Battle Ready: Are White Cap Citadel Paints Worth it?

If you’ve been to a Warhammer Store or FLGS, you might have noticed that there are some Games Workshop Citadel paints that come with a White Cap. These paints cost about 1/3 more than the usual Citadel paints, and you might be wondering, are the white cap paints worth it?

The TLDR answer is: Yes, but you might not need the extra quality.

There’s actually not a lot of information from GW itself on what the white caps mean, other that they are pricier. GW’s description for Retributor Armor, a white cap metallic paint, says:

• Specially formulated to provide a solid basecoat with a high pigment count
• Realistic metallic finish

Like, that’s super helpful. The embedded video explaining metallic paints doesn’t give very much information either, and it leaves the hobbyist wondering

“Why should I buy white cap Stormhost Silver? Runefang Steel is also a bright silver layer paint for 2/3 of the price?” And the same argument goes for Retributor Armor vs Auric Armor Gold, Fulgurite Copper vs Gehenna Gold and so on.

What are hobby metallic paints made of?

To answer the original question, we need to turn to other resources of metallic acrylic paints. All metallic paints are essentially pigments and dyes mixed with metallic medium, which is an acrylic medium that is infused with a suspension of glittery particles, usually mica, in order to create a metallic effect. Different manufacturers call this medium by different names, such as Liquitex’s Iridiscent Medium, and Vallejo’s Metal Medium. In fact, you could buy these medium and add inks to them in order to create your own metallic paints.

The challenge with mica is that for it to be reflective and glittery, it has to have a minimum particle size, which results in visible metallic flake “sparklies” in the paint. And because mica particles are larger and heavier than paint pigment or dyes, the medium and binder in which the pigment and flakes are carried needs to be thicker and more viscous to prevent excessive settling of the mica at the bottom of the paint bottle. So metallic paints in its traditional form has several problems attached to it:

1. It’s thick and more viscous, and thus more difficult to brush paint smoothly out of the bottle.
2. It actually doesn’t like dilution with regular water, which makes the acrylic medium thinner and separation of the metallic flake from the paint emulsion. So you actually need to thin metallic paints with acrylic medium or metal medium.
3. It can’t be easily airbrushed, as it’s too thick for airbrushing at normal pressures and excessive dilution causes separation.

The traditional answer to this has been to use lacquer/organic solvent based carriers for metallic paints. If you’ve ever experimented with Mr Color or Gaia Notes lacquer based metallic paint, or Tamiya Enamel based metallics, they offer a much cleaner and well formed metallic paint layer with low flake visibility.

Modern alcohol based metallic acrylics

In order to overcome this, hobby acrylic manufacturers started using actual powdered metal in paints in order to retain the reflective effect without using mica. As I understand it, this is usually aluminium powder and perhaps some other ferrous material. This presents another set of problems: metals oxidize in the presence of water, which is the preferred solvent for hobby acrylic paints precisely because it’s non-toxic.

In my understanding of the hobby world, Vallejo was the first manufacturer to develop alcohol based hobby metallic paints, starting with their liquid metal series and more recently their Metal Color series, a fine pigmented metallic paint that can be airbrushed. Both offer very smooth metallic finishes, but because of their alcohol-based nature, are difficult to brush paint with as they dry out quickly on the brush. They also have a shorter lifespan after being opened compared to water-based acrylics, as the alcohol evaporates much more quickly and the pigment begins to clump in the bottle.

So what has this to do with Citadel White Cap paint?

The short answer is that metallic paints have evolved from the original mica based formula, and Citadel’s White Cap paints are a new formulation of fine metallic powder and pigments that are designed for brush painting, not airbrushing.

The photo above best demonstrates the difference between white cap metallics and the normal clear cap metallics.

In the Balthazar Gold example, the metallic flake appears much larger and gives a starry sky effect compared to white cap Retributor Gold, which has a much smoother appearance and the metallic flakes.

Comparing Runefang Steel to Stormhost Silver, Stormhost silver has a much brighter look and effect. SH silver is also less viscous and easier to paint in one smooth layer.

Conclusion

In my view, the Citadel white cap paints are worth the extra dollar. They provide a better metallic look compared to the clear cap paints, and in my view are easier to work it because they are thinner and flow better. You honestly can’t brush paint an entire Hammers of Sigmar army in their signature gold without breaking out Retributor Armor. However, if you are just looking for a paint for edge highlighting your leadbelcher base, then maybe paints like Ironbreaker or Runefang Steel would be more bang for buck as you’re not working with a lot of paint at one time.

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