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Army Painter Speedpaint: How They Really Look On Models

speed-paint-how-they-lookDon’t miss how the new Army Painter Speedpaint will really look on models with different primers and color shades on miniatures!

We’ll cover how models look with just Army Painter Speedpaint on different primers. We’ll also cover the price and how you can score yours and a tutorial from Rob about how to use Speedpaint in general; that way you can decide if they are worth your hard-earned hobby dollars. Dont forget the paints are supposed to help get your minis painted quickly and actually be a single-coat solution. There is no need to add paint back on top of them, you can, but you do need to let them dry thoroughly first.

Questions About Army Painter Speedpaint

deadpool wal hor mcp army painter speedpaint front

  • The first question always is, do they actually help you paint faster and get decent results? Short answer, yes! They actually can help you paint through your army in no time as it is a true one-coat painting solution.
  • Will these give you high-level paint jobs on their own? They give a ton of definition and bring out detail, and yes, you can paint a very good-looking army with just these; however, it will be more tabletop standard than something that will win you Golden Demon
  • Can they be useful for high-level paint jobs? Of course! They can help take your paint jobs to a new level when used with other paints and techniques.
  • Are they worth it? If you want to get your army on the table fast while still looking good, these are one of the best solutions out there!
  • How Do You Use Speedpaint? We’ll show you below, but it’s not very hard once you get the basics down; however, there is a little bit of a learning curve.

Now, let’s take a deeper dive!

Army Painter Speedpaint: How They Really Look On Models

Thanks to the ‘Eavier Metal Facebook page and Bryan Wallbridge for all the awesome pictures of how the Army Painter Speedpaint look on models!  The colors they used to make these charts are Matt white, Skeleton bone, Necrotic Flesh, and Gun Metal.

However, Army Painters has tons and tons of primers, so any you pick will look good.

Speedpaints how they look 2

 

Speedpaints how they look

You can see that, generally speaking, the Necrotic Flesh and Gun Metal primer puts out a darker hue, while Matt White has the most vibrant and bright color. Of course, that leaves Skeleton Bone for the middle of the road.

Speedpaints how they look 3Hopefully, this side-by-side comparison of primers and the Speedpaints has helped you decide which primer you should go with, as well as maybe what Speedpaint would look best for your minis!

Now, let’s check out how to use them!

Speedpaint Space Marines Without Expensive Contrast Paints

Some people were confused when they released about how to use the new Army Painter Speedpaint, so since Rob has had them for a while now, he shows us the proper way to get good results fast in the painting tutorial below:

 

Speedpaint a Space Marine 2People have been asking Rob about this for a little while now. Considering he’s had the paints for so long, he made two tutorials, one with a Marvel Crisis Protocol mini and another on a Space Marine.

There has been a little bit of drama there about Speedpaint by folks who seem to want them to do more than what they are designed for. These paints are designed to be a single-coat solution. However, you can wait for around 6-8 hours to add more coats, but you really don’t need to. It’s meant just to get your minis on the table super-quickly and get playing!

If you want to do anything else than actual speed painting with the new speedpaint, just use regular acrylics or even Citadel Contrast paints (for double the price). Because the resin additive helps the paint smooth out and adhere to the surface of a model, speedpaint will “reactivate” if you try to paint on top of it without proper dry time.

However, if you just use them as the one-coat solution they were designed for, you can paint models in minutes as opposed to hours.

To see what all the colors look like with different undercoats and such, you should check out the Goobertown Hobbies video, as he goes super in-depth on that aspect, and it’s totally worth a watch…

Step 1:

Speedpaint a Space Marine 3To start, he does a full black primer on the model, then he’s going to do a value highlight. For the value highlighting, you can use, Daler Rowney ink, Pro Acryl White, or The Army Painter Cadre Grey, it’s really just up to you and what you like the best.

He is going to do this technique with an airbrush but it can also be done if you don’t have one via a heavy drybrush which is shown above.

But with how many resources are out there, you should really think about learning to use an airbrush! If that doesn’t convince you, you can use a heavy drybrush to get the values you want, though, just like above!

Speedpaint a Space Marine 4Now, when you’re doing the airbrushing, Rob puts just a little Flow Improver in there, then just throws in a few drops of the DR ink. To start, he then sprays the white from a top-down, as where the light would hit.

Then, he hits some of the areas where you want to draw attention to, like the hands and such. Make sure to leave some deeper areas dark so there will be more contrast.

Step 2:

Speedpaint a Space Marine 5The next step is doing cutbacks. This stage is optional but will add that pop of color and only take about an extra minute. Now he puts black into the airbrush and makes some areas more pronounced where he may have gone too far with the white.

This is usually done from the bottom up.

Step 3:

Speedpaint a Space Marine 6This step starts with a matte coat. Rob does this almost whenever he uses the airbrush. Rob uses the Testors Matte Coat and just sprays the whole thing. If you can’t find the Testors, he recommends the Tamiya version. This coat is super easy, he just sprays the whole model.

Next, it’s time to basecoat the metals.  He just takes his favorite metal and does all the metal spots like the gun and etc.… For this, he uses a synthetic brush from Monument because you don’t really need the benefits of the sable brushes.

Then, he uses bronze and black for the shoulder pads and gun, respectively. This will take the most time of the whole process!

Before you basecoat your model, if you want the edges more pronounced, do a quick drybrush of the white over all the armor panels! That way, the speedpaint will pop them with no effort whatsoever.

Step 4:

Speedpaint a Space Marine 7He starts with a wash and does a Dark Tone Wash from the Army Painter and puts it in a bottle cap and some flow improver mixed 50/50with glazing medium. Just be sure to let your paints dry before going on to this step. Mix it all up, get a bunch on your brush, and apply it to your entire model from the top down.

If you see anything pooling too wild, just take your brush with a little moisture on it and dab off the excess.  Then wait for the glaze to dry, and you can optionally matte coat your mini at this point as well.

Step 5:

Speedpaint a Space Marine 8He’s using the Magic Blue Speedpaint for the armor and just fills up his brush with it. He goes over the entire thing, and if you use too much or little in one spot, you can just rub it right off with your finger or a moist paper towel! Obviously, that won’t work forever, but because it activates, you have a little time to fix your mistakes.

This is meant to be a one-coat solution, unlike acrylics, so there is no need to do more coats! After that, he does a coat for the armor, some Blood Red for the eyes, Pallid bone for the Seals, black for the gun, and Hardened Leather for the pouches.

All just single coats!

Wait for it to dry, matte coat your miniature, and it is ready for the table!

Final Thoughts

marine speedpaint

If you just let this dry and maybe do some value highlighting prior, this stuff will get you great-looking results super fast! Just be sure to coat your minis and let everything dry! Overall, Rob loves using this as you can get great results in a very short amount of time. For a one-coat solution, this is super hard to beat!

Grab Your Army Painter Speedpaint Here!

What do you think about the look of Army Paint Speedpaint on miniatures, and how long it actually takes to paint models with it?

Let us know in the comments of our Facebook Hobby Group and our Discord server.  Make sure you enter the latest monthly giveaway for FREE today!

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About the Author: Travis Pasch