Army Painter "Warpaints Inks" review & comparison

Like many others I came to rely upon the now out of production GW Citadel Washes for my painting. Washes like Devlan Mud, Badab Black and Ogryn Flesh were paints that I used for pretty much every model I painted to some extent.

Horrified that the Citadel Washes were scrapped in favor of a new line of products (that are not the same in terms of thickness and viscosity), I was fortunate enough to buy 6 pots of Devlan Mud from various stores here in southern Sweden. And while those pots will mast me at least a year I also started to look around for replacements of my other Citadel Washes that are running low.

The new GW washes are not really the same in tone or viscosity as I already mentioned, they are good for a bunch of stuff but I wanted the shade and performance of the old one's. After much searching I started to find numerous reports on the new "Warpaints" from Army Painter over at Warlord Games. Everyone seem to be making their own line of paints these days. I bought a small batch for testing: Dark Tone, Strong Tone and Soft Tone.

These were said to be almost identical to some of the old GW Citadel Washes. Here are my test results demonstrated on 3 miniatures undercoated in a bone white color and brushed with 2 thing layers of each manufacturer's wash.
Dark Tone vs Badab Black = 100% Match

Strong Tone vs Devlan Mud = 100 Match

Soft Tone vs Ogryn Flesh = Poor match, the warm red finish of the Ogryn Flesh does not match the yellow finish of the Soft Tone.

Soft Tone vs Gryphonne Sepia = 85% match, very close but not as flawless as the first two Tones/Washes. Still I guess if you need something to mimic Gryphonne Sepia the Soft Tone is adequate.

The Viscosity between both products is fairly similar, the Warpaints Inks though a bit more fluid are a lot closer in quality, tone and viscosity to the old GW Citadel Washes than the the new GW washes are to the old GW Citadel Washes. And the Warpaints Inks have the same matt finish once they are 100% dry.

And you get more product, in each bottle than you get from GW. 16ml vs 12ml, with a screw cap and a drop bottle which increase the lifespan of your paints considerably. So I really recommend these.