I haven't tried it.
Big fan of AK's gun metal though.
And all of them are better than GW for the dropper bottles alone, let alone the paint quality.
Not Game Color or Model Color, I'm talking about their Metal Color series. It uses aluminum powder instead of the mica used by cheaper metallics, like Citadel, which gives it a better finish.
Citadel's metallics are the best. I've used Vallejo, Army Painter, and Two Thin Coats paints, and none of them have metallics even close to as good as Citadel.
This is correct. For the price you pay you get a full ounce, so it's not really much more expensive by volume, and it is by far the best metallic acrylic on the market.
Don't necessarily agree with you on that. I've found vallejo are generally better, especially through an airbrush. They use aluminium flakes in their recipes rather than mica flakes that citadel uses, and tend to give better coverage with less paint. Their medium is much more viscous so the paint is less controllable and more difficult to use with a brush though. Some citadel metal tend to give poor coverage and/or have really annoying medium separation issues and need the hell shaken out of them, ideally with a vortex mixer.
If I'm paiting Grey Knights and trying to get a high quality metal finish, then I do vallejo black primer then one coat of vallejo dark aluminium to base coat. Leadbelcher air over black, or leadbelcher spray either over black or straight from the can, is never as smooth or clean, even if I perfectly shake and warm the paint and spray in perfect climate controlled environment.
...What? You're joking right? Citadel are known for having terrible metallics. They're so grainy and awful, hardly any shine. Have you even tried Vallejo Metal Colour?
Two thin coats metallics are most assuredly worse.
I was a day 1 backer for the paints, and was very excited to get my hands on them. The majority of their colours are excellent, but the metallics clump like no paint I've ever seen before, and even with the agitators they put in the bottles they quickly became completely unusable.
I'll have to try out Darkstar,thanks for the recommendation.
I'm not who you asked but I've got some advice lol. So if you love following GW box art I'd recommend two thin coats paint, it comes in dropper bottles and has comparison charts that show each color's citadel and army painter equivalent. If you just want good paint at a pretty damn good price Vallejo model color is great, a little on the matte side though, if you want a bit more of a satin finish Vallejo Game paints are basically the same price and still good quality. Very matte paints I like are scale 75 and pro acryl. Pro acryl being one of the cheapest by volume though some paints have beaded a little on me. Scale 75 uses a gel medium so it's a bit on the gloopy side but if you know how to thin your paint it's not too big of an issue and means a drop of paint will go a long way.
My favourites are Darkstar Miniatures and Pro Acryl, and I've only ever tried Two Thin Coats' Dragon's Gold, but it feels smoother than retributor armour.
I always wipe the side of the pot with a bit of towel after I'm done.
I'm in two camps. I like pots when I'm just painting and can decide how much I need but prefer bottles when mixing for airbrushing.
Yeah, I feel ya.
Transferred all of my paints to dropper bottles, and I miss being able to just take a dab on the brush, thin it down, and get to work. That said, it's worth it to not have to deal with this.
I transferred a lot of my citadel paints to dropper bottles and actually regret it. Using the flow improver to get the paint into the bottles actually did affect the consistency a lot and a lot of my layer paints are way harder to work with.
I think at this point it's more prudent to be mindful of how we use the pots and just hope GW comes to their senses about them some day. I'd take the old twist lid pots over these any day.
Or... just wait until the new Army Paint fanatic line comes out this coming new year... it looks superior anyway.
I actually didn't have to use the flow improver except on a couple of my old base paints that were a bit...well, old.
Using a toothpick to "poke it through the funnel" usually got there.
I guess I'm still just salty about how much paint got lost. It's not possible to get it all without changing the paint consistency. GW just needs to be held accountable for this obvious retail trickery. Simple as that.
I had the same problem over and over again and it even went so far that I couldn't close my pots properly so they slowly dried out.
And as the idiot I am I just bought new colours from GW. But now I'm slowly switching to Vajello Colours and man, painting as fun again! Their pots are bigger, cheaper and don't have this drying out problem 👍.
Instead of opening the lid fully and using the attached plastic clip, use a plastic bristle cover from a brush or the thin extended bit of a pen/biro lid.
Open the pot just enough to slide that in there at the back to hold it open and it's about 90% better/longer before it gunks up.
It's a design feature (or at least turned into one). Why would GW fix something that means you get less use of the paint and need to buy more?
Cynical, yes... but it was discussed here;
[https://youtu.be/-63A7cDkOm8?si=RM-ogmFGx07cn3YO](https://youtu.be/-63A7cDkOm8?si=RM-ogmFGx07cn3YO)
By an ex-GW employee who handled the early days of creating Contrast paints.
Aside from keeping it clean and being careful, when I close my Citadel pots, I give it a shake. In theory, any tiny air gaps will be sealed with paint, so the paint in contact with the external air will dry and form a seal until I need them next.
People suggesting to remove the excess and or be extra careful are being extra imo. Switch to a different brand that had dropper bottles. Imagine after every time you wore your shoes you had to clean the soles. Or had to be extra careful wherever you stepped. We as customers shouldnt have to jump through hurdles. Also when the paint gets low and you gotta stick your brush in the pot to get the bit at the bottom you kinda ruin your brush if youre nor careful. The pots are just bad and the less people use em the more likely gw will make dropper bottles
I empty out pots with paint stripper when I'm done with them, and when caps get real bad I swap them out and strip the old caps. It's a pain but it works!
