You can download all of my hand-painted paint swatches for free on my website: taleofpainters.com/2023/04/top-tip-visual-comparison-of-all-61-contrast-23-speedpaints-24-gsw-dipping-inks/
I’ve been loving the flesh tone speed paints from Army Painter, thanks for saving me a lot of time for getting some cultist and goblins tabletop ready for DnD
@@OreoPriestI think the winky face alludes to them being the same thing. I bet the pigment free medium is still 1.0. Honestly that has been my experience. Can't tell a diff between the two.
Stahly your paint reviews are some of the best on the internet. I always enjoy your in depth, critical, balanced, and unbiased reviews. Keep up the great work!
Ive only painted 4 minis so far, and they all turned out pretty good, i like the army painter speedpaints, theyre affordable and theres lots of different colors
I've found that for my hobby time and dollar, Speed Paint is the winner. I end up batch painting alot and have been quite satisfied. I can't wait to get the 2.0 range.
Great video! Personally I never managed to get along with Citadels Contrast paints as they always came out blotchy and the short drying time made it hard to avoid visible brushstrokes. I switched to Vallejo Xpress paints and they've been working like a dream for me. The longer drying time makes it much easier to work with and better suites my style of painting. I was also disappointed by the Citadel Contrast Blue selection as I could never find the right colour for my Iyanden helmets, instead I had to make my own mix from two of them to get what I wanted. Vallejo's Omega Blue to my surprise came out exactly like my contrast mix which was fantastic. Different ranges will always compliment different styles and these reviews are a great tool for people looking for the right range. Give this a watch and work out which range should suit your style of painting. If anyone else is looking at trying Vallejo Xpress for an Iyanden scheme, Omega Blue and Nuclear Yellow are perfect for the armour. For the guns you have a choice of Black Lotus if you want a more natural bluish-black or Hospitallier Black for a matte coal black. These work perfectly if you're looking for a darker matte scheme instead of bright & shiny. As Stahly has mentioned, you will want to add more highlights to the more pronounced edges or areas that would naturally catch light but they give a super smooth matte finish. I did find that the Black Lotus did come out with much more obvious highlights than the other colours so may be better if people want a faster paintjob.
Impressive video! I thought you were sharing graphics from the manufacturers, but seeing how you made them, I think you have instantly become my favorite painting review channel!
Stahly.....3hr tier list video where you do every paint on an individual basis. The ultimate shopping list for a complete pallet of tones from all companies.
I have Contrast, Instants and now Xpress. I use them for different things. Mostly though I like paints that cover well enough to take a wash anyway if needed. There's little point in using a one coat paint if the base colour isn't strong enough; I can live with the shadows not being strong enough I use about 30% of the Contrast pots I have. Those are always the solution I'm looking for (Skeleton Horde, Snakebite Leather, Blood Angels Red etc). Maybe you could make a video breaking the Contrast Range into it's three or four different uses? ;) For me, the rest of the range is too much trouble when I could do it with acrylics Apart from one or two colours, I'm mostly using Instant Colours for more delicate effects. I have some Moonstone figures and I'm trying to paint them more like watercolours or illustrations. The opaque but thin nature means you can glaze over a zenithal and then glaze further into the shadows. Some of the colours are pointless unless you're painting over a pure white thick undercoat. I find their medium makes paints from other ranges reactivate. But just do a save point varnish! I've only had the Xpress for a short time. I like the way they go on more than Contrast generally but I've heard from multiple sources, not just your good self, that they have a longer drying time and I'm not really seeing that. You have to put it on without any dilution for it to behave like that and then it has to be a "one thick coat" result. I find water often dilutes too much; adding a little water doesn't make the paint workable so you add more. It all starts to feel a bit glue-y. I've got some really beautiful gradients out of using their medium but it's so runny in comparison to the paint I haven't figured out the ratio yet. Try over diluting it anyway. It has a use. Sorry! Been watching you vids for a while so thought I'd comment. Obviously I had some thoughts to work through lol. Ultimately, from what I've been seeing, the Speed range would fit my style the best now. FML Thanks for the content dude
Great video. Looking forward to trying speedpaint to tackle my massive miniature backlog. My current style of painting is ~2-3 hours per mini and with literally hundreds of primed minis I just want to get them reasonable.
