CitadelvsThe Army Painter
These two are the closest match in the whole catalog, and the overlap numbers prove it: 290 Citadel colors have an Army Painter equivalent, and 289 Army Painter colors map back to Citadel. That near-symmetry is rare. Both brands build the same kind of range for the same kind of painter.
Citadel
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The Army Painter
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Our take
Picking between two hobby ranges
Both cover the full hobby workflow. Citadel does it with 298 colors across six named ranges; Army Painter does it with 306 across just two, Warpaints Fanatic and Speedpaint 2.0. Both give you a one-coat shading line, and Army Painter actually carries slightly more wash-like colors, 97, than Citadel's Shade and Contrast ranges combined, which come to 79.
So the decision is rarely about which colors exist, because almost all of them exist in both. It comes down to format and habit. Citadel's ranges are pot-based and split by role, which some painters find clearer and others find fussy. Army Painter's dropper bottles suit palette work and hold more paint. If you already own a scheme in one brand, the converter finds the equivalent in the other for nearly every color you use.
The one honest tie-breaker is availability and how each brand's specific contrast colors read on your models, since that is the range where formulas differ most. Match the two or three contrast colors your scheme depends on before committing to either system.
- Pick Citadel ifyou want role-split ranges, an Air line, and the pot format, and you paint Games Workshop schemes.
- Pick The Army Painter ifyou want dropper bottles, bigger paint volume, and the Speedpaint one-coat system alongside your opaques.
Measured overlap
Converting between them
290 Citadel colors map to Army Painter and 289 map back, the tightest two-way overlap of any pair here. You can rebuild almost any scheme in the other brand.
Citadel and Games Workshop are trademarks of Games Workshop Limited; this site is unaffiliated with and unendorsed by Games Workshop. The Army Painter, Warpaints and Speedpaint are trademarks of The Army Painter ApS; this site is unaffiliated.