Contrast paints are getting cut by Games Workshop just as Warhammer Tone Pro arrives with a huge new Citadel paint range.
Twenty-five Contrast pots flagged for removal at once isn’t a typo, but it isn’t a death sentence either. Sadly, GW hasn’t told anyone which one we’re looking at, but the webstore is marking 25 of them for removal from the online range, and that’s way too many to wave off as an accident.
Sure, GW has trimmed the paint range before. But this lands right after Warhammer Tone Pro hit shelves, and in the middle of the Warhammer Color rebrand, so there are two very different ways to look at it now.
One of them is spicy, the other is about as exciting as well, watching paint dry…
- The take: 25 Contrast pots leaving the webstore at once doesn’t look accidental, but GW hasn’t said whether it’s a cut or a relabel.
- The evidence: Tone Pro just dropped 150 new pots on the range, while the Citadel-to-Warhammer Color label swap is still rolling through stores.
- What changes if it’s a cut: we’d be watching the start of a “Legends of paints” era, and the 25 pots from the 2022 Contrast expansion would be the first place to look.
Tone Pro Gives GW a Convenient Excuse to Thin the Rack
Tone Pro is adding 150 new paints across 30 colors and five tones, which means GW suddenly has a much bigger paint range fighting over the same shelf space. Something has to give, and older pots that overlap with the new colors (or just don’t sell enough) are the obvious first casualties.
To be fair, GW has been pretty clear that Tone Pro isn’t a replacement for Contrast. They’ve said the new line sits on top of the existing range, and they’re still pushing Contrast techniques in their own Tone Pro painter features. Honestly, we believe them on the “not replacing” part.
But “not replacing” and “not pushing anything out” are two different promises.
And that’s where your local game store comes in. Tone Pro piled 150 pots onto an already enormous catalog, and independent shops don’t have infinite racks. Anybody who’s stared at the Contrast paint racks at their LGS knows there’s no spare wall hiding behind them, and rumors since the announcement keeps circling back to how much extra inventory and display space the new line eats up.
If GW wants Tone Pro on the wall, trimming a few slow-selling Contrast pots is the easiest way to make room for ones that do sell, but they will also have their own rack, so maybe this is something different?
The Boring Answer Is a Sticker Swap
Now for the version nobody’s going to make a reaction video about. Back in March, GW announced that Citadel Color was becoming Warhammer Color, and they said flat-out that the actual paints, including Contrast, weren’t changing. Only the branding was.
That change was supposed to happen gradually over “weeks and months,” and sure enough, hobbyists have been spotting the new Warhammer Color labels all through 2026. So it’s pretty believable that a chunk of old-label Contrast SKUs are just getting retired on paper and will come right back in new packaging.
If that’s the case, nothing changes for your paint table. You’d get the same color in the same pot, just with a different sticker on the front and probably a fresh product listing on the store. Your go-to Contrast colors keep working on your army exactly like they did last month.
Honestly, this one is every bit as likely as the spicy take.
What’s On The Chopping Block Now
Here is the full lineup of paints that are reportedly on the chopping block:
- Technical: Contrast Medium
- Contrast: Space Wolves Grey
- Contrast: Apothecary White
- Contrast: Darkoath Flesh
- Contrast: Nighthaunt Gloom (existed before Contrast)
- Contrast: Dreadful Visage
- Contrast: Leviathan Purple
- Contrast: Briar Queen Chill
- Contrast: Kroxigor Scales
- Contrast: Imperial Fist
- Contrast: Blood Angels Red
- Contrast: Iyanden Yellow
- Contrast: Mantis Warriors Green
- Contrast: Ratling Grime
- Contrast: Garaghak’s Sewer
- Contrast: Guilliman Flesh
- Contrast: Gore-Grunta Fur
- Contrast: Gryph-Hound Orange
- Contrast: Bad Moon Yellow
- Contrast: Karandras Green
- Contrast: Black Templar
- Contrast: Wyldwood
- Contrast: Snakebite Leather
- Contrast: Aggaros Dunes
- Contrast: Magos Purple
GW’s Silence is Doing All the Damage, Like Normal
That’s the whole problem here. A product vanishing from Warhammer.com can mean it’s discontinued, repackaged, replaced, temporarily out, unavailable in your region, or that somebody in Nottingham changed a SKU. GW knows which one it is, we don’t.
And when GW goes quiet, hobbyists fill the gap by panic buying their favorite Contrast pots, which is exactly how old GW paints end up on the resale market at silly prices. Honestly, if your whole army scheme hangs on one Contrast color, grabbing a backup pot at your LGS isn’t crazy. Clearing out the shelf is.
Final Thoughts on Citadel Contrast Paints Removed
If you ask us, the 25 pots aren’t the problem here. The silence is. Honestly, GW could settle this with one short post listing which colors, if any, are actually going away; until then, every painter with a Contrast-heavy scheme is left guessing.
So watch two things over the next few weeks: how many of the missing pots overlap with the 2022 expansion, and whether they quietly pop back up under Warhammer Color labels.
If they come back, it was a sticker swap. But if not, well, Tone Pro just kicked off its first round of cuts, regardless of what GW said about “sitting on top of the range.”
🔗 Related Reads:
- Complete List of New and Discontinued Citadel Contrast Paints
- Warhammer Colour Is the New Name for Citadel Colour Paints
- Warhammer Tone Pro Paints Look Like Fanatic Mixed With Pro Acryl
- The 7 Most Popular Contrast Paints, Some Going for $100 a Pot
- All the Contrast-Style Paints for Miniatures Out There Now
- Sitting on a Hobby Gold Mine: GW Paints Selling at an All-Time High
What do you think about the Citadel Contrast Paints removed from GW’s webstore, purge or just new labels?
