Citadel Technical Paints

[strewart]

Sorry if this has been covered.. I did look through the sticky thread and did a search of this forum first. What are the thoughts here on them? Worth buying or easy enough to replicate the effect they get with other normal paints?

It has been suggested that I try the Citadel Technical Paints. I don't really want to buy more paints than I have to so I have just spent an hour looking over various reviews around the net. Here are my thoughts at the moment: (based on the ones I am interested in)

Ryza Rust - Can achieve basically the same effect drybrushing with any other orange colour? I already have the Foundation Paint Macharius Solar Orange and I'm not sure if the rust one will add anything more.

Typhus Corrosion - This looks pretty useful. I think I can achieve a reasonable worn metal look just with a dark brown paint and the orange drybrush (plus possibly a wash). But the texture of it looks like it would add more to the effect. I was also wondering about putting around the bottom of leather boots to make them look muddy, would it work well for that?

Blood for the Blood God - Have only seen good reviews for this, solid option.

Those are the 3 I am most looking into. Possibly skipping the rust colour and going for the other two. May as well mention the others while making a thread about them though.


Nihilakh Oxide - Not really interested in it, not a fan of the effect from what I have seen.

Agrellan Earth - No interest.

Nurgle's Rot - Despite currently painting up a Nurgle army, I really can't personally see a use for it. It does look good when applied to things like Tyranids and open wounds, but my army does not really have mutations and such so while it looks good I don't really need it.

 

[gohkm]

You could replicate every one of the technical effects through other techniques. The GW technical effects are highly convenient, though. I do use them quite a lot, especially Blood for the Blood God.

That said, in some cases, you can further augment the effects of the technical paints. For example, with Blood for the Blood God, a further glaze of Tamiya Clear Red will deepen the effect.

 

[MAXXxxx]

For example, with Blood for the Blood God, a further glaze of Tamiya Clear Red will deepen the effect.

you LIKE working twice, don't cha?
"BloodForTheBloodGod" is basically the same as TamiyaClearRed, just worse. If you wanted more blood, then you could've just used more Tamiya.


as for the OP:
- rust: you are right, any orange/orangebrown will do, so no need for it
- corrosion: well it's the same as old Vallejo smoke, that's rarely used. A fun alternative would be mixing a small amount of baking-soda (or how it's called, the one used often for snow) into thinned brown.
- blood: if you don't have access to the Tamiya or if you don't like the smell of it, then it's a good alternative, but I'd rather get the original (alternative: red + glaze medium to make it more transparent + gloss varnish to make it shiny)

- oxide: yep, not really needed. Can be mixed easily from blue, green and a lot of white (and some glaze medium/water)
- agrellan: I'm more for other companies crackle mediums / crackle paints, but this one is good too (less amount for the money, but already tinted brown)
- nurgle: Tamiya Clear Green is better here , or again a mix of green+glaze+gloss. Aand this one is really specialized, if you don't to nurgle/icky thing, then no need at all.

 

[oistene]

I like the technicals a lot, though only Blood for the Blood God sees regular use. Anything can be recreated though, more than anything, these save you time and effort. Depending on your level, results may be better or worse. You just have to consider if the investment is worth it, it you enjoy creating such effects from scratch and you're good at it, you can skip the techs. If you want these effects fast and easy and you find it hard to get good results, go buy.

 

[gohkm]

You know me, I'm a glutton for punishment .

Seriously, though, I would never use raw Tamiya Clear Red to make blood effects. I would mix it with either blue or brown ink first. The raw stuff just doesn't look quite right, even if I want arterial spray.

Don't have that issue with Blood for the Blood God - just slop it right on. But it still looks subtly off. I usually glaze on raw Tamiya Clear Red to get a fresher, arterial spray.

 

[MAXXxxx]

all this mentioning of arterial spray... makes me fear you.

 

[gohkm]

Funny you should say that .

I remember I described disembowelled intestines on the OzPainters forum, and I got almost exactly the same response . But I only wanted to try and replicate the colours on my Nurgle daemon ...

 

[strewart]

Cool thanks for the replies! Thats what I was expecting.

Not sure if they will add too much to the (rough) scheme I have come up with.

View attachment 34492

I might add a bit of rust to some areas of it but I can do that easily with orange paint.

 

[Trevor]

corrosion: well it's the same as old Vallejo smoke, that's rarely used. A fun alternative would be mixing a small amount of baking-soda (or how it's called, the one used often for snow) into thinned brown.

It is not the same. The typhus has small grains of sand in it and gives a texture that the smoke does not. The colour is pretty similar though.

 

[MAXXxxx]

smoke also has small grains in it. The problem is that there is about 3 from them and they all act different (vgc-smoke, vmc-smoke, vgc-smokey-ink? I'm not sure on the last one).
I know that from these 3 one of the 'bottle' I have has small grains in it (if it's not dried in yet, as I said, I rarely used it, so no idea how the consistency of it is now)

 

[BloodASmedium]

I use pigment powders for weathering effects from m I g but as far as blood I use the citadel blood for the blood god,,it's amazing it's part liquid clear and part re gel that shows blood in a realistic way.I have literally 12 bottles of it as I use it on everything and it's a game changer.