Great video. I find Xpress Colors to be much easier to get an even, non blotchy coat compared to my contrast paints (the only two I've tried). Obviously people do get around this with skill, but I think the Vallejo paints are more forgiving, which is nice for less skilled painters
Thank you for the unbiased and objective review. I appreciate your honesty with each range, hitting the pros and cons of them all. I personally find myself preferring Speedpaint more and more these days. I agree that it’s not quite “S” tier yet, but it just hits most of the marks better than anyone else, imho. Good price, good coverage, good consistency, good pigmentation, good range of colors etc. Awesome video!
Maybe I missed this, but what is the file you used to test these on? I'd love to have something basic like that I can print to just sort of try color schemes on or use to get excess paint off my brush for dry brushing
It's actually just structured plasticard sprayed white, more about it here: taleofpainters.com/2021/07/top-tip-make-your-own-paint-swatch-to-organise-your-paint-collection/
I really needed this. I have some Antitheses paints and couldn't figure out why I couldn't make them work how I wanted; even after a bunch of layers. Thank you
2.0 are perfect for hobby painters who want to get their minis done quickly imho. Onecoat looks good, with some more work you can get very nice results. And the price is fair. As much as I love some contrast paints I am just done with GW.
I am this person. I use the "3 foot range" rule. Or as we in the normal side of the World would say the "1 meter rule" if it looks from 1 meter the mini is good. And with speedpaints I can do it with my limited hobby time. Ofc i would do some detail work but no highlighting and other stuff. These paints are great for that. I am currently saving up for the big box to have all the colors.
Hey mate. How long to these last? As in: one of the smaller bottles can paint how many models? In my country these are not only rare, but also twice their international price.
Just wanted to say I really appreciate your tile sets images for colour matching with the contrast paints, they have been invaluable for me to choose what colours I wanted to buy.
Really interesting critique. Feel more positive about mixing colours from ranges. Your review is the closest I've seen to empirical testing. Thanks Stalhly.
there's some colours from the speedpaint 1.0 range that really stand out, and are probably going out of stock soon, namely pallid bone, crusader skin, and hardened leather. sadly pallid bone, and crusader skin are also the two of them ive experienced the most reactivation with, so gotta give them plenty of drying time. pallid bone is like a stronger sepia wash, its perfect for bones, teeth/fangs, claws, and for paper that needs to look old. crusader skin is the best skin tone paint ive ever worked with, it looks like a wash when applied, but dries up a fair bit darker, one thin coat gives you a pale caucasian skintone, two thin coats gives you a rugged outdoorsy slightly tanned look, and 3 thin coats gives you a fairly natural dark skin. hardened leather havent given me any reactivation issues at all, ever, and its the most natural looking wood grain colour ive ever worked with, especially when painting directly on real wood for terrain. personally ive bought an extra bottle of each to keep around in case they wont be updating the formula on them to 2.0, just because i dont wanna run out.
Have to say I found Contrast paints very prone to blotchiness and moved over to Speedpaints. Even with the reactivation issues of the 1.0 paints the end result was always better. I have both now, but always reach for the Speedpaints.
I've found that vallejo's reactivates/chips when you apply their own polyurethane varnish. I don't get how they push for that type of varnish while also developing the xpress paints, but hey. Their regular acrylic varnish fares much better.
I have been using a mix of speedpaints and xpress colors. Their costs make them more desirable over the citadel range and they are in dropper bottles. If the citadel paints moved to dropper bottles instead they would probably be a nice choice. Haven't tried any of the others so have no opinion on them. Nice vid.
Thanks for the video. Have you tried mixing different brands together? It would be interesting to take two paints of similar colors and blend them to see how the properties change.
Not in an empirical trial, but from my experience the properties do not change so drastically. Unless, of course, you mix paints that are more opaque (such as Instant Color or some Dipping Inks) with purely transparent paints (such as most Contrast, Speedpaints and Xpress Colors).
I tried contrast and speedpaint 1 before I ended up buying the 1.0 mega set. I only had a few cases where the reactivation caused more than a few moments of challenge, and am looking forward to the 2.0 set. The colour range plus the price makes it more economical, and I like that they have become another tool I can use to get good results, a little bit faster. Thanks for another great review!
