Well everyone, after months and months on sabbatical, I’m back! Back with a review of my new favorite hobby product, which is also already dated, Army Painter’s Speed Paints. Nope not the 2.0 paints, the original run.
A few years ago, the Contrast Line was released. I was pretty excited, I am a meticulous painter, but I also take FOREVER. My pile of shame seems to grow exponentially, even if I only buy a few minis a year. Contrast promised to help me eliminate this pile. I liked experimenting with the line, but after the hype died down I went back to my base coat, wash, and 2-6 line highlights method. That first wave of Contrast was too inconsistent. Certain colors I really didn’t like, some were splotchy, some too dark, but a few were fantastic. There was something there, but I didn’t have the money to try out every Contrast color to find out what I liked and didn’t. You can find that initial review here.
A few years passed, and more of my wargaming friends were experimenting with the newer Constrast line, they liked it, but said there were a few duds. Worse yet, GW’s prices were even higher… And then Jon Vanse of Unplugged Radio fame started absolutely churning through models. He went from painting like two dozen models a year, to literally hundreds. But the mind-boggling thing to me, his stuff still looked good. It clearly wasn’t as high quality as the stuff he was doing before, but they were about 60-80% as good, with probably about 15% of the time investment.
This is what I wanted for Contrast, but Jon wasn’t using Contrast, he was using (and raving about) Army Painter Speed Paints. You can hear Jon talk about them on a bunch of episodes of Unplugged Radio, but I think the one he talks about the most about them is in his year in review. I was sold, I wanted to try these paints! So in January I bought the starter set, painted a few D&D minis, and was blown away. The first one I painted was a Wizkids Pre-Primed Bone Giant I bought months ago for a project I abandoned. Perfect to test Speed Paint on.
This giant took a total of maybe an hour and thirty minutes to paint. I applied different speed paints directly to the mini, and let it dry overnight. Then I came back and dry-brushed a few details, the bone armor, the grey robe, and then the orange beard which I really liked got two dry brushes. I painted the metallics with actual metallic paints and a wash because I still think any Contrast/Speed Paint metals are bad.
For the time I invested, I was amazed. A little effort and something that had been in my closet of shame for months was done! Even better, non of the colors were splotchy, all of them came out the color that appeared on the bottle, and they were significantly cheaper than Contrast!
I immediately went and bought a Mega Speed Paint set. A few weeks later I found out the 2.0 line was coming out, but oh well. For the last few months have been painting a bunch of my stuff with variations of White Base > Speed Paint > Drybrush/Extreme highlight something, or Slap-Chop > Speed Paint > Drybrush/extreme highlight. For models I really like I might do 2-3 Highlights for even more pop, or maybe return to my slow process for a hero here and there, but overall I have been really churning through my backlog!
I quickly noticed a few major positives about Speed Paints. The dropper bottles are amazing with a product like this. I even started playing around with mixing colors together. I also feel like the Speed Paints are more consistent than I found contrast, there aren’t splotchy colors, though there are some that are a bit dark. All of them also come out pretty close to what the label on the bottle is, which I really like.
Speed Paints work really well on highly textured surfaces, fur, wood grains, these mushroom tops, and leathery skin; it all works great. I haven’t found the color needs to be thinned down, instead if it is pooling I just drag it around to hit unpainted surfaces. I also found that the brighter the base, the better the color looks. For pure white, or wiz kid pre-primed it was almost like magic. My Slap-Chop stuff needed to be dry brushed lighter than I thought, but once I got the hang of it these turned out nice too.
As I painted, I noticed, perhaps unsurprisingly, that the results looked better the more minis I put on the base. Quantity has a quality of its own, and all that. On its own, a Speed Paint model is ok, but in a group, it pops!
These Spirit Walkers I painted took me a fraction of the time they should have but taking the time to extreme highlight a few details and then add some detail work of my own (the tattoos) I think really help elevate the basic details that Speed Paint provides. This gives focal points for the eyes that I am choosing while maintaining decent standards across the rest of the model.
Like with most paint lines, I think Speed Paint has had a few colors that stand out that I really liked. I love “Blood Red” and “Fire Giant Orange” both of which come in the starter box. “Palid Bone” is now my new go-to for painting bone, and “Hardened Leather” is my favorite for the browns. I haven’t used it a ton, but “Hive Dweller Purple” when I have used it has also been a standout. Finally, a surprising one I really enjoy is “Runic Grey.” This formed the basis for the horse’s tail below, its sort of a Space Wolf Grey-like tone.
Now, Speed Paints aren’t perfect. I have found a few colors to be a bit lackluster. Below is an Eldar mini I painted for Darkstone Fortress, it uses “Orc Skin” Green and white Speed paint a lot. It turned out ok, but the green isn’t as rich as I was hoping for. White is decent tabletop white, but I think turned out just a tad splotchy. There are a few other shades of green I haven’t tried yet, but this one is just a bit less vibrant than I was hoping for.
I think the difference is most apparent when compared to this psyker also for Blackstone Fortress which was given a similar level of time and attention, but came out way better. The purple and pink just absolutely pop, while the scroll is the old reliable Pallid Bone!
People who have been following the initial run of Speed Paints are probably wondering, how have I found the reactivation? Honestly, it hasn’t been a problem. Very rarely, when a detail is wet, and I am painting the thing next to it, the colors run a little. But I just take a dry brush, swipe up the pooling, and it usually isn’t noticeable. I have been careful to usually give at least an hour, and when possible, a full day for details to dry before drybrushing or highlighting them, but so far no problems. I even washed a few details a day later and had no problem. The 2.0 line I hear fixes this problem even better, so I really think the reactivation issue is a non-issue now.
I still have some Contrast paints, and even will pick up a few more to fill gaps for shades I want. But, when you compare the cost to value between Contrast and Speed Paint, Speed Paint comes out easily on top. Add in that Army Painter does starter and mega paint boxes that reduce the price per bottle even more, and you have a clear winner in my opinion. I think if you are debating between the two, get Speed Painter and then use Contrast to fill the gaps, it will be quite a bit cheaper, and in my opinion, work better!
Final Thoughts
Overall, I am a big fan of Army Painter Speed Paints. They are much close to what I was hoping to get out of the Contrast series of paints, for a much better price. Like every painting tool, they are best when used alongside other techniques and methods, but I am really pleased with how my stuff has been coming out since switching over.
I do NOT think these are good beginner products. Any paint this style, Speed Paint, Contrast, whatever else you use, are sort of like watercolors. They are runny, if you accidentally have color go over a detail fixing it can be a pain. For Speed Paints to be most effective, I think you need a fair amount of brush control, particularly if you want better than a tabletop standard. It also helps a lot to have other painting technique experience, to identify what details to paint in a more base coat wash method, versus Speed Paint.
That said, I don’t think they are an absolute avoid for beginners, but rather than using a bunch of colors, I would stick to 2-3 of the biggest details of your army Speed Painted, then traditional paint the others. This will help speed up your process, while also giving you steps to cover up mistakes with traditional paint.
If you have a pile of shame and want to try making better progress through projects, I highly recommend trying Speed Paints!
