Malignant Green and Zealot Yellow came out much better than I expected they would Hive Dweller Purple came out much different, but when I take the plunge and start collecting Smoke Jaguars I'll need to keep it in mind
Nice! Glad to hear it. ArmyPainter has really done well with their bold speed paints. Kind of surprising as i'm pretty "meh" on their regular line of paints.
Excellent video and job on the bots! The heavy wash method that these types of paint streamline has been around for 40-odd years. In fact, I have known 4 people, other than myself, that have used it since the late 1970's/early 1980's (two now dead , one racing there, two if us still refusing to fade 😄) on 15mm(!) and 25mm Historical miniatures - thousands of Napoleonics; two 25mm Viking armies, one 15 & 25mm Aztec army, hundreds of 25mm Zulu, Pathans, and Colonial British. The most prolific used oils over white highlights on black, while some used white primer - I used oils and acrylic - others used acrylics. It was a pleasant surprise to see the contrast/speed paints bottled and sold allowing so many more easy access the a more "advanced" technique. (A shame this was not done 30 years ago!) Keep the faith. Again, excellent work!
It's always interesting to see how techniques come in and out of popularity. The Contrasts/SpeedPaints/etc have offered many the opportunity to take mini painting up a notch. Happy gaming!
The big problem with these paints is reactivation. I've played around with them enough at this point to have mostly solved it. 1. They take longer to dry than you think. Overnight is best, but taking a hair dryer to the model for a bit can help set the paint. 2. Dont use just water to thin your paint when you are swapping back to acrylics. Get some glaze or thinner medium to thin your paints. If you use just water they will reactivate. I've found that if your thinning paints you should use no more than 25% water as your thinning agent. 3. After the paint is fully dry (see paint 1) give the model a clear gloss coat of varnish or two. If you do this you dont have to worry about what you thin your paints with since the varnish will prevent reactivation. 4. You can also use reactivation to blend colors together (use it to your advantage!)
Another thing to keep in mind is that if any of these paints don't work right, adding some artist's acrylic matte medium and a drop of artist's flow aid can fix the problem. Matte medium is the paint without pigment, and flow aid works better than water to thin the paint without dispersing. Depending on the mixture, you can make your own contrast/speed/instant paints and washes with the matte medium and flow aid, as well as glazes.
A lot of those turned out quite nicely. I think even the holy white one could work rather nicely for a scheme with some other coloured panels added (after a clear coat, of course).
@@ace2ersatzhandy383 So long as you've given them time to dry, they behave like any other paint. I can't think of a recent painting vid off the top of my head that showed it.
@@MechanicalFrog how do you correct mistakes like color swapping out of the canopy-window? Re-grey-prime, re-speedpaint, re-try? There are no normal colors with the same hue so I guess it will be hard to repair canopy-errors?
Thank you for this. I can't be the only one who's just been wanting a vid of how the various colours actually look when applied correctly (as an OVERCOAT - the whole point of speedpaints/inks is to do the painting process in reverse), and I've been using the black undercoat/grey zenithal/white drybrush technique for a while now, so it's nice to see I'm not the only one!
Thanks Frog! For someone with minimal skill & even less time I love the idea & apparent ease of speed painting at least to get some base colors on my mechs so I can play & then come back & try my hand at detail work. With the Holy White would diluting with medium (can you use water) to thin it out to get better contrast? You also mention "reactivation" again I'm new to painting so us this the paint reacting to the oils & salts from our skin reacting with the paint & causing issues or what exactly? Can you easily hand paint a clear coat or would a aerosol clear coat work? I wouldn't mind getting an airbrush setup for firearms & such as well as my artistic kids to use, but I just bought a battalion & so getting basic paints & tools is the priority at the moment. And as always thanks for some great reviews & tutorials!
The re-activation in the generation 1 speed paints (apparently not as much of an issue in 2.0) it's the water that re-activates the paint. That includes the water in other paint. It's not usually an issue with sufficient dry time. You can dilute the speed paints with water or the speed paint medium which Army Painter sells. A hand-painted clear coat can work if you're quick and gentle. I use a clearcoat through an airbrush if don't want to wait on the speed paint to dry overnight.
