Data study

How close are cross-brand miniature paints?

A CIEDE2000 colour analysis of 213 paints · published 2026-07-27 · open method & data

Painters are told a Citadel colour has a Vallejo or Army Painter "equivalent" — but how close is close? We measured it. Using the CIEDE2000 colour-difference formula, we compared every 72 Citadel colour in our dataset against its nearest counterpart in Vallejo (61), The Army Painter (55) and Pro Acryl (25). This is the result — including the honest limitations.

Key findings. The closest cross-brand match is typically ΔE ≈ 9 (perceptibly different, but usable) — only about 7% of Citadel colours have a near-perfect (ΔE<2) match in any brand, while 82% have at least a usable (ΔE<10) one somewhere. Washes and shades convert worst; basecoats, metals, black and white convert best.

How closely does each brand match Citadel?

Median colour difference (ΔE) of each Citadel colour's closest paint in the brand — lower is closer. Anything under ΔE 10 is a workable match; under 2 is near-indistinguishable.

Vallejo ΔE 8.9 · 63% usable
The Army Painter ΔE 9.2 · 60% usable
Pro Acryl ΔE 8.6 · 64% usable

All three cluster around ΔE 8.7–9.2 — statistically, no brand is a decisively better Citadel substitute overall; the difference is per-colour. Pro Acryl matches tightest on median but has no same-type paint for 22 Citadel colours (mostly washes/contrast), so its coverage is narrower.

Match-quality distribution

Share of Citadel colours falling in each quality band per brand (matched within the same paint family — basecoat↔basecoat, wash↔wash).

Vallejon=72
15%42%38%
The Army Paintern=72
19%36%40%
Pro Acryln=50
16%48%36%
Excellent (ΔE<2)Very close (<5)Close (<10)Approximate (≥10)

Washes and shades are the hard part

The Citadel colours with the worst best-case match across all three brands are dominated by washes and contrast paints — because a wash or shade is defined by translucency and flow, not just hue, so a same-hue opaque paint is a poor stand-in. Deep, saturated purples and greens also convert poorly.

Drakenhof Nightshade (wash) ΔE 23.0
Agrax Earthshade (wash) ΔE 19.3
Nuln Oil (wash) ΔE 18.5
Reikland Fleshshade (wash) ΔE 14.4
Carroburg Crimson (wash) ΔE 14.1
Magos Purple (contrast) ΔE 13.8
Seraphim Sepia (wash) ΔE 13.2
Xereus Purple (standard) ΔE 12.2
Apothecary White (contrast) ΔE 12.1
Moot Green (standard) ΔE 11.9

Practical takeaway: convert basecoats and layers freely, but treat wash/shade "equivalents" as rough — or keep the original for those. This is the single most useful thing the data shows for painters.

What converts best

At the other end, some colours are near-universal: Abaddon Black (ΔE 0.0), White Scar (ΔE 0.0), Averland Sunset (ΔE 1.2), Leadbelcher (ΔE 1.6), Warplock Bronze (ΔE 2.0), Macragge Blue (ΔE 2.0). Black, white and metals match almost perfectly across brands — unsurprising, since they sit at the extremes of the colour space where ranges converge.

Methodology

Each paint's approximate sRGB hex value is converted to CIE-L*a*b* (D65 white point) and compared with the CIEDE2000 colour-difference formula (Sharma, Wu & Dalal, 2005), the modern perceptual standard. For every Citadel colour we take the single nearest paint within the same family (opaque basecoats, single-coat "contrast" paints and washes are matched only to their own kind, since they behave differently on the model). Quality bands follow common ΔE interpretation: <2 near-indistinguishable, <5 very close, <10 usable, ≥10 approximate. The full engine is the same one that powers our paint converter.

Limitations

  • Approximate swatches. Hex values are community-referenced approximations of dried paint, not spectrophotometer readings. Treat absolute ΔE values as indicative, not laboratory-grade.
  • Colour only. ΔE captures hue/lightness/chroma — not finish, opacity, pigment load, metallic flake or how a paint behaves over an undercoat. Two colours with the same ΔE can perform very differently on a miniature.
  • Single illuminant. Computed under D65; metamerism means matches can diverge under warmer hobby lighting.
  • Curated dataset. 213 paints, a growing seed of the most-searched colours — not the complete ranges, so per-brand coverage (especially Pro Acryl washes/contrast) is partial.

These limitations are the point as much as the findings: cross-brand conversion is a shortlisting tool, not a guarantee — always confirm against a physical swatch.

How to cite this

APA. ResourceCentral. (2026). How close are cross-brand miniature paints? A CIEDE2000 colour analysis of Citadel, Vallejo, Army Painter and Pro Acryl. Retrieved from https://resourcecentral.online/guides/cross-brand-paint-colour-analysis

BibTeX.

@misc{resourcecentral_paint_ciede2000_2026,
  title  = {How Close Are Cross-Brand Miniature Paints? A CIEDE2000 Colour Analysis},
  author = {{ResourceCentral}},
  year   = {2026},
  url    = {https://resourcecentral.online/guides/cross-brand-paint-colour-analysis}
}

References

  • Sharma, G., Wu, W., & Dalal, E. N. (2005). The CIEDE2000 color-difference formula: Implementation notes, supplementary test data, and mathematical observations. Color Research & Application, 30(1), 21–30.
  • CIE. (2004). CIE 15: Technical Report — Colorimetry (3rd ed.). Commission Internationale de l'Éclairage.
  • Lindbloom, B. J. (n.d.). Useful Color Equations. brucelindbloom.com.
  • Miniature paint hex data adapted from Arcturus5404, miniature-paints (MIT licence), github.com/Arcturus5404/miniature-paints.

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