CitadelvsVallejo

Buy Vallejo when you want a large opaque color library in dropper bottles for mixing, layering, and airbrush work. Its 334 colors are almost all opaque paint, 293 of them, and the Model Color range in particular is built around the muted browns, greys, and buffs that historical and scale modelers live on.

Keep Citadel for its ecosystem. The reason it splits into Base, Layer, Shade, Technical, Contrast, and Air is that each does a specific job, and two of those jobs have no real answer in Vallejo's two ranges: Citadel carries 79 wash-like colors across its Shade and Contrast lines and 21 technical texture and effect paints, where these two Vallejo ranges give you 10 and 7. Its Air range is also pre-thinned for the airbrush, a job Vallejo handles with a separate Model Air line not compared here.

In practice most painters do not choose. The opaque colors convert cleanly, 286 Citadel colors have a Vallejo match and 328 map back, so it is common to base and layer in Vallejo for the dropper bottles, then reach for Citadel Shades and Contrast for the shading step. That hybrid is the honest recommendation.