I think an interesting thing with the HIve Dweller Purple is how since it came out QUITE dark, but with some of the edge highlighting still popping, it could work quite well as a sort of "Black" where you want a slightly warmer black tone.
I'm glad someone has taken on the experimenting with this technique on Battlemechs! I've got a lot of grey to slay, and want to paint with my kids, so contrast paints are key here. Looking forward to getting after it with them!
Uh just one note, I recently bought a bottle of the holy white, and I can see the pigments at the bottom of your bottle, I added to additional mixing balls to my bottle and shake it for 10 minutes to really make sure the medium is well mixed
@@MechanicalFrog of course good sir, these translucent paints are new to us, and from what I know a few of the AP speed paints have a little opaque pigments, White and Orc Skin Green
Girls und Panzer out of nowhere! :P Very nice analysis, nearly all performed nicely, and i believe that save for the white (not sure about that one honestly), all the "too subtle" ones could be finished with a quick light drybrush
my army painter blood red reactivates. was doing gold trim over some red shoulders and all hell broke loose. I love speed paint though 100% gamechanger.
My solution is to clearcoat the model after speed paint application. Others have had luck painting over so long as you don't water down the paint you are adding.
@@MechanicalFrog ok thanks for the info, I'll use a spray clear coat next time. after I won't the first comment I got to thinking and it start to activate with some paint on matt varnish too. It was straight out of the bottle too. I have not messed with watering down stuff yet. Thanks again for all your help. Any recomendations on clear coat spray paint?
It was indeed helpful. I'm pondering stepping into the Speed Paints world but news of the reactivation issue is putting me off slightly... partly because I don't yet fully understand what it's all about and whether as a low effort painter it'll actually affect the likes of me. Either way, informative video good stuff thanks
There are two real counters to the reactivation of speed paints. You have to make sure that the paint is fully dry (preferably overnight) and dont use water to thin your paints (glaze or thinner medium). The other way is to apply a varnish before you move on to traditional acrylics
I get around it by applying a clear coat over the top. If you have an airbrush, it's pretty quick. Rattlecan application might require drying overnight.
If you are looking for a ‘one coat and done’ paint, the AP Speedpaints are great for that. That’s exactly what they are designed for, so don’t worry about all of the ‘reactivation’ hubbub if you just want to slap one coat on and have an amazing contrast effect.
This looks really good! And this slap chop is basically, spray it black, then spray down on it from above (at an angle I assume?) with a grey and drybrush with a white and then go for it with your other colours? And is this done with an airbrush or rattlecans?
Great stuff! I haven’t tried Speedpaints. Is the workflow to use them, spray with a rattle can of matte varnish then do whatever highlight/extra/etc. you want to nullify the reactivation?
@@MechanicalFrog given that’s an extra step not needed with Contrasts, what do you like about the SP line over contrasts? Better edge highlight effects?
@@scoobydruid I think that certain colors of SP do better than their GW equivalent. The griffin orange contrast is way too dark. The orange SP is great. It really depends on the paint and your use for it.
0:17 I don't have a drybrush color but several "layer" whites from GW and also a "base" paintable primer white. Which one is suited better for drybrusing?
@@MechanicalFrog Thanks, tried it like that and the red looks very nice. The green is a lot darker than yours, even on the grey/white parts. Did you thin the green speedpaint or was yours 1.0 and mine is 2.0?
I've been using the AP Speedpaints for my BattleTech collection and I had the same discovery you did with the Holy White. The problem is that Holy White isn't actually white, it's grey, so if you're painting it over a grey primer like you'd usually use for a zenithal prime it's going to end up looking like you didn't actually do anything. If you paint it over a matte white prime it works wonderfully though. I did 2 Level IIs that way and I was very pleased with the results. For the other 4 companies I've painted I used a zenithal prime with Camo Cloak and Hardened Leather in a Green Mountain Boys inspired scheme.
Haven't tried it myself YET, but there are a few Videos on yt about using speedpaints over metallic undercoats. Looks quite nice. The metal effect still shines trough but the speed paints colour the surface.