Working with inks and also oils for years I'm no stranger to sealing off your work. As such I find it a damn shame that people hate so much on speed paint 1.0 blending capability which was honestly one of the things it had going for it. I've seen countless people using water based acrylics not retarding their color in anyway and this is one simple thing that could hugely improve their painting.
Once Vallejo expands their range, I think they could easily move up to S tier. The few colors they have so far are very solid already, and if they come out with more vibrant shades with the same properties, contrast is in trouble.
I'm currently having a week of testing Warcolours again and the antithesis paint I bought confuses me. They're apparently meant to be used like contrast paints but as you say, they are opaque. However, the transparent paints by Warcolour behave in a way somewhere between contrast style and ink style paint and might have been better for this video. So far, my impression of Warcolours is that they suffer less from a low quality product than from not properly explaining their products...or rather a general lack of marketing which would allow you to grasp what you're buying before you have actually bought and tried it, actual colour of the paint included. At least they're fun to work with, if you have a miniature to spare for learning purposes only.
One of the best reviewers at it again! For me, I rate diversity very high. Like if they airbrush well, if they can easily be used together with other paints thinned or mixed and so on. But I really like the review with mainly the speedpaint purpose in mind and then some added considerations, it makes it very useful as reference.
You mention some of your favorite colors in dipping inks, would you mind listing them? Or from any of the lines really. I've got speed paint 1.0. and will be moving to xpress color. But will supplement with specific colors from GW, Greenstuff and AP.
On my Patreon I have a graphic with my favourite one coat paints from each range, bit too much to list them all here, but to answer your question: I really like Glorious Magenta, pretty much all purples except for Nightshade Purple, Dusty Blue, Green Shark Skin, Azure, Hulky Green, and Skeleton Bone most. These are also the colours that don't overlap too much with the Contrast range.
I wish I could try other brands. There are 4 stores within a lunch walking distance of my work with contrast paint (and the GW store just a little too far, and many more around town) but there is not a single place in my city (population ~500K in Canada) with another brand of "one coat" paints. Ordering from from Large Internet Company is an option but I can't see them before purchase, get any comments from FLGS on their colour quality, or buy one as needed (like I do with contrast). I know that contrast is much more expensive than other brands but they are the only true option where I am.
I have speedpaints 2.0 drying out on my wet palette really quickly.... I guess they fixed the reactivation issue by making the paint not thinnable with water at all. I enjoyed using them with my airbrush more than contrast paints and they seem less blotchy. So mixed bag. I've been experimenting with the concept of a mother color. Prime black, zenithal white and a very thinned down coat of speedpaint, giving the model a light green or violet tint. Then using that as a base and layering speedpaints on top of it. Tints every color a little bit and makes them work better together, I feel. It's a neat concept.
Sounds intriguing. If you like, come over to the Tale of Painters Discord and share some pictures :) And yeah, I recommend thinning one coat paints with a matching medium.
If we are talking strictly Contrast Paints I am putting TAP above Citadel solely for the painting pots. Also agreed most of the Citadel purple contrast colors or more of a wash than a true paint.
Coming back to this to say; Mix in one part Golden SUPER Matte Medium for each part contrast and you get a longer, easier working time and roughly the same finish as the eXpress colors.
I'm not comfortable showing my face on the internet, but on the other hand, I also found it boring to show only my hands. So the mask is a compromise, and maybe something people can remember.
Thank you. We have alternatives to Citadel Contraste that don't justify higher prices than the others. I deplore the omnipresence of Citadel paintings on youtube and the internet
I think Zenithol highlight, or drybrishing a medium gray then white over black primer, and then transparent paints from Monument hobbies give the best results for everything but skin tones.
@@stahly_taleofpainters that's awesome. Good coming across you again. I don't even know what ever happened to my "creature feature" on that page. I had kids and life kinda exploded. Cheers bud.
Thanks. It's a compromise, I'm not super comfortable showing my face on the internet, but thought that just looking at my hands all the time would be a bit boring and impersonal. And maybe it's something that people remember.
Biggest crimes from Citadel will always be the insane price and crap pots that you either migrate the paints to droppers or replace them every few months... I've had some Vallejo paints sit in their droppers for literally 20 years and come out great with a good amount of shaking!
