Speedpaint 2.0+ My Initial Findings

Hello Adventurers! So, I just received my wonderful Speedpaint 2.0+ Complete Set (90 colors!) and

I’ve begun to paint with the colors and try them out. It is a bit of a learning curve. I’ll share some pros and cons with my actual use and beginner’s (well speedpainting at least) thoughts. If you don’t want to read further. My initial take. Yeah, I think these will work and speed up my painting times. Can I get down to under 30min a mini?…maybe not but maybe less than an hour? Not sure yet. I’m still learning. Is it worth it? Not sure. Time will tell, but I think I like them. 

Pros

This stuff flows really well. The consistency is very much like watered down acrylic paint or a wash. 

The dried coverage is unique and does a good job of acting like a wash adding depth.

A little seems to go a pretty long way. I only used about 5 or 6 drops to do the entire Ogre Zombie skin and that was with 2 coats and it is a rather large mini (almost 3 inches tall). I maybe used 2-3 drops of paint (each color) for the elf (1.5 inches tall) and I had paint left over.  

The colors look cool. Some are very bright and others are very dark. It is hard to tell which they will be from the bottle graphic, the wet liquid, or even the initial coating until they dry. Right there is the biggest learning curve especially when picking colors. 

I’ve not had any “reactivation” issues unless I wanted them.  I even tried painting over previously painted areas after only less than a few minutes drying time (just when it didn’t look wet) and I didn’t have any bleed.

They clean up really, really well. On my dry palate, once the speedpaint dries, it becomes almost like a liquid plastic putty. It lifts right off with a fingernail or paper towel. Acrylics dry HARD on the dry palate and have to be scraped off, not so with these. 

I tried out these paints on several minis with varied primer types. I tried them on a flat white, a flat light grey, a flat dark grey, and pre-primed Nolzur’s D&D. All came out with very similar results. All of them good.

That minotaur's body is actually the "Gravelord Grey" and not the "Grim Black" but it is VERY BLACK. The "Grim Black" is SUPER BLACK. The horns, axe head, axe shaft, and base are all Army Painter Warpaint acrylic. The body and belt are speedpaint. The sandals were painted with speedpaint brown and the color did not cover and later I used an acrylic to paint the leather of the sandals.  

Cons

It does not do “coverage.” If you put a darker shade on and mess up. The regular lighter color will not cover it. I’m having to “shade” match my acrylics to the speedpaints to cover mistakes. This sea hag's brown loincloth is one coat...very white.

The colors can be really dark when they dry. Also, some can be very light when they dry. This medusa I kind of wanted the opposite of what I got. I wanted dark snakes on a light face and hands but I picked poorly. Again need to get experience as to what the final colors will "really" look like. 

You must be VERY careful with the application. This stuff flows like water and it should be put on with a smaller brush than you would think you would need with standard acrylics. 

It pools. It REALLY pools BUT it dries lighter in the pools than you think it would. 

One coat and done doesn’t really work for a lot of the colors. Especially on textured parts of the mini like fur or wraps etc. The ogre's wraps would not get darker. I'm going to have to use an acrylic and a wash to get the effect I want on these.

It’s not for detail work. Because of the flow It does not seem so great for belts, rings, pouches, belts etc. Use a small brush and be careful where you put the paint.

If you are trying to get paint into a small place (like a gash or hole) don’t think it will flow in and not leave color paint behind. Use a small brush and be very careful if the color is dark and you are painting next to a light color. Note: See the right and left gashes near the armpits.

Speedpaint dries pretty fast on your palate. Put one or two drops then add more when you need more. If it begins to dry it becomes a goopy mess like melted plastic.

Findings

The paint goes on fast and dries, looking great. Sometimes you will have to do two or more coats to get the color you really want. Detail work must be done with acrylics. 

The verdict is still out on the metallic colors. I don’t hate them, but they don’t seem to give the same intense coverage that the Warpaints Metallics line does. Maybe they could be good for armor and chainmail to create that darkness in the textured part without having to use a wash? More experimentation needed. Looks pretty good on his belt once it dried.

I got a really BIG bottle of Speedpaint Medium and a regular sized bottle. Not quite sure why they included this much “mixing medium.” I read on their website that you can “thin down” the Speedpaint but gosh it’s really thin right out of the bottle. I need more research on what the Speedpaint Medium is used for. Can I make my acrylic Warpaints Speedpaint by adding the medium? Whoa that would be cool. Stay tuned. Oh, and if you are wondering “Smiley” is still primer grey. I’ll get to him soon enough! 

NOTE: Smiley is a 1980 Grenadier AD&D lead miniature from the #2012 Dwellers Below boxed set. I have the original box, foam, insert and have 7 of the 9 miniatures fully painted. Just “Smiley” the beholder and the Yuan Ti remain unpainted. The Yuan Ti is base coated green but the rest of him is primer grey! I really want to do a good high level job on “Smiley” and decided he wasn’t a good choice for a paint experiment.