The Citadel Paints and Tools Set is worth buying for one specific person: someone who owns a Warhammer kit, owns nothing else, and wants a single purchase that lets them prime, assemble, and paint a first miniature without guessing at fifteen separate pot names. If you already own any Citadel Base or Layer paints, or you have paints from another brand and just need Citadel's washes and technicals to round things out, this box duplicates colors you likely already have and is not the efficient buy.
What paints come in the Citadel starter set?
The box holds 13 Citadel Colour pots plus a starter brush, a pair of clippers, and a mouldline scraper. The paints span five of Citadel's product types, which matters more than it sounds: a Base pot, a Layer pot, and a Contrast pot are not interchangeable even when their colors look similar in the bottle.
| Color | Type | What it is for |
|---|---|---|
| Abaddon Black | Base | Priming coat and armor basecoat, the darkest tone in the box |
| Corax White | Base | Bright basecoat and mixing white |
| Wraithbone | Base | Bone and parchment basecoat, softer than Corax White |
| Naggaroth Night | Base | Deep purple basecoat |
| Macragge Blue | Base | Classic Space Marine blue basecoat |
| Bugman's Glow | Base | Skin basecoat, a warm mid brown |
| Mephiston Red | Base | Bright red basecoat |
| Leadbelcher | Metallic | Gunmetal for weapons and armor trim |
| Balthasar Gold | Metallic | Warm gold for trim and ornamentation |
| Thunderhawk Blue | Layer | Highlight layer over Macragge Blue |
| Magos Purple | Contrast | One-coat shaded purple, base and shade in a single pass |
| Agrax Earthshade | Wash | Recess shade for the whole box, the single most useful pot here |
| Armageddon Dust | Technical | Basing texture, see below |
Two of the seven Base colors, Macragge Blue and Mephiston Red, also exist in Citadel's spray-can Air range under near-identical names. This box ships the brush-on Base pot, not the airbrush version, so if you look them up and see a listing tagged Air, that is a different product.
Effect colors: what Armageddon Dust actually does
Armageddon Dust is the one pot in this box that does not behave like paint at all. It is a Technical paint built as a texture, not a flat color: it has actual grit suspended in the medium, and you apply it thick with an old brush onto a model's base to create a sand or rubble surface before you paint over it. Reach for it after the model is assembled and before you paint the base proper, then drybrush a lighter tone over the dried texture to bring out the grain. It is not a shading or highlighting tool, and it will not thin down into a normal wash no matter how much water you add. The rest of the Citadel Technical range covers other non-paint effects like snow, water, and rust in the same thick, textured style.
What the set does not cover
Thirteen pots is a starting palette, not a full one. There is exactly one Layer pot, Thunderhawk Blue, so you can highlight blue armor but nothing else without mixing white into a Base color yourself. The one wash, Agrax Earthshade, is a warm brown-black; anything needing a cooler grey or blue-tinted wash needs a separate purchase. There is no dedicated skin tone beyond Bugman's Glow, no green, and no highlight white beyond Corax White at full strength. Treat this as the first ten to fifteen colors of a longer shelf; the full Citadel brand page covers what the complete range adds from here.
If you already own paint from another brand and just need Citadel's washes and technicals, the converter shows which existing colors are close enough to skip a duplicate purchase.
Who should buy it, who should skip it
Buy this if you are painting your first Citadel miniature and want tools and paint in one purchase without researching a color list first. The clippers and mouldline scraper alone save a beginner from using kitchen scissors on plastic sprues, and having Agrax Earthshade on day one means your first model looks shaded instead of flat.
Skip it if you already own Citadel Base, Layer, or Contrast paints from a previous kit, since you will overlap heavily with Abaddon Black and Agrax Earthshade, two of the most commonly rebought Citadel colors. Skip it too if your first army is not blue or purple themed; the basecoats lean toward those two schemes over a green or yellow army. Painters weighing Vallejo against Citadel should read the Citadel vs Vallejo comparison and the Citadel to Vallejo conversion chart before buying this set new.
For pricing on Games Workshop's own products this site does not compete on discount, so treat the search link below as a way to find current stock rather than a deal comparison: Citadel Paints and Tools Set on Amazon(affiliate link).
FAQ
What paints come in the Citadel starter set?
Thirteen pots: seven Base colors, two metallics, one Layer, one Contrast, one wash, and one Technical texture paint, plus a brush, clippers, and a mouldline scraper.
Is the Citadel starter kit enough to paint a full miniature?
Yes for a single model in blue, purple, or red armor with metal trim and a textured base. It is not enough for a full squad in mixed color schemes without buying more paint.
What does the Citadel texture paint effect actually look like?
Armageddon Dust dries as a rough, sandy surface once painted thick onto a base. It reads as gravel or dry earth once drybrushed with a lighter tone over the top.
Does this set include a primer?
No. You will need a separate spray or brush-on primer before any of these paints go on properly.
Is this the same as the Citadel Battle Ready or Parade Ready sets?
No, those are separate boxes at different price points with different color counts and no tools included. This set is the tools-plus-paint option.