Sehr detaillierter Vergleich👍 Damit bleibt mir nur noch eine Frage: Haben Speedpaints 2.0 und Contrast Farben ein gleiches Finish oder ist eine Range matter als die andere? Vielen Dank❤
Gern geschehen :) Ich würde sagen, ziemlich ähnlich, AP vielleicht noch einen Hauch matter als Contrast, aber nicht so matt wie Xpress Colors. Gibt aber auch einige Speedpaints, die etwas mehr glänzen, ebenso wie auch einige Contrast-Farben etwas mehr Glanz haben.
How does Vallejo get away with naming their paints Ultramarines blue, Militarum Green or Black Templar? Seems like they're asking for a copyright infringement suit from GW...
GSW also offers Intensity Inks, which can hold their own against Contrasts imo... (except the reds... GSW seems to have trouble hitting their mark when it comes to reds)
@@stahly_taleofpainters They're maybe just a little prone to washing out details if I'm too impatient and let it pool too much, although I suppose the same goes for some of the other paint ranges... Two or three coats of Opulentus Black over a silver basecoat (or overbrush) is my recipe for black Batman-like armor, has a really nice depth I don't quite get with Contrast.
Thanks for all these paint comparison videos. I find it hilarious that back in the 90s games workshop used awful pots and we heard about how they were going to make much better ones, but I return to the hobby and think the newer ones are possibly slightly worse. Why can't they just make some dripper bottles :) You can decant their paint into other bottles but you shouldn't have to and it's just making plastic waste in addition to costing you more.
Agree with dipping inks. i would say some of their greens are even better than contrast but they have lots of green and not many of the other colors. I think by price they're the best but the company is not the best to buy at since just a few shops sell them and the color range is very limited. Would i buy just dipping? Nope but them + contrast are a must Them speed paints 2.0.... i feel scammed by 1.0 . Almost 100€ in unusable paints so i really doubt i will ever again buy paints to this company even if the new are as good as you say. Maybe they have now good quality paints but them lost my trust forever and didn't even offer some compensation for the faulty inks to the owners of 1.0 sets. Vallejo are kind of good , but the ultra matte finish.... Not for me. But maybe mixing it with contrast medium they get more satin finish. I bought lots of them so i will have to test them better
I've used Vallejo Express colors, and I was massively disappointed. Not with the color or application of it, the blue was exactly what I wanted - but even after *two days* of drying, applying a wash to some recesses I wanted darker didn't just reactivate the paint, it fully stripped it down to primer. Completely unacceptable and I won't buy Vallejo colors again.
Whoa, what times have we reached that in order to say anything good about GW there’s a need for “I’m not a GW shill” disclaimer to not get hounded. We took a bad turn somewhere as a community or just as people. Either way, great video as always
Actually, I complained that 2.0 didn't remove the reactivation 100%. But I also wanted to address people who used 1.0 for blending, which is not so easy anymore with the new more stable formula. Hope this makes sense? :)
Weird take at the end, despite listing the multiple issues with contrast such as high price, blotchy finishes, shorter working time, inconsistency between paints, some not having contrast effects at all, and the dislike of citadel pots they are moved to S tier? Would have made much more sense to see something like army paint 2.0 move up with the only issue being slight reactivation, or vallejo despite the limited range. Or in my opinion probably more honestly, moving contrast down into B tier and leaving S empty due to all lines having some limitation or another.
Did you watch the end? I kept them all in the A tier and left the S tier empty. I might have a small bias towards Contrast since they were the first, but if you prefer others, that's a totally valid opinion as well.
@@stahly_taleofpaintersmy apologies, I must have missed that quick take back and move back to the A tier, but upon rewatching you definitely did. Thanks for clearing that up 😊 I personally think it still could have gone a little further down in the a-tier at least due its issues, however that is also probably a little bias as well. Still a great video as always despite differing opinions.
