Over the last few years, speed painting within the tabletop wargaming world has become big business. Especially since games such as Warhammer 40,000 have pushed people to field fully painted armies for a points bonus.
But to me, speed painting as a general approach always seemed wrong. I fully get that this is simply because I am a person who enjoys the process of painting as much as the result. Why rush it?
This perception may have been a big contributor to how I reacted when I first saw the Army Painter Speedpaints. Put it this way, I wasn’t about to go out and splash the cash.
It wasn’t some purist snobbishness that made me turn away.
Nor was it the paint jobs I had seen which seemed weak and insipid and at times in eye-wateringly bright colours.
To me, it was simply the thought of painting one colour over a primer and calling it done just seemed like…… cheating. Where was the fun in that?
"Jon, can you test these?"
I love trying new things and challenging myself, especially when it comes to modelling.
But Speedpaints were not even on my radar. This made things complicated when the Army Painter Speedpaint range is easily the most requested product people ask me to test.
I battled this in my mind for ages, eventually reasoning that you cannot explore the world of miniature modelling if you stick to things in your comfort zone.
So after asking around, my friend Chris kindly lent me his Army Painter Speedpaint Starter Set for me to test.
After digging through the box set, it looked fairly standard. Ten paints in colours that you would expect and a painting guide which being fair had some great info in…..
But it did not mention Speedpaints once….. which was helpful.
I grabbed a Vespid Stingwing model from my pile of shame as it was already primed in grey (as recommended by Army Painter) and I started painting.
The Army Painter PR seemed very much like you could just slap Speedpaint all over it and it would do the job (it’s meant to be a speed painting tool after all).
But unsurprisingly I was just left with a mess. Which, the only solution was to wash off the wet paint, let it dry and then basecoat it in black acrylic to start again.
I was so frustrated by it. No matter what I did, it just was not behaving the way I expected it to and I was getting nowhere. It seemed to ignore all the rules of painting minis.
It was just so runny, the colour so translucent and weak it was like….
It was more like….
…. It is more like watercolours paints.
The thought hit me like a ton of bricks. I had not touched a watercolour paint set for about 20 years… but I could remember the basics.
Maybe it had not been working as I had been trying to use it like I would use standard acrylics or oils?
Now strangely excited, I started again as I began to test these strange paints.
At the end of this process, I was genuinely surprised by the result.
Yes, you can use this technique and these paints to get colour down on a model quickly. It probably won’t win you any painting competitions, but at least it is tabletop-ready.
However, what I was most surprised with was if you are willing to play with these paints (and not rush it), you can get some great results.
Yes stylistically, it is completely different to how I normally paint. But that’s no bad thing.
Initially, I wanted to hate these paints. But to be honest, I don’t…. and that surprises me more than anyone.
I ended up enjoying playing with the colour, and the flow of the paint as it mingled and merged with neighbouring colours. The translucent result had a range of colour tones which I found interesting.
On the flip side, my 8-year-old son loves them as he gets a quick result, which makes him happy.
If you want to see my full product test of the Army Painter SpeedPaint Starter Set on YouTube
Want to read more blogs like this?
Some of the links in this blog are affiliate links. Which means that I may earn from qualifying purchases.