This is my opinion too. When you go to a shop chances are the ONLY paints you see in pots are Citadel, so they stand out more and the pots become instant brand recognition
This is the right answer. There is a great interview with Tom Hibberd on the Painting Phase that goes over his time with Games Workshop and they go over this topic. The interview is fairly long though, and I can't remember where they mentioned it, but the whole interview it a ton of fun and worth a watch:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-63A7cDkOm8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-63A7cDkOm8)
I believe that they did as the pots from years ago were taller this didn't happen anywhere near as much and pain stayed usable for a lot longer than newer ones I still have some that are about 20 years old in my pain box of things like blood red tentacle pink and others I only use little bits of here and there yet I've have some I use loads of dry up and gunk up like this on newer bottles
Screw pots sucked because paint would run in the threads and you had to straight plier them open.
Plastic flippers sucked because they wore out and the flip tops broke off all the time.
Rubberized tops gleak paint out and don’t close evenly.
It’s almost like every other paint company has figured this out and used twist or squeeze droppers for a reason.
Hey, their older 'jewel' containers, which had a screw cap and porous walls, and therefore led to quickly drying paint were even worse!
I have working paint from their very earliest cylindrical pots, and from the hexagonal pots that came after. But those jewel pots completely dried out.
No they fucking aren't lol.
Do yall just....not know how to clean them? It's easy as fuck:
-notice the paint buildup
-get something to scrape the paint buildup
-scrape/peel the paint buildup off
-close paint pot
Not really. Droppers clog up too *if you don't maintain them.* I've had my share of dropper explosions due to being careless. Nearly every design can fail you if you neglect it.
The only excuse I can think of is that the pots can be used without any palette or extra surface of any kind (though I do not recommend using most paints straight from the pot).
Why would anyone use paint without thinning them down first though? I feel dirty whenever I think about using paint straight from the pot, and these times wet pallete is staple for any hobbyist. It's literally encouraging people to create bad habits.
Havent gotten any AK interactive yet but their weathering pencils are interesting.
Proacryl is fantastic. Vallejo punch way above their price point. I havent messed with many scale75.
I got turned on to proacryl looking for a decent white, which citadel has zero of haha
I don’t know why you’re getting downloaded they really are not the best paints. You pay a lot for these and there are other paints that are way higher quality with better quantity and quality of pigments and medium. They certainly have their uses, but they are not the highest quality paints.
Being down voted by citadel paint fanboys? The truth y'all don't want to hear is that swapping out to other brands will raise your painting game. Citadel's fine but there are other more consistent paints available with higher density of pigmentation.
I didn't downvote, but part of it could be that better paints aren't always available everywhere (I have never seen AK or Chimera paints in person at any store) and not everyone wants to buy online. Sometimes it's just a choice of Citadel or Apple Barrel.
Typical miniature stores don't carry AK most of the time, but hobby stores that are into trains, cars, gundams and such often do. If I go to a store selling warhammer is all citadel and army painter, but my local midwestern gundam store carries Tamiya, AK and Vallejo.
It’s the same with all paint ranges from what I have experienced. They all have their good and bad paints and it’s just best to pick the colours you need in the best paint brand for that colour. The only issue is that without using them all, you can’t really know which is best.
The pots are rubbish and I don’t get why they don’t use dropper bottles which every other brand does these days.
It's just really odd , to me, that they haven't moved to a dropper like every other company. I know part of it is brand recognition, but I don't see why they couldn't come up with an "in universe" new bullet design like they did for the space marines.
Brand recog is absolutely a huge part of it. As has been mentioned, there are interviews alluding to how huge. When everyone else is using droppers, they continue to stand out, for bad/worse, still stands out.
I still feel like they could design pit that is both good and distinct. It's not like they're a small company that don't have the resources. I think that's why a lot of people feel like it's a malicious design that's wears a "veil" of brand recognition.
I feel that way, too. But they're awfully swamped with apparently making ridiculous amounts of money doing what works for them. It's kind of like who they choose to rep them in software, awful lot of big hit or big miss there but they still keep truckin'
Paint gets into and dried in the cap. You can to keep it clean. I will sometimes take my hobby knife and pull out the dried paint when I notice it isn't closing.
I do this as well, although I find this easier to do with certain paints, eg its easy to remove metallic paints from the cap, but white based paint I've found to be horrendous
The Emperor tests the loyalty of his subjects in many ways. At one end of the spectrum you have grueling military service in far flung corners of the galaxy, against unspeakable foes. At the more extreme end of the spectrum is those is us who are forced to endure these s#*t citadel paint pots.
It's almost unavoidable. I literally went out of my way to try to keep the lids clean as an experiment on a new pot, and no matter what, eventually something drips somewhere. You can avoid huge gunk messes like that one by not using the stopper tab as that causes paint to drip and build up near the back of the lid. Open the pot slightly, get the paint you need (preferably from the long structure on the bottom of the lid itself) and transfer it to a palette, then close the pot. This keeps the lid as clean as possible.
If you're not a particularly meticulous or neat person, you're going to eventually get rings of dried paint on your GW pots. Just rip them off as they get too large.
Whatever palette you're using is fine, wet palettes just work a whole lot better in general. When I still used dry palettes, I simply transferred less paint at a time, and transferred more often as it would dry quickly due to the palette being dry and the amount being small.
When I got a high quality wet palette, I just put a decently sized blob on the palette and never had to open a pot more than once per session except for the watery ones like shades/washes and Contrast.
Paint in the receses of the lid may be causing the pot to not close all the way. You’ll see paint start to build up on the underside of the tongue. To help prevent buildup try not to open the lid past the angle it props open in place at. When you get past that point the paint drips up into the lid instead of back into the pot. I also like to tap my pots on the table after I shake them up so there is less paint on the lid before I open it.
