When applying, I noticed that Speedpaints are a bit thinner and runnier than Contrast paints, and the medium pushes the paint into the recesses more aggressively, which helps to create a smoother result even on flat areas. On the other hand, I found Contrast paints slightly easier to control because of their higher viscosity. I felt it was easier to put them on smaller details without accidentally spilling into adjacent areas. Even with the less than ideal result of painting over the paint-on primer, you can still see how Speedpaints provide shading, base color, and highlight, just from the single coat. Primed Legion of Nagash models. Image by Paul Benson. Unfortunately, the can of Matte White primer turned out to be defective, and had very low pressure. As it was going to take a bit of time to get a replacement can, I decided to press on ahead with it anyway. I have some models I want to show how I used them but let me go into what I liked. These paints are not just a wash. They are more like a stain mixed with a wash. I really like that mixtur. I thought it “lined” the models a lot better than some of the Contrast options and was fairly easy to control. My test models I used a metallic undertone. I really like how these stain/washes can create a really unique bronze/gold look that isn’t just painted on straight gold. I end up doing a lot of bright metallics and utilize washes/speedpaints/contrast to create the darker metal I want. It is easier to start bright and bring down with shades/glazes/stains. This also gave me an opportunity to use the only 3 colors in the Speedpaint Starter Set that I hadn’t yet used, to see how they looked. Those last paints were Crusader Skin, Hive Dweller Purple, and Fire Giant Orange. Speedpaint VS Contrast Paint

The first thing to understand is that the latter two paint ranges have a very different formula than Contrast or Speedpaint. They are not based on dye, but on thinned acrylic pigments. Think of Citadel Nihiliakh Oxide or regular acrylic paints thinned with a lot of Contrast Medium.

And yet, the community has divided into those who welcomed reactivation as yet another tool in their painting arsenal and those who prefer their one coat paints to be stable and not reactivating. Let me know in the comments which camp you are. The Army Painter now had the difficult task of responding to the criticism and reconciling both camps. Speedpaint 2.0 review – the new formula Apart from the changes to the formula, the Speedpaint range has been expanded from 24 to a whopping 90 colours. That’s 28 more colours than Contrast has to offer! They also feature metallic one coat paints, which are an industry-first. I’ll share my thoughts on the metallic Speedpaints below, but first, let’s take a look at the colour palette. The Speedpaint 2.0 palette And what about reactivation? I would say it’s similar to the regular Speedpaints. After 30 minutes the paint is very stable and can hardly be dissolved with water or wet paint, but Speedpaint Medium allows you to carefully remove the paint. My thoughts on metallic Speedpaints

To come up with the 2.0 formula, The Army Painter collaborated with some well-known painters from the YouTube community. A brilliant approach to designing products in my opinion. Goobertown Hobbies, Dana Howl, and “Watch it paint it” were asked to provide their input, and even come up with a bunch of new colours themselves. Speedpaint 2.0 contains a more stable acrylic resin which forms a stronger bond. It is promised to no longer reactivate after a curing time of about 2 hours depending on the environment. Which means there should be a time window of at least 2 hours for blending and reactivation. Or shouldn’t it? Spoiler: yes but no. Bottles vs pots. Bottles make it much easier to get paint onto a palette than pots, and are better for keeping paint from drying out. Now, what you CAN do to increase reactivation is to use Speedpaint Medium instead of water. I soaked a cotton swab in Speedpaint Medium and rubbed it over the edges of the Plaguebearer’s sword to remove the paint and enhance the highlights. This works better than just using water. But I feel it’s still a bit more difficult and tedious to pull off than with the old formula. Maybe some other painter or YouTuber can find a better way to make the blending work. Please let me know in the comments about your experiences. The expanded palette Hoplite Gold is my favourite, it’s more opaque than the other two, but still darkens in the recesses. As the paint pulls from the edges, the white primer shines through which creates a subtle highlight effect. It is a quite muted gold tone though, but the complete range has a few other gold tones I’m very eager to try. Broadsword Silver is a dark cool silver. It has less of a tint than the gold, I think it’s okay but not as good as the gold. Talos Bronze is more like a reddish copper tone and even more transparent, so I recommend adding a second coat. Unfortunately, this paint has a really weird sparkle effect. It looks okayish in real life, but under my bright studio lights the silver flakes stand out as if the pigments haven’t been blended properly.I found that a coat of varnish helps to fix the problem, but you have to be careful, as the varnish can reactivate the Speedpaints as well. It’s quite annoying because it’s not an issue at all with Games Workshop’s Contrast paints and limits the Speedpaints’ usefulness because the reactivation issue also means that Speedpaints aren’t really suitable for glazing techniques. A single thinned down coat might be fine, but when you glaze multiple layers of Speedpaints over another the paint will reactivate and mess up all your careful glazing work. Multiple layers of glazing with Slaughter Red thinned with Speedpaint Medium