This is not slap chop, doing cenital with the air brush will leave too little value difference on the lighter parts and the blacks will overpower the translucent paint. Best case you get results similar to speed paints over a midtone gray base.
There are ways around the reactivation issue. I've learned to deal with it and some times even use it to help blend colors. But I am excited to see Vallejo's take on the concept. Kind of happy we have a nice competition going on with AP, Vallejo, citadel, green stuff world, and scale 75 instant colors
@@MechanicalFrog it depends guys. Sometimes they reactivate the moment anything with a percentage of water touch them. Letting them dry 24hs helps but do not fix it as they can eractivate even after one week drying time. For as much as I hate the fact that GW is selling an overpriced product, speed paints are an epic fail. You can try Green Stuff World dipping inks. But those too are an half fail. Check them and tell me. ;)
@@emanueledibona5929 I solved the problem my clearcoating over them. It's an extra step, but a minor one if you have an airbrush. I have a few of the GreenStuffWorld Dipping inks and some of them are quite good.
@@emanueledibona5929 yeah it's a bitch, but any spraycan or clear coat from an airbrush will stop reactivation, hell I'm pretty sure the oil wash I used on a mini that was done in AP speedpaint first, sealed it from moisture without me realizing it
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Malignant Green and Zealot Yellow came out much better than I expected they would
Hive Dweller Purple came out much different, but when I take the plunge and start collecting Smoke Jaguars I'll need to keep it in mind
Nice! Glad to hear it. ArmyPainter has really done well with their bold speed paints. Kind of surprising as i'm pretty "meh" on their regular line of paints.
Excellent video and job on the bots!
The heavy wash method that these types of paint streamline has been around for 40-odd years. In fact, I have known 4 people, other than myself, that have used it since the late 1970's/early 1980's (two now dead , one racing there, two if us still refusing to fade 😄) on 15mm(!) and 25mm Historical miniatures - thousands of Napoleonics; two 25mm Viking armies, one 15 & 25mm Aztec army, hundreds of 25mm Zulu, Pathans, and Colonial British. The most prolific used oils over white highlights on black, while some used white primer - I used oils and acrylic - others used acrylics.
It was a pleasant surprise to see the contrast/speed paints bottled and sold allowing so many more easy access the a more "advanced" technique. (A shame this was not done 30 years ago!)
Keep the faith. Again, excellent work!
It's always interesting to see how techniques come in and out of popularity. The Contrasts/SpeedPaints/etc have offered many the opportunity to take mini painting up a notch. Happy gaming!
The big problem with these paints is reactivation. I've played around with them enough at this point to have mostly solved it.
1. They take longer to dry than you think. Overnight is best, but taking a hair dryer to the model for a bit can help set the paint.
2. Dont use just water to thin your paint when you are swapping back to acrylics. Get some glaze or thinner medium to thin your paints. If you use just water they will reactivate. I've found that if your thinning paints you should use no more than 25% water as your thinning agent.
3. After the paint is fully dry (see paint 1) give the model a clear gloss coat of varnish or two. If you do this you dont have to worry about what you thin your paints with since the varnish will prevent reactivation.
4. You can also use reactivation to blend colors together (use it to your advantage!)
Great advice.
Another thing to keep in mind is that if any of these paints don't work right, adding some artist's acrylic matte medium and a drop of artist's flow aid can fix the problem. Matte medium is the paint without pigment, and flow aid works better than water to thin the paint without dispersing.
Depending on the mixture, you can make your own contrast/speed/instant paints and washes with the matte medium and flow aid, as well as glazes.
@@evanlindsey1100 Yep Yep. That dark purple from the video would work if it was cut with a drop or two of the speedpaint medium.
@@GloomspiteNoob Fair. I hope the issue is sorted out in the future.
A lot of those turned out quite nicely. I think even the holy white one could work rather nicely for a scheme with some other coloured panels added (after a clear coat, of course).
Or maybe to really speed up a White Scar Space Marine. *shrugs*
Possible, but I'm not sure it's worth all the effort.
You sold me on these paints. I was already a fan of Army Painter, and these coats look fantastic!
Dang I should be getting commission... Hey Army Painter. Help a guy out.