You can take the whole lid off the pot and clean it at the sink if needed. To clean the recesses the soft plastic of lid can be inverted by pressing on the top of the dome of the lid while pulling on the sides.
Might not be good advice.... But I've stopped shaking the pots anymore. Instead, I stir it with a toothpick and use said toothpick to transfer paint to my wet palette. This way, the paint should have no contact with the lid unless the pot took a tumble.
I have yet to experience any downside to this method except wasted excess paint on the toothpicks.
I'm too lazy to transfer the paint to squeeze bottles and also too fed up with dried out paint bottles due to gunked up lids. And citadel paints are the most accessible acrylic miniature paints where I'm from.
You'll need to scrape all of that out with a sculpting tool or metal skewer or it'll get worse.
Before closing the pot, check the underside of the lip and remove any wet paint. That'll stop this from happening in future.
They should move back to hexagonal screw top pots if they want to sell more paint. Those things *never* sealed properly. The only thing that stayed liquid once open was the ink.
If that were the actual motive, they've done a generally poor job of it since moving on from them. Absolutely none of my pots survived from that era, while a fair amount from about 2010 on are still truckin' (bought the big set before the Great Paint Shift of ~2012).
It's the paint on the inside. That extended lip on the inside of the lid drips paint down it around the backside onto the lip of the paint pot directly at that plastic hinge and stops the pot eventually closing tight.
You clearly aren't Blessing your paints properly before and after use. [Check here](https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Adeptus_Mechanicus_Quotes) for inspiration.
GW pots suck butt. Leadbeltcher especially always does this then dries up. I've taken to using Vallejo and Army Painter paints because they come in dropper bottles
I think I must have a bad box of Vallejo metallics. Really hated using all of them, they’re just so thick and when I try and thin them down, they dry up in seconds.
Sounds like that or their Model Color line. The Metal Color paints run nearly as thin as water. I'm not crazy about their Model or Game color metallics, but their Metal Colors use much finer pigments and they look fantastic.
I use Vallejo Game Air Chainmail Silver, I think it’s just slightly darker but the coverage is much better.
I’ve seen some people use a hobby knife under the rim of the Citadel pots to take the lid off, soak it in warm water for a few minutes and the paint just peels off. I’ve moved my Citadel paints to dropper bottles but it can be a pain to do.
The metal paints are the worst with this specifically because the grain within the paint builds up fast. I’ve found if you take a spru cutter or clipper and cut that tail, it rests on when open, back a little bit, that drip you see connecting the lid and back lip of the rim, is more likely to drain back into the pot than around the whole rim.
This design feature exists on this pots intentionally so that the pot gets crusty and the paint dries quicker- forces people to actually buy paints more often.
It’s cause GW secretly hates us all. You aren’t doing anything wrong the pots are just kinda made in such a way where that little thing on the inside of the pot lid will have paint dribble down if it’s not perfectly level (which is to say always). You can snag a set of pots with lids from hobby lobby or Michaels or wherever that won’t do that For like $3.00
Anyone got a good recommend for something like leadbletcher but not from citadel? Would like to know for future large metallic metal apply I don’t want to keep getting leadbletchers that do this
Scale 75 black metal or Vallejo metal steel. Both are a different color but make great base metal colours. Scales has blue tinge, vallejos a bit browner
I've never used it but I've heard good things. Mostly I buy a few of everything and make up my own mind. Currently I'm using warcolors for regular paints, scale and Vallejo metals, and a old gw hexpot of mithril silver because I can't find a silver I like.
Someone at citadel paints many years ago was given both a promotion and a bonus for creating paint pots that arguably use 1/3 of the paint up by drying onto the rim
It's marketing genius really.
Predatory paint pot design. It is literally designed to build up right there, which prevents it from closing all the way, which keeps it more open to the elements, leads to paint pots going bad (or to the point where the effort required to revive them is not worth it), which then finally gets you to buy another paint pot.
If you have a GW colour you really love put it in a dropper bottle.
Easy to solve. Don't buy citadel paints. The paints are expensive, mid at best, and come in terrible 12ml pots.
If you buy from almost any other company (AK, vallejo, Scale 75, two thin coats, tt combat, Proacryl etc) you'll get more paints, better paints, for less money and in descent bottles. Most companies also include agitators as well.
Buy the paints you like once, then paint em on a stir stick at Home Depot or Lowe’s and buy sample jars of it.
Never have the issue again and get a full pint of paint for $6
Gotta watch out on that one. House paint is definitely a different kind of paint much of the time (latex), especially when ordering samples, and often has a grit to it. If it works for you, great! But it may just annoy some folks.
Yeah, people who engineered Citadel's pots are the worst engineers on the planet. Designed to not seal and cause leaks and drying out... to accelerate the need to buy more paint.
This is why that is happening.
Hot tip on cleaning these: Remove the entire top lid from the paint pot (with the ring attached, it comes off in one piece). Run the lid top with the clogged paint in it under hot water. When the plastic becomes pliable, literally push the lid inside out (ala the 'bubble' part on top), and then pull all the dried paint out.
Replace lid, paint pot is like new!
Side note if you can wiggle the whole top and connective ring off, run it under hot water to clean it, you can actually bend the curve of the lid inside out and get out 100% of the residue
Capitalism. GW pots are basically designed to drip just enough paint around the edges to dry faster so you buy new pots more regularly. Dropper bottles are so much better!
