Army Painter - Speedpaints?

[Storm Wolf]

Not much heard much on these "new" paints generally, I know of the WI coverage of them and I have brought a starter set, which I have used a little bit, so I shall add my thoughts in case it is of interest to others.

Highlight, base and shading in one?
I will give this an 80-90% depending on the colours are being used and what kind of basecoat you are painting over. It also helps if you heavily drybrush with as light as colour as you dare to accentuate the highlight effect before applying the speedpaint. My current favourite is paint the blue over a silver weapon with the brightest silver-white highlights as this creates a pleasing "power-weapon" finish with very little effort. I have also done purple over black for some Maelstrom Edge angels which looks very good (to my eye at least).  The shading is good and fairly controlled and to be honest they are like slightly thicker versions of army painter washes.

Bleed through - The elephant in the room
Yup some colours do bleed through multiple coats, so far red and yellow have been the worst, the greys, browns and blues less so. This is the biggest drawback that I can see to these paints and does limit their use a fair bit. I do not get this issue with the GW contrast paints or the older army painter washes. I have heard varnishing helps but in the end I resorted to painting over in black and then redoing the offending part. However all of this does diminish the "speed" part a fair bit .

Overall they are a useful tool to have in your paint box, the red (bleed through excepted) is deep, rich and really does add its own highlights!

My own thoughts is that they may be of slightly more use on terrain, but I haven't tried this yet.

All in all 80% of 8/10 from me.

Glen

[Sunjester]

Sorry if I am being a bit thick here, but what do you mean by "Bleed through"?
If you are just undercoating, then painting with the speed paint, what is there to bleed through?

At this point I admit I have only used the GW version so far.

[Storm Wolf]

No you are not being thick, what I mean is that if you have another colour you want to use on top off or if it butts up against a certain part of the model that you want to be another colour.

So it will bleed through whatever colour you are choosing to use, white or grey is especially prone to bleed-through from the speedpaint shade.

So if this is case neatness if the key, but again I don't get this from Contrast paints.

Glen

[syrinx0]

Have you seen any of the ytube painter reviews?  These to me seem to support your experiences. Most give the nod to AP speed paints for cost (no argument there) but agree contrast dries quicker and is easier to paint over.

[Sunjester]

Thanks Glen, that makes sense. I've order a starter set to give it a try, so I will be more careful with these.

[beefcake]

Thanks. I have a bunch of contrast paints and have been wondering about the speed paints. Might get a bottle or two to try out.

[tomrommel1]

I have them on my workbench at the moment , too. Will write up a report when I find the time.

[ced1106]

Sorry if I am being a bit thick here, but what do you mean by "Bleed through"?
If you are just undercoating, then painting with the speed paint, what is there to bleed through?

It's also known as reactivation. According to the Army Painter press blurb, speedpaints are made of a resin medium, while most acrylics use water. In any case, speedpaints have a much longer curing (drying) time than acrylics, days versus hours. So, even if the speedpaint looks dry after 24 hours, it will still behave as if it's wet, if you paint on top of it. Army Painter recommends a gloss coat between speedpaint coats. Some painters mind, some don't.

https://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=135644.0

[Storm Wolf]

Hi everyone,

Well the reactivation/bleedthrough is an issue, but I have started to use speedpaint or contrast for different types of jobs. So contrast If I need to paint on top of it and speedpaints if not.

Well good-luck with your painting adventures.

Glen

[DeRuyter]

I have the Speedpaints starter set and ordered more from a US store (sadly the truck shipping the paints was in an accident and all the painted ruined - but that's another story!). I also got another take on the "reactivation" from someone who had some inside knowledge. Basically you need to really let them dry and he suggested using a hair drying if you were going to put another color over it.

IMO they flow much better than Contrast especially on flatter surfaces. I painted some 28mm medieval test figures and had no problems other than a limited color range. Some of the colors I thought were better than contrast and others not. The one flesh color is a bit dark at least over a Wraithbone primer and a grey primer is right out. As AP stated a white or off white primer is best. My verdict so far is that I will use both Contrast and SP. Since my preorder went astray I swallowed the high shipping and ordered more direct from Denmark.

[Sunjester]

I have just taken delivery of my starter set and will try them out asap.

[ced1106]

Dakka has a thread: https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/390/801277.page#11343183

Some good results, although I only know of Pacific trying to use the product as intended. Here's a pic with both contrast and speedpaint, after an hour: "I really tried to speed paint these guys (probably an evening's painting, about an hour in all). I can say the yellow and purple are great for anyone using those colours  (I used purple, light grey and yellow here). ... Mini on the far left I used Contrast pink. The brown and skin colour is also Contrast. From my very limited efforts, I would say it feels like the paint is slightly thicker than contrast. I had to touch up the purple in a couple of places, otherwise it was all single coat.

As for a hair dryer, I read that Tales of Painters tried it, but no luck even after 24 (or 48?) hours.
https://taleofpainters.com/2022/02/review-speedpaint-by-the-army-painter-really-better-than-contrast/

[Storm Wolf]

Ced they do look good, no probs with bleed-through?

I have had good results using base highlights to accentuate the speedpaint effect, still experimenting though.

Happy speedpainting

Glen

[tomrommel1]

I haven#t had any bleed through up til now . But I haven't applied any varnish jet. I will try a varnish through my airbrush.