@@MechanicalFrog I’ll be trying out the Jade Falcon slap chop today. I’ll tag you on Twitter with the result.
@@ardanblade641 Please do.
I'd like to see the more about the process of finishing these after speedpainting.
I would recommend you check out some of my other painting videos which often show the later stages of my process.
@@MechanicalFrog Can you point to a specific video where you showed how Speedpaints behave when being drybrushed?
@@ace2ersatzhandy383 So long as you've given them time to dry, they behave like any other paint. I can't think of a recent painting vid off the top of my head that showed it.
@@MechanicalFrog how do you correct mistakes like color swapping out of the canopy-window? Re-grey-prime, re-speedpaint, re-try? There are no normal colors with the same hue so I guess it will be hard to repair canopy-errors?
@@VictorSteiner I just paint over the top with a base color. Usually bright titanium white from ProAcryl.
Thank you for this.
I can't be the only one who's just been wanting a vid of how the various colours actually look when applied correctly (as an OVERCOAT - the whole point of speedpaints/inks is to do the painting process in reverse), and I've been using the black undercoat/grey zenithal/white drybrush technique for a while now, so it's nice to see I'm not the only one!
Glad I can be helpful. Happy painting.
Been using the base set and am excited to try out the larger set
It's surprising so many were useful for this experiment.
Thanks Frog! For someone with minimal skill & even less time I love the idea & apparent ease of speed painting at least to get some base colors on my mechs so I can play & then come back & try my hand at detail work.
With the Holy White would diluting with medium (can you use water) to thin it out to get better contrast?
You also mention "reactivation" again I'm new to painting so us this the paint reacting to the oils & salts from our skin reacting with the paint & causing issues or what exactly? Can you easily hand paint a clear coat or would a aerosol clear coat work? I wouldn't mind getting an airbrush setup for firearms & such as well as my artistic kids to use, but I just bought a battalion & so getting basic paints & tools is the priority at the moment. And as always thanks for some great reviews & tutorials!
The re-activation in the generation 1 speed paints (apparently not as much of an issue in 2.0) it's the water that re-activates the paint. That includes the water in other paint. It's not usually an issue with sufficient dry time. You can dilute the speed paints with water or the speed paint medium which Army Painter sells.
A hand-painted clear coat can work if you're quick and gentle. I use a clearcoat through an airbrush if don't want to wait on the speed paint to dry overnight.
I think an interesting thing with the HIve Dweller Purple is how since it came out QUITE dark, but with some of the edge highlighting still popping, it could work quite well as a sort of "Black" where you want a slightly warmer black tone.
Absolutely.
This was exact and to the point and I love that you did a comparison of painting Application to a picture of the end. Thank You for the video.
Glad it was helpful!
I like the clip, the way u talk and your style. U have a new sub from Spain. Gratz!
Thank you! I'll keep working hard to earn it.
I'm glad someone has taken on the experimenting with this technique on Battlemechs! I've got a lot of grey to slay, and want to paint with my kids, so contrast paints are key here. Looking forward to getting after it with them!
Good luck! I hope the video was helpful.
Just tried this out using Sand Golem and it looks pretty great! Thanks for the tip.
Great to hear!
Uh just one note, I recently bought a bottle of the holy white, and I can see the pigments at the bottom of your bottle, I added to additional mixing balls to my bottle and shake it for 10 minutes to really make sure the medium is well mixed
I'll have to investigate that. Thanks.
@@MechanicalFrog of course good sir, these translucent paints are new to us, and from what I know a few of the AP speed paints have a little opaque pigments, White and Orc Skin Green
Pallid Bone and Hardened Leather have quickly become some of my favorite paints.
They are quite useful.
Girls und Panzer out of nowhere! :P
Very nice analysis, nearly all performed nicely, and i believe that save for the white (not sure about that one honestly), all the "too subtle" ones could be finished with a quick light drybrush
Yeah none of them are a lost cause.
Great video thanks! I’m planning on doing slapchop on my 40k box sets once my mega set arrives!
Sweet. Good luck!
Nice! Thank you for doing this! Where did you get your models or did you print them yourself?
These were all 3D printed models off myminifactory or from the Polygon Masterworks Patreon.
@@MechanicalFrog thanks!