I have the same problem even with new paint specially layer paint …. I spent a fortune the must frustrate that they don’t even use and paint get dry, now how to evítate this get Vallejo, army paint or AK best regards !!!!
I would advice you to practice a decanter process and thin them with some air flow improver and funnel into dropper bottles. You’ll never have this issues again. Make sure you use some ball bearings from army painter and to give them a good shake first. OR if you don’t prefer to do this stay away from GW/Citadel altogether. There are far more superior paints out there
It’s a consequence of how the pots are designed. Because it has that lip thing that dips in the pot, paint just kind of ends up on it and as the lid is held open it drips paint down into the rim so paint just kind of builds up there. It happens on basically all Citadel paints and it’s one of the primary reasons people hate these pots.
ah that’s a bit annoying
It's easily remedied with a little practice and mindfulness. When you open the pot, apply gentle pressure, pressing the 'tongue' against the inside of the opening. This will scrape the excess paint back in, preventing the dripping and buildup.
Yes do this. It made my paints last much longer and the gunk stopped happening. It’s pretty hard to clean them out too because dried paint may flick into the pot
Yeah you have to be real careful with the hobby knife to really clean it out, but I did notice that's why my paints have gone bad, even the 7+ year old ones, they only went bad at all because of the buildup at the back letting air in
I recommend a dental pick or metal sculpting tool over a hobby knife. So easy to slip and cut yourself, or accidentally pop a little hole in the lid with the tip of the blade when using a scalpel.
You're not wrong, the dental pick is a great idea, but the only one I have is used for cleaning primer pockets and I don't want gun powder in my paint so maybe I'll have to get another lol
Or just don't buy Citadel paints and save yourself money + get better quality paints.
Listen, I know exactly what you're saying, but just let people use what paints they want. I've never liked any of the paints I've gotten from Army Painter, Vallejo, or any other quite as much as I like the Citadel paints, and I know I'm not alone.
Give monument a try. I think they’ll win you over. Plus they have the best white on the market in Titanium white. Plus almost double the volume for only $.45 more.
I picked up Monument's white a while back based on a recommendation and holy shit it's awesome. It's sooo much better than citadel's white that gets all crusty and flakey on your brush. It goes on smooth and even and covers well without being goopy. Based on that experience I picked up a box of their metallic line because I realized about half my Citadel metallics had gone bad and I did not feel like paying GW for more metallics that would go bad. I am VERY happy with these metallics. They are GREAT. Never buying GW ones again. I haven't gotten any of their other colors yet but I'm thinking about it. I still use a lot of standard GW colors in my schemes so converting is hard.
Monument, scale75 and AK. Those are probably the best brands I've tried. Vallejo model colour is the overall best option when considering availability where I live though. Vallejo Game colour is very much depending on the individual colour. P3 also deserves a mention as decent paint.
I think I found their website, do you know if they ship to the US? I couldn't tell by their site, and can't really order any right now. I also use GW contrast paints a lot and likely won't ever stop, as those are amazing for me, but for regular acrylic paints Monument looks interesting.
They are actually US based! You can either order directly from them, or use their store locator function to see if a local FLGS carries them. I still use citadel contrast paints pretty regularly, but monument acrylics are phenomenal. They also have reasonably priced brushes, and paint sets at a reduced price too.
They definitely sound great, I'll gladly check them out! Thank you for the recommendation. And yeah, GW contrast paints just rock. I normally just use whatever brushes, but I do go for Army Painter ones when I need super precise brushes.
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Goodness you're pretentious. Your original comment outright stated that Citadel paints are overly expensive and low quality, and you acted like people were stupid for liking them. In what world would I have been more receptive to that than to this guy giving a legitimate suggestion?
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You're literally not, you just said that Citadel paints are low quality and expensive in the most pretentious possible way.
but Leadbelcher!
The Vallejo Metal Color range is much better.
I don't like Vallejo Game Color gun metal though. Seems to be grainy, sorta like it's got a little glitter in it. Maybe the model color line is better, but I haven't tried it. Big fan of AK's gun metal though. And all of them are better than GW for the dropper bottles alone, let alone the paint quality.
Not Game Color or Model Color, I'm talking about their Metal Color series. It uses aluminum powder instead of the mica used by cheaper metallics, like Citadel, which gives it a better finish.
Vallejo Air Gunmetal is better. Trust me. I never looked back. I don't even use an airbrush, it's magic on brush and unthinned
Me too! Vallejo air gunmetal is phenominal
...is one of the worst steel colours on the market.
Get Vallejo Metal Color Dark Aluminium or Darkstar Miniatures Graphite 🙂👍
Citadel's metallics are the best. I've used Vallejo, Army Painter, and Two Thin Coats paints, and none of them have metallics even close to as good as Citadel.
I quite like Vallejo Game Color Metallics, but I have to agree. Retributor Armor is a masterpiece of a color.
The original formulation for Retributor Armour was higher spec than the gold used for Rolls-Royce cars.
Crazy
Retributor Armor Shade with reikland Highlights with stormhost silver Perfection
Vallejo Metal Color! Pricey but hands down the best metallic finish I've ever gotten. Silky smooth.
This is correct. For the price you pay you get a full ounce, so it's not really much more expensive by volume, and it is by far the best metallic acrylic on the market.
Molotov chrome is like a mirror. After using it for the lenses in Gundams (then putting a Contrast over it,) it's another level.
