Biel-Tan Green is the Citadel shade for pushing depth into green armor and foliage without muddying the hue toward brown. It sits in the Citadel Shade range alongside eighteen other washes, and picking the right one comes down to matching the shade's own color to whatever you just laid down as a base.
A wash is not a paint you apply to cover a model. It is a thin, ink-like fluid that flows into recesses and panel lines, pools in the low spots, and dries darker there than on the raised surfaces. That is the entire trick: one coat and the model reads as shaded without any manual blending. Citadel Shade paints are formulated specifically for this pooling behavior, which is why swapping in a thinned regular paint rarely looks as clean.
What is Biel-Tan Green used for?
Biel-Tan Green is a green wash built to darken and unify green base colors, most commonly Warpstone Glow or Waaagh! Flesh style greens on orks, and armor greens on space marine chapters that lean toward a brighter, more saturated green. It reads as a genuine green in the recess rather than shifting toward olive or black, which keeps the color identity intact after washing.
Nine wash colors and what each one does
Biel-Tan Green deepens bright, saturated greens without dulling them toward brown.
Nuln Oil is the closest thing this range has to a universal wash. It is a near-black brown that shades almost any color, which is why it shows up in more painting guides than any other single Citadel product.
Agrax Earthshade is a warm brown wash for skin, wood, leather, and any surface that should read as grimy or weathered rather than simply dark.
Reikland Fleshshade is built specifically for skin tones. It leaves a warmer, more orange cast than Agrax, which suits pale to mid-tone flesh better than a straight brown wash does.
Seraphim Sepia is a lighter, more yellow-brown wash, useful over bone, parchment, tan cloth, and other pale colors where Agrax would read as too dark and too cool.
Carroburg Crimson is a red-leaning wash for cloth, banners, and red armor, where a plain black or brown wash would flatten the hue instead of deepening it.
Coelia Greenshade is a cool teal-green wash most painters reach for on blues, since it darkens without pulling the hue toward brown the way Nuln Oil sometimes does on lighter blues.
Druchii Violet shades purples and can also be layered thin over reds and blues to push them toward a cooler, more sinister tone, a common trick for chaos and undead armies.
Athonian Camoshade is an olive green wash aimed squarely at camouflage schemes, drab fatigues, and any green that needs to read as muted rather than bright.
How do I pick between two washes that both look similar?
Test on a spare model or an unused part of the sprue first. The dried result is always darker and more saturated than the wash looks wet in the pot, and two washes that look close side by side in the bottle can dry noticeably different over the same base color. When in doubt, pick the wash whose base hue matches your paint's hue rather than the one that looks closest to the color you want in the recess.
Do I need all nine, or can I start smaller?
Most painters get most of their mileage from three: Nuln Oil for general shading, Agrax Earthshade for warm and weathered surfaces, and Reikland Fleshshade for skin. The other six solve specific color problems and are worth adding once you know which colors you paint most often.
FAQ
What is the difference between Biel-Tan Green and Coelia Greenshade?
Biel-Tan Green is built for greens and keeps a green result in the recess. Coelia Greenshade is a cool teal wash more commonly used on blues, though some painters also use it on greens for a cooler, more muted result than Biel-Tan gives.
Is Baal Red a wash color?
No. Baal Red is a Citadel Contrast paint, not a Citadel Shade. It behaves differently: Contrast paints are designed to be a one-coat base and shade combined over a white or light undercoat, while Shade washes are applied over an already-painted base coat.
What does Fuegan Orange do?
Fuegan Orange is another Citadel Shade, an orange-leaning wash used to warm and deepen orange and red-orange base colors without the muddying effect a brown wash would cause.
Can I thin a Citadel wash if it is too strong?
Yes, with Citadel's own Contrast Medium or plain water in small amounts. Thinning reduces the pooling effect and the depth of the final shade, so test the ratio on a spare part before committing to a full model.
Do washes replace drybrushing?
No, they solve different problems. A wash pushes color into recesses; drybrushing pulls color onto raised edges and texture. Most painted miniatures use both in sequence: wash first for depth, drybrush after for highlights.