 

[BloodFather of Kharnath]

VMC Smoke definitely doesn't have any grainy sand in it. This is my favorite, most oft used paint.

Typhus Corrosion, as far as I am aware, doesn't have any sandy bits in it either. I could be wrong here, I only used it once and didn't like what it did, but thought about it for future use as a leaky oil.

What does have sand in it is the Ryza Rust. This stuff is by no means simply orangey brown paint. It is orange paint dried in sand. think of Citadel's line of worthless "dry" paints. To duplicate rust, I take a dark red brown, like Doombull (Dark Flesh) and apply it sloppily like a controlled wash, overloaded brush. But before the paint dries on the mini, I'll add a dry brushing of Ryza rust. This breaks apart the red brown and leaves the normally unwanted rings, but now with a nice thick mix of orange rust. The best rust on the market though is the type previewed by the Massive Voodoo guys. Need me some of that.

In a nutshell, none are necessary but all are convenient and work as advertised. However, I essentially collect paint so never take my advice on what is a must and what is a luxury. I buy paints that are easily mixed from paints I already own, or I'll buy the exact same paint but from a different company, just to have theirs. It's a sickness. I'm ill.

 

[BloodFather of Kharnath]

Cool thanks for the replies! Thats what I was expecting.

Not sure if they will add too much to the (rough) scheme I have come up with.

I might add a bit of rust to some areas of it but I can do that easily with orange paint.

Nice Xhaos Warrior. Like how you highlighted the greens. If you really want to take it to the next level, I would add some Ryza Rust to the warhammer, some Typhus Corrosion to his armor, some blood for the blood to his hands and weapon, some....

Kidding. But seriously nice WoC.

 

[strewart]

Nice Xhaos Warrior. Like how you highlighted the greens. If you really want to take it to the next level, I would add some Ryza Rust to the warhammer, some Typhus Corrosion to his armor, some blood for the blood to his hands and weapon, some....

Kidding. But seriously nice WoC.

Thanks Bloodfather. It is just various controlled washes straight on mithril silver. Very fast and easy to do! I'm starting to use glazes and washes a lot recently and loving it.

I have experimented with some rust on bits of the armour now. I ended up buying Typhus Corrosion, and yes it definitely does have particles in it. They are a bit hard to apply on small areas when you aren't putting much paint on, but work ok.

Typhus Corrosion with orange drybrush:


Same but a tiny bit of gold drybrushed on top after:


(Also yes I god Blood for the Blood god too, tested on the sword. It is really cool. )

Just the orange foundation paint drybrushed in patches with no typhus corrosion:

 

[BloodFather of Kharnath]

CcFirst, your Knights look quite good in that orange and green combo. I definitely see those particles in the typhus, and it definitely lends to the textured look of the rust. However, I am not sure that the oil stained look of the typhus is necessary. Perhaps you should try the Ryza Rust, or just add sand and some Matt medium to your orange so you can keep the texture yet get rid of the oil stains. Then again, some of that dark typhus looks good in the shadows of the green. I would instead take a VMC smoke or similar and glaze a few layers over the green in the shadows. Controlled though, don't let it pool like the typhus.

Finally, your TMM is looking good, but you should reapply that silver in the highlight areas, that way it looks like it has shinier parts and you build up contrast. Just some advice for an already beautiful looking Nirgle unit.

 

[strewart]

Thank you for the tips. I tried adding extreme edge highlights of mithril silver to one of the warriors and I think it looks better now as a result. (Of course I still need to paint other details like cloak, weapon etc.)



I will try your idea for rust once I get another warrior up to that point. I am not sure the ryza rust colour is textured but I will add some fine sand as texture to macharius orange.

One thing I am still not sure about is how to paint the chaos icons on the shields. I think maybe dirty gold/bronze like I have done on the shield on the chariot below, but it doesn't stand out very much. The challenge is finding something that stands out but does not look 'clean' and take away from the dirty look of the model/armour.



(It has metallic medium on the top/left as an experiment which I don't like in hindsight so ignore the overly shiny parts at the top)

 

[BloodFather of Kharnath]

Without a doubt, Ryza rust comes textured. Open a pot next time ur in the FLGS.

Those se highlighrs look great! Now we're talking my friend? Some great TMM actually...especially with the orange. Suggest maybe watering it down a bit more and glazing it on thinner. May look better if it's more subtle. But looks great already.

Agree with using a brassy color. Something like this, on my Gokan:

 

[Trevor]

worthless "dry" paints

I like these, they water down to be like normal paint, so effectively more paint for the same money. Also they drybrush well, if you ever use that for scenery etc.

 

[BloodFather of Kharnath]

Good to hear they work out for you, I haven't heard many similar testimonials. To me, even when watered down they are too chalky for my liking, even for scenic dry brushing. But if you have cracked the code for making them work, this is good to hear...

 

[oistene]

For the advanced artist, the dries have little or no use. I have a few, and never use them when I paint 'properly'.

However, when doing assembly line painting, they are great. For instance, I have a jar of Etherium Blue, which I use to drybrush the bases on my Zombicide zombies. Since I do 20-30 minis at once, this saves both time and paint. So, they have their use. I also see myself using them a lot when I'll finish up my gaming table.