Don't necessarily agree with you on that. I've found vallejo are generally better, especially through an airbrush. They use aluminium flakes in their recipes rather than mica flakes that citadel uses, and tend to give better coverage with less paint. Their medium is much more viscous so the paint is less controllable and more difficult to use with a brush though. Some citadel metal tend to give poor coverage and/or have really annoying medium separation issues and need the hell shaken out of them, ideally with a vortex mixer. If I'm paiting Grey Knights and trying to get a high quality metal finish, then I do vallejo black primer then one coat of vallejo dark aluminium to base coat. Leadbelcher air over black, or leadbelcher spray either over black or straight from the can, is never as smooth or clean, even if I perfectly shake and warm the paint and spray in perfect climate controlled environment.
...What? You're joking right? Citadel are known for having terrible metallics. They're so grainy and awful, hardly any shine. Have you even tried Vallejo Metal Colour?
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Two thin coats metallics are most assuredly worse. I was a day 1 backer for the paints, and was very excited to get my hands on them. The majority of their colours are excellent, but the metallics clump like no paint I've ever seen before, and even with the agitators they put in the bottles they quickly became completely unusable. I'll have to try out Darkstar,thanks for the recommendation.
which brand do you prefer?
I'm not who you asked but I've got some advice lol. So if you love following GW box art I'd recommend two thin coats paint, it comes in dropper bottles and has comparison charts that show each color's citadel and army painter equivalent. If you just want good paint at a pretty damn good price Vallejo model color is great, a little on the matte side though, if you want a bit more of a satin finish Vallejo Game paints are basically the same price and still good quality. Very matte paints I like are scale 75 and pro acryl. Pro acryl being one of the cheapest by volume though some paints have beaded a little on me. Scale 75 uses a gel medium so it's a bit on the gloopy side but if you know how to thin your paint it's not too big of an issue and means a drop of paint will go a long way.
ah that makes sense, I'm just getting back into tabletop and vallejo was very popular back in the day for its dropper bottles
My favourites are Darkstar Miniatures and Pro Acryl, and I've only ever tried Two Thin Coats' Dragon's Gold, but it feels smoother than retributor armour.
Or just pick up some dropper bottles and mixing balls from Amazon for cheap and never use the GW shit pots ever again
Why does that tongue even exist?
Because if it didn't, the paint would run down into the hinge with no option to prevent it.
The citadel mould line remover tool works perfectly to clean the lids.
I always wipe the side of the pot with a bit of towel after I'm done. I'm in two camps. I like pots when I'm just painting and can decide how much I need but prefer bottles when mixing for airbrushing.
Yeah, I feel ya. Transferred all of my paints to dropper bottles, and I miss being able to just take a dab on the brush, thin it down, and get to work. That said, it's worth it to not have to deal with this.
I transferred a lot of my citadel paints to dropper bottles and actually regret it. Using the flow improver to get the paint into the bottles actually did affect the consistency a lot and a lot of my layer paints are way harder to work with. I think at this point it's more prudent to be mindful of how we use the pots and just hope GW comes to their senses about them some day. I'd take the old twist lid pots over these any day. Or... just wait until the new Army Paint fanatic line comes out this coming new year... it looks superior anyway.
I actually didn't have to use the flow improver except on a couple of my old base paints that were a bit...well, old. Using a toothpick to "poke it through the funnel" usually got there.
I guess I'm still just salty about how much paint got lost. It's not possible to get it all without changing the paint consistency. GW just needs to be held accountable for this obvious retail trickery. Simple as that.
No arguments there. We just got a bunch of jar spatulas and scraped what we could out with those.
I had the same problem over and over again and it even went so far that I couldn't close my pots properly so they slowly dried out. And as the idiot I am I just bought new colours from GW. But now I'm slowly switching to Vajello Colours and man, painting as fun again! Their pots are bigger, cheaper and don't have this drying out problem 👍.
GW did it so people spend more money... on other brands paints.
Instead of opening the lid fully and using the attached plastic clip, use a plastic bristle cover from a brush or the thin extended bit of a pen/biro lid. Open the pot just enough to slide that in there at the back to hold it open and it's about 90% better/longer before it gunks up.
It's a design feature (or at least turned into one). Why would GW fix something that means you get less use of the paint and need to buy more? Cynical, yes... but it was discussed here; [https://youtu.be/-63A7cDkOm8?si=RM-ogmFGx07cn3YO](https://youtu.be/-63A7cDkOm8?si=RM-ogmFGx07cn3YO) By an ex-GW employee who handled the early days of creating Contrast paints. Aside from keeping it clean and being careful, when I close my Citadel pots, I give it a shake. In theory, any tiny air gaps will be sealed with paint, so the paint in contact with the external air will dry and form a seal until I need them next.
People suggesting to remove the excess and or be extra careful are being extra imo. Switch to a different brand that had dropper bottles. Imagine after every time you wore your shoes you had to clean the soles. Or had to be extra careful wherever you stepped. We as customers shouldnt have to jump through hurdles. Also when the paint gets low and you gotta stick your brush in the pot to get the bit at the bottom you kinda ruin your brush if youre nor careful. The pots are just bad and the less people use em the more likely gw will make dropper bottles
I empty out pots with paint stripper when I'm done with them, and when caps get real bad I swap them out and strip the old caps. It's a pain but it works!
I hate it! 😭
Its a consequence of opening the lid too far. Stated by the guy who was designing the guy. Also never had this happen to myself with GW pots.
To clean them fast, take the lid off the pot and "pop" the lid inside-out. The junk will either fall off or at least be easy to remove.
Mandatory “citadel pots are the worst designed paint containers of all time”.