Very useful video, thank you.
Glad to be helpful. Happy hobbying!
Those look amazing!
They are!
my army painter blood red reactivates. was doing gold trim over some red shoulders and all hell broke loose. I love speed paint though 100% gamechanger.
My solution is to clearcoat the model after speed paint application. Others have had luck painting over so long as you don't water down the paint you are adding.
@@MechanicalFrog ok thanks for the info, I'll use a spray clear coat next time. after I won't the first comment I got to thinking and it start to activate with some paint on matt varnish too. It was straight out of the bottle too. I have not messed with watering down stuff yet. Thanks again for all your help. Any recomendations on clear coat spray paint?
@@Spacetrucker138 I use Vallejo through an airbrush, so I can't really speak on spray paint clear coats beyond making sure it's non-yellowing.
Awesome. Thanks!
Hopefully it's helpful to someone out there.
Looks like the lighter colors would need a more or less pure white undercoat to really work as bright light colors.
Yeah if I were doing a large force or wanted a very specific look, there's room for experimentation.
It was indeed helpful. I'm pondering stepping into the Speed Paints world but news of the reactivation issue is putting me off slightly... partly because I don't yet fully understand what it's all about and whether as a low effort painter it'll actually affect the likes of me.
Either way, informative video good stuff thanks
There are two real counters to the reactivation of speed paints. You have to make sure that the paint is fully dry (preferably overnight) and dont use water to thin your paints (glaze or thinner medium).
The other way is to apply a varnish before you move on to traditional acrylics
I get around it by applying a clear coat over the top. If you have an airbrush, it's pretty quick. Rattlecan application might require drying overnight.
If you are looking for a ‘one coat and done’ paint, the AP Speedpaints are great for that. That’s exactly what they are designed for, so don’t worry about all of the ‘reactivation’ hubbub if you just want to slap one coat on and have an amazing contrast effect.
@@Ryotsu2112 that is exactly what I want to do.
The less the painting I have to do the happier I am lol.
This looks really good! And this slap chop is basically, spray it black, then spray down on it from above (at an angle I assume?) with a grey and drybrush with a white and then go for it with your other colours? And is this done with an airbrush or rattlecans?
That's the gist of it. It could be possible with rattle cans if you're light on the grey application.
@@MechanicalFrog So I dont need an airbrush to do the gray step?
@@CRAM079 If you're careful with the rattle can, you could dust the models with it.
I like the burnt moss, i might use it for smoke jaguar
Great stuff! I haven’t tried Speedpaints. Is the workflow to use them, spray with a rattle can of matte varnish then do whatever highlight/extra/etc. you want to nullify the reactivation?
Yes. I airbrush with a clearcoat and the paint isn't going anywhere.
@@MechanicalFrog given that’s an extra step not needed with Contrasts, what do you like about the SP line over contrasts? Better edge highlight effects?
@@scoobydruid I think that certain colors of SP do better than their GW equivalent. The griffin orange contrast is way too dark. The orange SP is great. It really depends on the paint and your use for it.
@@MechanicalFrog I have 200+ paints and now you're making me want to buy SP set. Oh, slightly different. I'm in! I need therapy ha ha.
@@scoobydruid Welcome to the way too many paints club. Here is your beanie and t-shirt.
Very useful video, thanks!
Glad it was helpful!
0:17 I don't have a drybrush color but several "layer" whites from GW and also a "base" paintable primer white. Which one is suited better for drybrusing?
Base paints tend to be thicker than layers, so I would go with that. The thicker the paint, the better the drybrushing experience.
@@MechanicalFrog Thanks, tried it like that and the red looks very nice. The green is a lot darker than yours, even on the grey/white parts. Did you thin the green speedpaint or was yours 1.0 and mine is 2.0?
@@VictorSteiner These are 1.0 I didn't thin it iirc.
for me Holy White worked very well.
black undercoat + heavy white base.
Glad to hear it! 😊
Those were much better than the GW paints. I love Army Painter.
Yeah, good stuff.
What happens if I wanna slapchop a grey color? Not sure how a grey Speedpaint would work on a black, grey, and white undercoated mini.
It works fine.
