None of the products being reviewed in this article were paid for by anyone other than the author, nor is this article commissioned by any third-party. This is an honest review of three products, gauging them against each other and the author’s experience.
It wasn’t that long ago that we reviewed Army Painter versus Green Stuff World primer. Green Stuff World, unfortunately, did not fare well. But, with the new Necromunda coming out and a whole lot of excitement around building new gangs for it, then, with the Warhammer Tone Pro line being announced… I thought, well, what the hell, why not spring for a few extra bottles of black spray and do a real head-to-head before painting over it as you saw already in our Tone Pro review.
So, today we’ll be looking at Vallejo versus Citadel versus Army Painter. In this way, Army Painter will kind of be our control. We know how it did against Green Stuff World but against two other brands that aren’t “store brands”, how will it hold up?
As everyone should know by now, our test subjects are three hive scum I assembled especially for this little experiment.
Just to be fair, I primed all three of these minis outside in 15°C weather. It had rained earlier in the day but was sunny and at 60% humidity when I applied the paint. All three bottles had been shaken for a timed five minutes and all three had their nozzles cleared while the can was upside down just to be extra safe. I had no dog in this fight so I didn’t want to bias the results by handling the paints differently.
First, a note about the Vallejo paints. I didn’t know this until my rattle cans arrived but Vallejo sends two different nozzles with their paints, one they call a “skinny cap” and another called a “pocket cap.” The skinny cap is for low discharge for fine details whereas the pocket cap is for medium flow. This lines up with my results as I tested both caps on the other side of the Blood Bowl coins from the last article.
On the “skinny cap” coin, I think, for one coat, it’s a little less even. I ran it past the coin several times and I don’t feel like the coverage was as good as the “pocket cap.” Therefore, for the paint tests done, going forward, I used the pocket cap to give it what I saw as equal coverage to the Citadel and Army Painter sprays.
One other thing to note: with the coins, I did a single coat to see what the coverage was but, for the miniatures, I applied two coats when necessary or spot coated areas that hadn’t quite been covered. And, between all three, I think the results were great.
Army Painter Black
The Army Painter primer showed the same great results as before. It covered the vast majority of the miniature in a single coat with only a couple of spot sprays needed where something was blocked by a hand or tabard or it was a nook or cranny. For economy’s sake, the Army Painter spray is great because, with this kind of coverage, you’re saving a lot of paint each time something needs to be primed. I’d be curious to log the numbers of minis I can get full coverage on with each paint for a further article. But, right now, I’ll say I’m always happy when I use this primer.
with this kind of coverage, you’re saving a lot of paint
The one thing that’s easy to notice is that it’s easily the most shiny of all the primers. But this is really only an issue if the base coats are a little too watered down as then the undercoat can be slightly hydrophobic. But that’s fixed by just adding a little more paint back to the mix so it retains its cohesion. But, if too many layers are needed, this can clog the details.
Again, this isn’t a deal breaker for me because it’s something that just takes a little experience to discover and learn to solve. But it’s the one thing that makes me rank Army Painter just a little lower than the other two.
Vallejo Black Spray
The Vallejo spray, with the pocket cap, gave excellent coverage in about one and a half sprays. I found the coverage to be a little less than Army Painter but only slightly. Where it really makes a difference is that it’s much more matte than Army Painter. There’s still a tiny bit of shine but the overall result was very nice and I’m looking forward to putting paint on top of it.
Two other things I like about Vallejo is that even with the slightly extra application, it still goes on thin, clogging up none of the details, but I like that they include a second nozzle with lower pressure to cover areas with more detail. I’m actually going to hold on to a couple of these nozzles for some ForgeWorld minis I have that lose details fast if you prime them wrong. Hopefully they work on other cans!
Citadel Chaos Black
If you read my original Black Spray review, I blamed Citadel for the lack of detail on my minis when I got back into painting. Boy, was I wrong… or… if being generous, not wrong exactly so much as inexperienced and blaming my tools.
The Citadel paint came out the most matte of all the paints
The Citadel paint came out the most matte of all the paints (even more so than the Green Stuff World spray but without the texture) and applied nicely without any problems with details. Like the Army Painter spray, the Citadel spray went on mostly in one layer with a couple of spot hits for areas not initially covered.
What’s interesting about Citadel, and I’m not sure the photos do it justice, is that the finish on this paint is a touch less pure-black than Army Painter. This is only noticeable on miniatures primed differently, side-by-side. But how much this matters is up to the user. In my experience, black is a great undercoat to cover areas that you might not be able to hit well with a brush. But even black primer should generally be covered with a black that more matches the paints in your collection.
Wrapping Up!
All in all, I would definitely recommend all three of these primers. There are just two last factors to consider. A can of Army Painter on Amazon is €14.99 while the same can of Vallejo is €14 even. Citadel Chaos Black, in contrast is €19! That’s a significant price difference. Even with everything I’ve listed above, I’d happily use Army Painter or Vallejo, especially for the price. That said, the second thing to consider is availability. If you only have a Saturday free and want to prime some models, you can probably find a can of Army Painter or Citadel at any hobby shop.
So… which is best? Value for money, Vallejo might edge out the rest with its matte finish, good price tag, and two included nozzles. But for availability, Army Painter might have the edge over Vallejo or Citadel because of cost and distribution. That said, if you have the money, don’t want to wait, and also want a good paint, Citadel is perfect in a pinch. It’s a really, really good paint. Just not necessarily €5 better than the others.