I have been painting minis for over 35 years and I totally disagree with list. Every brand of paint requires a different approach or technique to utlilize the paint the best way possible. If you are using the same technique for the other paints as you do for citadel then of course citadel will come out on top. Citadel paints are expensive, dont come in dropper bottles and have massive inconsistancies across their range. Best paint for beginners Vallejo or TAP 2.0, best paints for experienced TAP 1.0.
not sure how xpress gets that high a rating with hardly giving a highlight. painters like you and me dont care because we usually do our own highlights. i fear because Juan was the main tester and he does the same, he never gave that feedback.
Dipping inks got B for being lower pigment, but then Xpress Color has the lower pigment specifically called out as a plus because it would enable Slapchop to show through, and they got A…
Yeah, Dipping Inks have a few colours, like the reds and skin tones, but also the light greys, that are quite weakly pigmented, but are on the same time also quite opaque, which makes for a very weird combination that doesn't work with Slapchop at all and even needs multiple coats over white/light primer. Xpress Color has much better reds and skin colours.
@@stahly_taleofpainters True, dipping inks are weak for skin colors. The new "nude skin" is too pink. The new "red opulence" is a great red though, highly pigmented, bright red, and translucent for slapchop. Definitely filled a hole in the range.
Say the reactivation is mostly fixed and yet still ranks Speed Paint lower than Contrast despite MUCH lower price, more color diversity, better bottle and also more consistent color behavior. This review makes no sense...
Probably because he isn’t a fan boy that drinks the cool aid and speed paints have taken two goes on a product and still haven’t got it right and there are still issues.
@@stahly_taleofpainters Yes each paint have their pros and cons, but as a reviewer you are supposed to put them in perspective. Are you telling me that the small bit of reactivation left is so bad that you would rather recommend the terrible pot, the much higher price, and the inconsistency of Contrast? Anyway , you are free to have your personal preference especially since you have been painting with contrast for longer and you are used to it, but once again as a reviewer you are supposed to be a bit objective.
@@Thorrk_THT the facts are ap sold a product that they abandoned after 1 month so they could sell you the same product again. That they had to redesign it only for the reactivation issue to still show up as well as other issues (see the painting phase) shows that the product still has issues. If any other company had done that then they would get ripped apart, instead you lap it up. Maybe if you want more “objective” reviews you should to to watch it paint it or spikeybits… not like they are shilling at all
The title does not reflect the review, one coat means you should not talk about painting over the one coat from the contrast paint, but fine review otherwise
I think this "review" is close to useless as the individual colors are important to rate and compare, not the ranges. Dana Howl has a page where she painted a Skink with each Contrast and Speed Paint, giving you a pretty good impression of how they'll perform.
You can download all of my hand-painted paint swatches for free on my website: taleofpainters.com/2023/04/top-tip-visual-comparison-of-all-61-contrast-23-speedpaints-24-gsw-dipping-inks/
PRO TIP: It's much easier to blend the paints like you could with 1.0 using the Medium to aid retarding the paint with 2.0 ;)
Does it need to be 2.0 medium or will 1.0 do?
Can you mix 1.0 and 2.0?
BTW excellent customer service from The Army Painter Co which puts it into SSS Tier for me 👍👍
I’ve been loving the flesh tone speed paints from Army Painter, thanks for saving me a lot of time for getting some cultist and goblins tabletop ready for DnD
@@OreoPriestI think the winky face alludes to them being the same thing. I bet the pigment free medium is still 1.0. Honestly that has been my experience. Can't tell a diff between the two.
What the fuck did you just call me
Stahly your paint reviews are some of the best on the internet. I always enjoy your in depth, critical, balanced, and unbiased reviews. Keep up the great work!
Meanwhile at Army Painter HQ: We did it! Stahly is warming up to our Speedpaint 2.0!!
But said in incomprehensible danish of course.
Vi gjorde det! Stahly er ved at blive glad for vores speedpaint 2.0
Ive only painted 4 minis so far, and they all turned out pretty good, i like the army painter speedpaints, theyre affordable and theres lots of different colors
I've found that for my hobby time and dollar, Speed Paint is the winner. I end up batch painting alot and have been quite satisfied. I can't wait to get the 2.0 range.
Amazing video Stahly! Loved the unbiased review ( So many army painters or vallejo sponsored influencers out there) it's great to see unbiased review!
Wow this is amazing! This is exactly the video I was looking for, perfect timing haha.
Will you be doing reviews of Broken anvil paints and/or Ultracryl paints when they release?
