Category Archives: Product Reviews

Army Painter Speedpaints – (Not Actually) Better than Contrast

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Info from Azazel:

I’m not a paint snob, nor a GW/Citadel kissarse. I use painted from a wide variety of manufacturers. I used to love Army Painter’s stuff until they changed to the Gel medium a few years ago (hexagonal pattern on the bottles) Now I find their paints awful, but I still use their washes as my primary go-to. I bought the entire range of Contrast when they came out, and I rarely use them the way you’re “supposed” to, I almost always use them diluted with medium and chances my favourites from the range aren’t the ones that are yours (I rarely use Wyldwood or Black), BUT they are embedded into my workflow alongside regular actylics.

So when Warpaints brought out their range of Not-Contrast, I bought them. They weren’t cheap. They work differently. Really differently. I don’t like them, I rarely use them for anything.

Scale 75 brought their Not-Contrasts out via Kickstarter. With a KS, it was easy to take a “Wait and See”, so I did. Reviews aren’t exactly glowing, so I skipped ’em.

Now Army Painter have brought their Speedpaints out. I was keen, and ready to hit the “buy” button for the full set if the reviews panned out. They have absolutely saturated the YouTube space with free paints, and most YouTubers have gobbled up the advance product for those free clicks with glowing reviews. Why bite the hand that feeds? There was one review however, that was a little different. Stahly from Tale of Painters. Actually, it was his First Look that triggered the alarm bells. One word. Reactivation.

On Dakka, Stahly wrote: “I’ve reached out to my contacts at The Army Painter and they said the reactivating is a side effect of the medium they use, but it would only tend to happen with Speedpaints containg yellow pigments – so yellow, orange, red, and some of the greens, but I’ll have to try for myself.”  

I’d mentioned “It’s an issue no other review has pointed out so far, at least the ones I watched”

Stahly’s response: “maybe because Games Workshop and Contrast bashing generates more clicks on YouTube? 😉 “

So here we are. A full review of them.

Stahly: So, here is my final review & comparison. And yes, Speedpaints reactivate when you paint over them. All of them. Doesn’t matter how long you let them dry. It’s not the end of the world, but you need to think about how you want to use them. (Azazel’s added emphasis).

For me this is a dealbreaker. I’m not (fucking) varnishing my models between coats, nor am I going to never ever be able to not accidentally make a mistake with paint, so these are not going to be useful for my painting. I’m thankful that Stahly’s honesty has saved me a bloody big wad of cash.

I’m not saying don’t buy them. I’m saying be aware. And also be aware of all of the “reputable” Hobby YouTubers who didn’t think this was even worth mentioning, and remember them next time they’re previewing or reviewing something.

Now – Stahly’s review:

15mm Terrain Unboxing Review: Team Yankee Battlefield in a Box – Concrete Walls (Gale Force Nine BB191) + Lightly Weathered

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15mm Terrain Unboxing Review: Team Yankee Battlefield in a Box - Concrete Walls (Gale Force Nine BB191) + Lightly Weathered

Another quick prepainted terrain review today – it’s the Concrete Walls set from Gale Force Nine/Battlefield in a Box, though this time it’s got Team Yankee branding rather than Flames of War.

15mm Terrain Unboxing Review: Team Yankee Battlefield in a Box - Concrete Walls (Gale Force Nine BB191) + Lightly Weathered

This set comes with pretty good protective packaging, with the pieces in a custom polystyrene shell. I have a feeling this might possibly be older packaging as so much of the similar FoW stuff has been bubble-wrapped and taped, and we know companies are moving away from using unnecessary polystyrene (mine just went into the bin to save space). I’ll may look at picking up another set so I can get more table coverage with them if I can find one cheap, so if there’s any difference I may edit it in here.

15mm Terrain Unboxing Review: Team Yankee Battlefield in a Box - Concrete Walls (Gale Force Nine BB191) + Lightly Weathered

This set really doesn’t look like a lot of money, does it? I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little disappointed when I got these out. Being rational, I guess the price on these is about 2/3 or less than the Desert Walls, though these are probably getting to the level of “may as well 3D print something very similar instead” Which is pretty much how I feel about things like Dragon’s Teeth.

15mm Terrain Unboxing Review: Team Yankee Battlefield in a Box - Concrete Walls (Gale Force Nine BB191) + Lightly Weathered

The painting on these is completely fit for purpose, though it’s also veeeeeery simple. As always, the biggest benefit of these is “Open box, put on table. Done!” So there’s obviously that.

15mm Terrain Unboxing Review: Team Yankee Battlefield in a Box - Concrete Walls (Gale Force Nine BB191) + Lightly Weathered

I decided to immediately add weathering to these, since they clearly would only take a few minutes to do. The wall in front/on our right is the unboxed wall, and on the left/behind is my weathered wall – overall drybrushed a less bright light grey to the shipped grey/white, heavy drybrush dark brown along lower/ground area, light partial drybrush a light khaki irregularly all over.

15mm Terrain Unboxing Review: Team Yankee Battlefield in a Box - Concrete Walls (Gale Force Nine BB191) + Lightly Weathered

And here they are, weathered and done and ready to be put away (after the monthly round-up, at least!) I didn’t feel that weathering these deserved their own post, so I added them in here to the review – and I guess they can also serve to show how easily they can be made a little less clinical.