Check out this quick tutorial & review of the new Army Painter Speedpaint, which we love more than Citadel Contrast already!
The Army Painter is known for having some of the best and most affordable paints on the market, and their warpaints air line takes the airbrush paint game to the next level. This though is just another great innovation for all you painters out there!
Rob is going to see how to use the new paints, what he thinks about them, and basically all the aspects, that way you can decide if they are worth your hard-earned hobby dollars. Let’s go!
How To Use Army Painter Speedpaint Tutorial & Review
Rob was lucky enough to grab these paints early and he’s been using them a ton. It’s not just because The Army Painter sends him stuff either, he thinks these are possibly the best thing they have ever done in general. It’s basically everything we wanted from contrast, but takes it all to the next level and actually works for what it’s supposed to be.
They are the same size as the rest of the paints, so it’s not like they gave you a small value for the price. If Rob had to guess he would expect they will price these a little higher than the Air Paints, but not too much. Just because of the materials that make it up. Still, they always have tons of value, so we expect these to be one of the best on the market.
To use these paints there are basically two options. First, you can prime something white, or do a Zenithal highlight as a base coat. If you go with the prime option, you can either go with the Matt White or Cadre Grey though the airbrush, OR just use the normal Army Painter white primer.
Since they have such amazing color matches, either will work out pretty much identically.
When doing the Zenithal, you have to go back and drybrush the edges heavily to get a good color. Obviously, the priming takes longer because you have to add a ton of steps.
Speedpaints in Action
Rob likes to use a water bottle cap to put the paints in as he does this. It just helps keep things going fast and you don’t have to mess around with a wet palette. He also likes using natural hair brushes because they hold more paint (which Army Painter was quick to point out their brushes are- Rob’s mistake), but if you want you can also use wedge brushes.
If you have a little too much on your brush, just put the rest onto the bottle top.
Then, just go to town and just coat the entire thing. It’s really that simple, just put on one actual coat and it does the work for you. No special primers, no thinning, no bullshit.
Cleaning
Cleaning out your brushes and bottle caps is really easy. Just take a bottleneck water bottle and spray out the cap. Then, if you overdid it on your mini, the paint is super easy to smudge off with a paper towel. Before it dries, just take a paper towel and smudge it, that easy.
Rob’s Favorite Shades
There are a ton of amazing shades but these five might just be Rob’s favorites. There is a brown that’s perfect for popping things like leather. The blue from before obviously. The camo green has so many uses it’s just insane. His new favorite out of all of them is the red, it just pops like wow.
Other Applications
If you thin this out, you can actually even use it to cover vehicles and give them amazing base coats without hardly any effort. If you have nice flat panels it works perfectly. However, if you have a spot with a lot of crevices, it loses some of the pizzaz.
Wait, there’s another angle to go with as well. Rob used it through the airbrush at about 20 psi and it applied amazingly even on all the crevices!
Fully Painted Minis
As you can see, this looks pretty awesome. This was painted with nothing other than a single coat of contrast paints for each color. It’s super easy and if you were painting something like a Beast Snagga. This is all over a white prime coat, so pretty amazing stuff!
For Deadpool Rob started with a Zenithal highlight, so a little more work than the mini above. It will give a little more pop and be worth the work. The only thing on this that wasn’t painted with the Speedpaints were the swords. He did those with thinned down Plate Mail Metal, with the Black speedpaint back over them.
For the rest of the figure, he went with the red, black, and obviously the brown for the straps.
For the bottom, he used gray, sand, and red. One of the best parts about these, if you make a mistake, you can just lick your finger and fix it! Super easy overall.
With these, it only took about an hour and a half for two big minis, and the results are pretty amazing!
Final Thoughts
Overall, Rob thinks these are some of the best paints to hit the market in a really, really long time. If you want some amazing paints at a good price, that will get your minis done fast, then you have to pick these up when they come out!
Grab Your Army Painter Speedpaints Here!
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About the Author: Travis Pasch
Travis Pasch
Job Title: Head Writer & Editor
Socials: @paschbass
About Travis Pasch: Travis has been a Warhammer 40k hobbyist since the 1990s, playing the game since Third Edition. Through extensive traveling, he’s seen a lot of the miniatures hobby from across the world, giving him a unique perspective on the latest gaming topics and trends.
Travis’s brother even owns a commission painting studio, where he’s picked up a lot of good advice and techniques for painting Warhammer and tabletop miniatures over the years, as well. Travis joined the Spikey Bits team in 2019 and has been the lead writer since 2020.
Currently, he’s working on converting all his 40k Adeptus Mechanicus models and becoming a true tech enjoyer, complete with both sad and happy robot noises!