No plans for Broken Anvil, Ultracryl very likely :)
YAY WE DID IT! I am so happy to be here to finally see it!
Great video! Personally I never managed to get along with Citadels Contrast paints as they always came out blotchy and the short drying time made it hard to avoid visible brushstrokes. I switched to Vallejo Xpress paints and they've been working like a dream for me. The longer drying time makes it much easier to work with and better suites my style of painting. I was also disappointed by the Citadel Contrast Blue selection as I could never find the right colour for my Iyanden helmets, instead I had to make my own mix from two of them to get what I wanted. Vallejo's Omega Blue to my surprise came out exactly like my contrast mix which was fantastic. Different ranges will always compliment different styles and these reviews are a great tool for people looking for the right range. Give this a watch and work out which range should suit your style of painting.
If anyone else is looking at trying Vallejo Xpress for an Iyanden scheme, Omega Blue and Nuclear Yellow are perfect for the armour. For the guns you have a choice of Black Lotus if you want a more natural bluish-black or Hospitallier Black for a matte coal black. These work perfectly if you're looking for a darker matte scheme instead of bright & shiny. As Stahly has mentioned, you will want to add more highlights to the more pronounced edges or areas that would naturally catch light but they give a super smooth matte finish. I did find that the Black Lotus did come out with much more obvious highlights than the other colours so may be better if people want a faster paintjob.
Appreciate all the leg work you did mate. That's one heck of a review and I feel like I understand each range a lot better. Thanks! 🤘😎🔥
Useful and cool as always. Thank you for sharing.
Impressive video! I thought you were sharing graphics from the manufacturers, but seeing how you made them, I think you have instantly become my favorite painting review channel!
Stahly.....3hr tier list video where you do every paint on an individual basis. The ultimate shopping list for a complete pallet of tones from all companies.
Yeah it's on my ideas list... I would try to condense it into a 20min video though :D
I have Contrast, Instants and now Xpress. I use them for different things. Mostly though I like paints that cover well enough to take a wash anyway if needed. There's little point in using a one coat paint if the base colour isn't strong enough; I can live with the shadows not being strong enough
I use about 30% of the Contrast pots I have. Those are always the solution I'm looking for (Skeleton Horde, Snakebite Leather, Blood Angels Red etc). Maybe you could make a video breaking the Contrast Range into it's three or four different uses? ;) For me, the rest of the range is too much trouble when I could do it with acrylics
Apart from one or two colours, I'm mostly using Instant Colours for more delicate effects. I have some Moonstone figures and I'm trying to paint them more like watercolours or illustrations. The opaque but thin nature means you can glaze over a zenithal and then glaze further into the shadows. Some of the colours are pointless unless you're painting over a pure white thick undercoat. I find their medium makes paints from other ranges reactivate. But just do a save point varnish!
I've only had the Xpress for a short time. I like the way they go on more than Contrast generally but I've heard from multiple sources, not just your good self, that they have a longer drying time and I'm not really seeing that. You have to put it on without any dilution for it to behave like that and then it has to be a "one thick coat" result. I find water often dilutes too much; adding a little water doesn't make the paint workable so you add more. It all starts to feel a bit glue-y. I've got some really beautiful gradients out of using their medium but it's so runny in comparison to the paint I haven't figured out the ratio yet. Try over diluting it anyway. It has a use.
Sorry! Been watching you vids for a while so thought I'd comment. Obviously I had some thoughts to work through lol.
Ultimately, from what I've been seeing, the Speed range would fit my style the best now. FML
Thanks for the content dude
Thanks for your time sharing your experiences man :) I'll experiment with my Xpress Colors more!
Great video. Looking forward to trying speedpaint to tackle my massive miniature backlog. My current style of painting is ~2-3 hours per mini and with literally hundreds of primed minis I just want to get them reasonable.
which of these mediums would you reccomend for mixing with a high pigment ink to get a contrast paint style paint?
Contrast Medium!
Great video. I find Xpress Colors to be much easier to get an even, non blotchy coat compared to my contrast paints (the only two I've tried). Obviously people do get around this with skill, but I think the Vallejo paints are more forgiving, which is nice for less skilled painters
I feel the same way, having only used those two.