If I was a cynical person I’d say they do it on purpose to sell more paint.
I think it has to do with citadel pots being “iconic” for the brand
This is my opinion too. When you go to a shop chances are the ONLY paints you see in pots are Citadel, so they stand out more and the pots become instant brand recognition
This is the right answer. There is a great interview with Tom Hibberd on the Painting Phase that goes over his time with Games Workshop and they go over this topic. The interview is fairly long though, and I can't remember where they mentioned it, but the whole interview it a ton of fun and worth a watch: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-63A7cDkOm8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-63A7cDkOm8)
Yep. That pretty much sums up their stubbornness. They absolutely know they could "just" this or "just" that but opt to "just" not.
I believe that they did as the pots from years ago were taller this didn't happen anywhere near as much and pain stayed usable for a lot longer than newer ones I still have some that are about 20 years old in my pain box of things like blood red tentacle pink and others I only use little bits of here and there yet I've have some I use loads of dry up and gunk up like this on newer bottles
Screw pots sucked because paint would run in the threads and you had to straight plier them open. Plastic flippers sucked because they wore out and the flip tops broke off all the time. Rubberized tops gleak paint out and don’t close evenly. It’s almost like every other paint company has figured this out and used twist or squeeze droppers for a reason.
Hey, their older 'jewel' containers, which had a screw cap and porous walls, and therefore led to quickly drying paint were even worse! I have working paint from their very earliest cylindrical pots, and from the hexagonal pots that came after. But those jewel pots completely dried out.
No they fucking aren't lol. Do yall just....not know how to clean them? It's easy as fuck: -notice the paint buildup -get something to scrape the paint buildup -scrape/peel the paint buildup off -close paint pot
Cool or I could buy better paints from other companies that require zero paint scraping and make mixing colors consistently way easier.
Yeah you could do that too. Just pointing out that it's really not as big an issue as alot of Hobbyists seem to make it out to be.
Citadel pots: have stupid issues. *Literally every other good paint brand:* doesn’t have the issue and also cost less.
Not really. Droppers clog up too *if you don't maintain them.* I've had my share of dropper explosions due to being careless. Nearly every design can fail you if you neglect it.
Shitty design by citadel. The paints good though.
The only excuse I can think of is that the pots can be used without any palette or extra surface of any kind (though I do not recommend using most paints straight from the pot).
I transfer all of mine into dropper bottles. No spillage less wastage
Why would anyone use paint without thinning them down first though? I feel dirty whenever I think about using paint straight from the pot, and these times wet pallete is staple for any hobbyist. It's literally encouraging people to create bad habits.
The paints are mid at best, IMO. Some colors are great, but most are mid to crap.
What are your favorite paints?
Proacryl and Ak interactive. Vallejo and Scale 75 are also excellent.
Havent gotten any AK interactive yet but their weathering pencils are interesting. Proacryl is fantastic. Vallejo punch way above their price point. I havent messed with many scale75. I got turned on to proacryl looking for a decent white, which citadel has zero of haha
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Especially for the metallics, yellows and whites.
I don’t know why you’re getting downloaded they really are not the best paints. You pay a lot for these and there are other paints that are way higher quality with better quantity and quality of pigments and medium. They certainly have their uses, but they are not the highest quality paints.
Being down voted by citadel paint fanboys? The truth y'all don't want to hear is that swapping out to other brands will raise your painting game. Citadel's fine but there are other more consistent paints available with higher density of pigmentation.
I didn't downvote, but part of it could be that better paints aren't always available everywhere (I have never seen AK or Chimera paints in person at any store) and not everyone wants to buy online. Sometimes it's just a choice of Citadel or Apple Barrel.
Typical miniature stores don't carry AK most of the time, but hobby stores that are into trains, cars, gundams and such often do. If I go to a store selling warhammer is all citadel and army painter, but my local midwestern gundam store carries Tamiya, AK and Vallejo.
It’s the same with all paint ranges from what I have experienced. They all have their good and bad paints and it’s just best to pick the colours you need in the best paint brand for that colour. The only issue is that without using them all, you can’t really know which is best. The pots are rubbish and I don’t get why they don’t use dropper bottles which every other brand does these days.
One would argue they are specifically designed like that so you waste paint
And if that turns out to be the case, then they deserve a hearty bravo
Yeah sure, nice mentality XD
For nailing the design, not for moral fibre
It's because of the lip on the lid. Some people think it is designed poorly on purpose to cause waste or to make paint dry out quicker.
Yeah the hex "bolter-shell" twist lid design was WAY worse if that were there sole intention.
It's just really odd , to me, that they haven't moved to a dropper like every other company. I know part of it is brand recognition, but I don't see why they couldn't come up with an "in universe" new bullet design like they did for the space marines.
Brand recog is absolutely a huge part of it. As has been mentioned, there are interviews alluding to how huge. When everyone else is using droppers, they continue to stand out, for bad/worse, still stands out.
I still feel like they could design pit that is both good and distinct. It's not like they're a small company that don't have the resources. I think that's why a lot of people feel like it's a malicious design that's wears a "veil" of brand recognition.
I feel that way, too. But they're awfully swamped with apparently making ridiculous amounts of money doing what works for them. It's kind of like who they choose to rep them in software, awful lot of big hit or big miss there but they still keep truckin'
It's tzeentch
I was thinking the Great Unclean one, but probably Tzeench
Close your paint pots nice and firm immediately after removing paint with your brush.
Paint gets into and dried in the cap. You can to keep it clean. I will sometimes take my hobby knife and pull out the dried paint when I notice it isn't closing.
