Greetings one and all,
Today we're gonna have a look at the Citadel Colour Painting Handle and ask ourselves some questions about it, such as what is it for, and can it help you with your painting?
The Citadel Colour Painting Handle is what I call the Mk II Painting Handle, as the original Mk I is the clear standard to compare this newer iteration against. But how is it different?
Let’s start with the Mk I. The Mk I had a removable head to it, which would have been great if Citadel had ever released the heads in a pack on their own, giving you the ability to easily swap out models you’re painting without having to remove them from the handle completely. You’d then only need one handle and a number of heads for it, but Citadel never made this a thing, so having the head be removable is kind of a redundant feature. Next, the handle of the Mk I itself has a much more rounded base than its successor, with a recess at the bottom, ridges along its sides, and a bulbous grip that thins slightly towards the top, providing good ergonomics and a nice sense of grip when sitting in your hand. But personally, I found that the rounded base itself meant it was far easier than it seemed to knock it over, and so didn’t provide a stable base for the handle as a whole once you’d put it down.
The Mk II, by comparison, doesn't have a removable head on it (so that's a feature that won’t be wasted). And compared to the bottom of the Mk I handle, the Mk II is flat and without the rounded edges, which provides a far more stable base when putting the handle down. I personally also find that the ergonomics of the Mk II handle fit far better in my hand. It doesn’t have the ridges that would suggest an added level of grip, but the handle tapers into a much thinner neck towards the head than the Mk I, which provides much more control in moving it about to paint and at the same time provides a much more comfortable feel in the hand. Like the MK I, the Mk II also features a recess at the bottom of the base, but on the Mk II it is slightly deeper than its predecessor, which is a bonus for those of us with larger hands that like to use it as a thumb grip when needing to hold the painting handle upside-down for awkward painting jobs.
Both the MK I and MK II will hold bases of 25mm to 40mm, as well as awkward oval bases of 60x35mm.
Overall, I think the MK II handle is quite an improvement over the MK I. The improved stability that the flatter base provides is a welcome one, alongside the better ergonomics that make for a much more comfortable holding experience when using it. It’s definitely a worthwhile investment in your painting toolbox.