Review: Army Painter Speed Paints

I recently bought the Army Painter Speed Paints set. Miniature painting is a time consuming activity. I love it but sometimes it can take too long to paint even the most basic set piece. With a full time job and an active table running, I needed a faster way to paint miniatures that would give a decent result. There were three things I needed the Speed paints to be able to do. Paint time needed to be shortened, quality still needed to be good, and there needed to be enough colors to provide a varied palette for painting.

In terms of time, I saved a bunch of it. The speed paints were exactly what they advertised as. A one pass paint system. The paints create the basic building blocks of miniature painting. I was able to paint a Grick and Grick Alpha in the span of about an hour. I usually take twice as much on simple paint jobs to get a similar result. Skin tones normally take three or more layers depending and a variety of paint effects for different outcomes. That alone take a good hour to achieve, especially if you’re a perfectionist like me. For simpler item, the time is cut down even more. I painted a desk in a few minutes. That includes painting the entire wooden structure with the speed paints and adding small metal detailing for the handles and other metallic embellishments.

Quality is a bit debateable. I can take a bunch of time to make wood look like wood using paints and washes to increase the realistic look of the item. The speed paints can achieve a very realistic look in a short amount of time. I wouldn’t say it’s as good as what I can achieve with more time and layers of paint but it is good quality. I would use the speed paints for set pieces and simple creatures. Animals would be good for the speed paints as they would give the fur depth without too much work. The point is to not spend as much time painting what doesn’t need to be very detailed and focus on making the bigger pieces more detailed with the extra free time. I would give the paints 4 stars in this scenario in terms of quality.

The final criteria for the paints is variety. I needed there to be enough colors to encompass all the different miniature items and creatures that can be painted. There is the essential black and white paints as well as three different types of gray. There were also three different blue hues and four different green hues, two types of skin tones, three types of red, an orange, yellow, pink and purple as well as three types of browns. In all, I would say that Army Painted gave enough variety to paint a vast array of items and creatures. There are many more of certain colors than others but the set does include a medium for creating any other colors you might need. The medium alone makes the set worthwhile because now I can create so many other colors as I need them.

While I admit the set is a bit pricey at $99.00, (I used a work bonus to purchase them, otherwise I might not have) it is worth it. The times I have used these paints have gone well and the miniatures I painted look as good as the ones that come painted from Wizkids. The one drawback I can see is that the paints can bleed into other areas if applied too liberally. I have to be extra careful to maintain lines, especially for darker tones. If the paint bleeds into other areas that you plan to paint in a lighter color, make sure to wipe the paint away with a dry paper towel to get rid of the excess. Leaving the color to dry can create visible mistakes in your paint job. Overall all, I would absolutely recommend this set. It has saved me so much time and energy.

The speed paint set is so good, I’m running out of space to put all the completed miniatures on display. I definitely need more shelves. I am actually working through my pile of shame now, instead of just watching it grow. These paints have shown me that there is an end in sight. I can paint through a wide assortment of miniatures and they will look great!