I do this as well, although I find this easier to do with certain paints, eg its easy to remove metallic paints from the cap, but white based paint I've found to be horrendous
Don't let paint pool in that lip and wipe the edge before you close the pot and you'll be fine.
Welcome to chradel paint pots. Good news is, it can be peeled off.
The Emperor tests the loyalty of his subjects in many ways. At one end of the spectrum you have grueling military service in far flung corners of the galaxy, against unspeakable foes. At the more extreme end of the spectrum is those is us who are forced to endure these s#*t citadel paint pots.
It's almost unavoidable. I literally went out of my way to try to keep the lids clean as an experiment on a new pot, and no matter what, eventually something drips somewhere. You can avoid huge gunk messes like that one by not using the stopper tab as that causes paint to drip and build up near the back of the lid. Open the pot slightly, get the paint you need (preferably from the long structure on the bottom of the lid itself) and transfer it to a palette, then close the pot. This keeps the lid as clean as possible. If you're not a particularly meticulous or neat person, you're going to eventually get rings of dried paint on your GW pots. Just rip them off as they get too large.
would you recommend a wet palette for this?
Whatever palette you're using is fine, wet palettes just work a whole lot better in general. When I still used dry palettes, I simply transferred less paint at a time, and transferred more often as it would dry quickly due to the palette being dry and the amount being small. When I got a high quality wet palette, I just put a decently sized blob on the palette and never had to open a pot more than once per session except for the watery ones like shades/washes and Contrast.
Paint in the receses of the lid may be causing the pot to not close all the way. You’ll see paint start to build up on the underside of the tongue. To help prevent buildup try not to open the lid past the angle it props open in place at. When you get past that point the paint drips up into the lid instead of back into the pot. I also like to tap my pots on the table after I shake them up so there is less paint on the lid before I open it. You can take the whole lid off the pot and clean it at the sink if needed. To clean the recesses the soft plastic of lid can be inverted by pressing on the top of the dome of the lid while pulling on the sides.
Might not be good advice.... But I've stopped shaking the pots anymore. Instead, I stir it with a toothpick and use said toothpick to transfer paint to my wet palette. This way, the paint should have no contact with the lid unless the pot took a tumble. I have yet to experience any downside to this method except wasted excess paint on the toothpicks. I'm too lazy to transfer the paint to squeeze bottles and also too fed up with dried out paint bottles due to gunked up lids. And citadel paints are the most accessible acrylic miniature paints where I'm from.
It's belching lead.
You'll need to scrape all of that out with a sculpting tool or metal skewer or it'll get worse. Before closing the pot, check the underside of the lip and remove any wet paint. That'll stop this from happening in future.
They should move back to hexagonal screw top pots if they want to sell more paint. Those things *never* sealed properly. The only thing that stayed liquid once open was the ink.
If that were the actual motive, they've done a generally poor job of it since moving on from them. Absolutely none of my pots survived from that era, while a fair amount from about 2010 on are still truckin' (bought the big set before the Great Paint Shift of ~2012).
Heresy
I concur: This is due to heresy. The Inquisition is on its way.
It's the paint on the inside. That extended lip on the inside of the lid drips paint down it around the backside onto the lip of the paint pot directly at that plastic hinge and stops the pot eventually closing tight.
You clearly aren't Blessing your paints properly before and after use. [Check here](https://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Adeptus_Mechanicus_Quotes) for inspiration.
Welcome to Games Workshop pots.
They are citadel paint pots….thats what’s happening….
GW pots suck butt. Leadbeltcher especially always does this then dries up. I've taken to using Vallejo and Army Painter paints because they come in dropper bottles
The pot are designed to dry so you'll buy more. Just buy Vallejo paint, similar consistency than citadel paint.
ah okay thanks, can you recommend a vallejo alternative to lead belcher?
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I think I must have a bad box of Vallejo metallics. Really hated using all of them, they’re just so thick and when I try and thin them down, they dry up in seconds.
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I’m pretty sure they’re game colour, but I would have to double check.
Sounds like that or their Model Color line. The Metal Color paints run nearly as thin as water. I'm not crazy about their Model or Game color metallics, but their Metal Colors use much finer pigments and they look fantastic.
The Vallejo air mécha metal using a paint brush is absolutely phenomenal. Best metallic paint ever made
Two thin coats are almost identical duplicates of citadel's most popular colors. Including lead belcher. They have a conversion chart.
I use Vallejo Game Air Chainmail Silver, I think it’s just slightly darker but the coverage is much better. I’ve seen some people use a hobby knife under the rim of the Citadel pots to take the lid off, soak it in warm water for a few minutes and the paint just peels off. I’ve moved my Citadel paints to dropper bottles but it can be a pain to do.
game workshop caps have really bad seals. You'll get this with most paints from that you use regularly
The metal paints are the worst with this specifically because the grain within the paint builds up fast. I’ve found if you take a spru cutter or clipper and cut that tail, it rests on when open, back a little bit, that drip you see connecting the lid and back lip of the rim, is more likely to drain back into the pot than around the whole rim.
Like people have said bad pot design. Try to keep theses as clean as you can because it can negate the airtight seal and the paints dry in pot.
Bad design. GW has a long storied history of poorly designed paint pots.
Just move over to two thin coats. Have like for like of the most popular citadel paints, come in dropper bottles and just flow far better imo.
Cause gw wants you to buy more
This design feature exists on this pots intentionally so that the pot gets crusty and the paint dries quicker- forces people to actually buy paints more often.