Please credit the music! (It's great) - And very helpful to see how it all turned out, will def. give this a try
The music came from an ambient music bundle purchased from Fanatical.
@@MechanicalFrog Thanks!
I've been using the AP Speedpaints for my BattleTech collection and I had the same discovery you did with the Holy White. The problem is that Holy White isn't actually white, it's grey, so if you're painting it over a grey primer like you'd usually use for a zenithal prime it's going to end up looking like you didn't actually do anything. If you paint it over a matte white prime it works wonderfully though. I did 2 Level IIs that way and I was very pleased with the results. For the other 4 companies I've painted I used a zenithal prime with Camo Cloak and Hardened Leather in a Green Mountain Boys inspired scheme.
Yeah it's useful in other contexts, for sure.
Where did you get the Hermit Crab?!?
I think it might be found on myminifactory.
This 'Razzel Dazzel' method looks good 😉
This is why it's always important to walk around with a pocket full of confetti. Then you're prepared for the ol' Razzle Dazzle.
ive had great success with sand golem on tanks
It's a fun one.
Looks awesome!!!
Yeah they worked out.
Do slop shop style still look good if you replace gray with a "gunmetal" type color and drybrush with someting like "silver"?
It's possible. Sounds like an experiment that needs to be done.
Haven't tried it myself YET, but there are a few Videos on yt about using speedpaints over metallic undercoats. Looks quite nice. The metal effect still shines trough but the speed paints colour the surface.
Yes I would go with the brightest possible metallic paints you have, within reason obviously and it should show up well
@@Over_Head_Press Lots of experimentation to be done, for sure.
Are you not diluting the paints with medium? I find it makes a HUGE difference with GW Contrast…
Aye, that's a valid strategy.
that highlord blue jenner is incredible
So many of them are quite perty...
Totally!
This is not slap chop, doing cenital with the air brush will leave too little value difference on the lighter parts and the blacks will overpower the translucent paint. Best case you get results similar to speed paints over a midtone gray base.
What minis are these?
Battletech mechs. Some 3D printed, some official.
which if these would be good for clan goliath scorpion
Sand Golem would be a neat base for GS.
@@MechanicalFrog any galaxy in mind? or is that more of a ganeral color scheme like jade falcon and... jade (lmao)
@@andyp2004 Beta Galaxy is a sandy color.
@@MechanicalFrog thanks!
None: they reactivate. Not that AP is well known for its colours quality but yet is an epic fail. Looking forward to try Vallejo Xpress. :D
There are ways around the reactivation issue. I've learned to deal with it and some times even use it to help blend colors.
But I am excited to see Vallejo's take on the concept. Kind of happy we have a nice competition going on with AP, Vallejo, citadel, green stuff world, and scale 75 instant colors
A clearcoat over the top can prevent reactivation. Letting them dry overnight also can help.
@@MechanicalFrog it depends guys. Sometimes they reactivate the moment anything with a percentage of water touch them. Letting them dry 24hs helps but do not fix it as they can eractivate even after one week drying time. For as much as I hate the fact that GW is selling an overpriced product, speed paints are an epic fail. You can try Green Stuff World dipping inks. But those too are an half fail. Check them and tell me. ;)
@@emanueledibona5929 I solved the problem my clearcoating over them. It's an extra step, but a minor one if you have an airbrush. I have a few of the GreenStuffWorld Dipping inks and some of them are quite good.
@@emanueledibona5929 yeah it's a bitch, but any spraycan or clear coat from an airbrush will stop reactivation, hell I'm pretty sure the oil wash I used on a mini that was done in AP speedpaint first, sealed it from moisture without me realizing it
Swimming is now called Ginsu. Slap chop ain't new. Its a quick zenithal or pre-highlighting way of painting miniatures that's been done for decades.
I'm just playing the game. Take it up with the big guys/gals who set these trends.
The reactivation issues are too much of a pain to deal with. Stick with contrast.
Many people have them already, so it's good that we find ways to use them. Thanks for the input.
Nobody should be telling anybody to buy Speed Paints
With workarounds on the re-activation, I think they're a perfectly usable product. I'm not going to tell anyone to buy anything. :)