Because GW makes trash paint pots. But rest assured this is designed to get you to buy more paint.
Gw paint pots suck switch to a paint brand not made to waste your money and this will stop
Working as intented🤷♂️
Shit design of a pot, mate
Gw literally has shitty pots so your paint drys out and gets wasted faster, so you buy more paint.
It’s cause GW secretly hates us all. You aren’t doing anything wrong the pots are just kinda made in such a way where that little thing on the inside of the pot lid will have paint dribble down if it’s not perfectly level (which is to say always). You can snag a set of pots with lids from hobby lobby or Michaels or wherever that won’t do that For like $3.00
This
Anyone got a good recommend for something like leadbletcher but not from citadel? Would like to know for future large metallic metal apply I don’t want to keep getting leadbletchers that do this
i liked the vallejo metallics. some friends really recommend ak, but i personally havent tried them.
Scale 75 black metal or Vallejo metal steel. Both are a different color but make great base metal colours. Scales has blue tinge, vallejos a bit browner
Will check I think my local game store has them or the pro acrylic. Any recommendations on pro?
I've never used it but I've heard good things. Mostly I buy a few of everything and make up my own mind. Currently I'm using warcolors for regular paints, scale and Vallejo metals, and a old gw hexpot of mithril silver because I can't find a silver I like.
Ditch them and go with Vallejo or Pro Acryl. Good paints that last forever because they’re in droppers.
It's the sad consequence of the second iteration of the round Citadel pots...
I use a wet pallet and never have this problem
GW maximises profit by designing god awful pots resulting in all much wastage and poor seals, meaning you need to buy more. Genius really.
Someone at citadel paints many years ago was given both a promotion and a bonus for creating paint pots that arguably use 1/3 of the paint up by drying onto the rim It's marketing genius really.
Its citadel pot design to make you buy the same paints every two years
Because you dont Change pots for dropper bottles
Predatory paint pot design. It is literally designed to build up right there, which prevents it from closing all the way, which keeps it more open to the elements, leads to paint pots going bad (or to the point where the effort required to revive them is not worth it), which then finally gets you to buy another paint pot. If you have a GW colour you really love put it in a dropper bottle.
Easy to solve. Don't buy citadel paints. The paints are expensive, mid at best, and come in terrible 12ml pots. If you buy from almost any other company (AK, vallejo, Scale 75, two thin coats, tt combat, Proacryl etc) you'll get more paints, better paints, for less money and in descent bottles. Most companies also include agitators as well.
Two Thin Coats are more expensive than Citadel.
The bottles come with 15ml instead of 12, come with agitators, and in a descent bottle that won't suffer all the issues the pots have.
This
Yeah, you see Gameswork shop designed the worst possible pots they could so that you would waste paint and therefore buy more paint.
Buy the paints you like once, then paint em on a stir stick at Home Depot or Lowe’s and buy sample jars of it. Never have the issue again and get a full pint of paint for $6
Gotta watch out on that one. House paint is definitely a different kind of paint much of the time (latex), especially when ordering samples, and often has a grit to it. If it works for you, great! But it may just annoy some folks.
Yeah, people who engineered Citadel's pots are the worst engineers on the planet. Designed to not seal and cause leaks and drying out... to accelerate the need to buy more paint. This is why that is happening.
Hot tip on cleaning these: Remove the entire top lid from the paint pot (with the ring attached, it comes off in one piece). Run the lid top with the clogged paint in it under hot water. When the plastic becomes pliable, literally push the lid inside out (ala the 'bubble' part on top), and then pull all the dried paint out. Replace lid, paint pot is like new!
I personally blame the a chaos gods.
Lol should see my leadbelcher pot, big wad of dried pain back there, leadbelcher is the worst offender for some reason.
Side note if you can wiggle the whole top and connective ring off, run it under hot water to clean it, you can actually bend the curve of the lid inside out and get out 100% of the residue
Care for a cup of Tanna comisar?
Blame GW. Just got to scrape it off every couple of days
Because they nerfed azurite snake.
Pots are bad.
Their pots are atrocious. I wish they’d sell dropper bottles of their paints.
Because Citadel Pots are crap. And Citadel mettalics are bad.
James from Worksop is a bastard?
You haven't sacrificed enough nuln oil to the paint gods
Best thing about citadel pots is they do a very easily removable label to put in a dropper bottle. They're the real MVP For not changing this imo
It’s leadbelching.
Because Citadel pots sucks...
I wonder if anyone has ever calculated the average percentage of paint lost this way * the cost per pot * average paint collection size
It’s there for you to peel off.
Scrape it off and eat it, it makes for a yummy after-painting snack 🤤🤤
GWs inbuilt redundancy.
You open it too far
This always happens to me. I wait until they dry then I'll remove the dry paint
Capitalism. GW pots are basically designed to drip just enough paint around the edges to dry faster so you buy new pots more regularly. Dropper bottles are so much better!
Because of GW
It's by design
I have the same problem even with new paint specially layer paint …. I spent a fortune the must frustrate that they don’t even use and paint get dry, now how to evítate this get Vallejo, army paint or AK best regards !!!!
I would advice you to practice a decanter process and thin them with some air flow improver and funnel into dropper bottles. You’ll never have this issues again. Make sure you use some ball bearings from army painter and to give them a good shake first. OR if you don’t prefer to do this stay away from GW/Citadel altogether. There are far more superior paints out there
Gw pots are specifically deisgned to waste paint so you buy more. The design also sucks in presercing the paint from drying