This was really super helpful thank you
Thank you for the unbiased and objective review. I appreciate your honesty with each range, hitting the pros and cons of them all. I personally find myself preferring Speedpaint more and more these days. I agree that it’s not quite “S” tier yet, but it just hits most of the marks better than anyone else, imho. Good price, good coverage, good consistency, good pigmentation, good range of colors etc. Awesome video!
Maybe I missed this, but what is the file you used to test these on? I'd love to have something basic like that I can print to just sort of try color schemes on or use to get excess paint off my brush for dry brushing
It's actually just structured plasticard sprayed white, more about it here: taleofpainters.com/2021/07/top-tip-make-your-own-paint-swatch-to-organise-your-paint-collection/
Yeah, Stahly! More videos!
I really needed this. I have some Antitheses paints and couldn't figure out why I couldn't make them work how I wanted; even after a bunch of layers.
Thank you
Awesome review man, thank you for putting in the work.
2.0 are perfect for hobby painters who want to get their minis done quickly imho. Onecoat looks good, with some more work you can get very nice results. And the price is fair. As much as I love some contrast paints I am just done with GW.
I am this person. I use the "3 foot range" rule. Or as we in the normal side of the World would say the "1 meter rule" if it looks from 1 meter the mini is good. And with speedpaints I can do it with my limited hobby time. Ofc i would do some detail work but no highlighting and other stuff. These paints are great for that. I am currently saving up for the big box to have all the colors.
Hey mate. How long to these last? As in: one of the smaller bottles can paint how many models?
In my country these are not only rare, but also twice their international price.
Just wanted to say I really appreciate your tile sets images for colour matching with the contrast paints, they have been invaluable for me to choose what colours I wanted to buy.
Great video as always!!
I know they are not officially out until March, but where would you rank the new Fanatics range from Army Painter? I’ve seen your review of them.
Really interesting critique. Feel more positive about mixing colours from ranges. Your review is the closest I've seen to empirical testing. Thanks Stalhly.
there's some colours from the speedpaint 1.0 range that really stand out, and are probably going out of stock soon, namely pallid bone, crusader skin, and hardened leather. sadly pallid bone, and crusader skin are also the two of them ive experienced the most reactivation with, so gotta give them plenty of drying time. pallid bone is like a stronger sepia wash, its perfect for bones, teeth/fangs, claws, and for paper that needs to look old. crusader skin is the best skin tone paint ive ever worked with, it looks like a wash when applied, but dries up a fair bit darker, one thin coat gives you a pale caucasian skintone, two thin coats gives you a rugged outdoorsy slightly tanned look, and 3 thin coats gives you a fairly natural dark skin. hardened leather havent given me any reactivation issues at all, ever, and its the most natural looking wood grain colour ive ever worked with, especially when painting directly on real wood for terrain.
personally ive bought an extra bottle of each to keep around in case they wont be updating the formula on them to 2.0, just because i dont wanna run out.
You’re good dude. Subbed ❤
i just picked up the whole range of express color and im loving it.
Have to say I found Contrast paints very prone to blotchiness and moved over to Speedpaints. Even with the reactivation issues of the 1.0 paints the end result was always better. I have both now, but always reach for the Speedpaints.
Have to agree. For me, it's also the blotchiness. But I recently tried several Xpress colors and they are amazing - if you don't mind less pigments
I have been very interesred in speedpaint. Think I need to finally give these a run
your test-pictures with the tiles have so much value for every painter 👍👍
I've found that vallejo's reactivates/chips when you apply their own polyurethane varnish. I don't get how they push for that type of varnish while also developing the xpress paints, but hey. Their regular acrylic varnish fares much better.
Yeah I also don‘t know why they made polyurethane the default varnish in the new GC range :/
I had the same problem...
I have been using a mix of speedpaints and xpress colors. Their costs make them more desirable over the citadel range and they are in dropper bottles. If the citadel paints moved to dropper bottles instead they would probably be a nice choice. Haven't tried any of the others so have no opinion on them. Nice vid.
Thanks for the video.
Have you tried mixing different brands together? It would be interesting to take two paints of similar colors and blend them to see how the properties change.
Not in an empirical trial, but from my experience the properties do not change so drastically. Unless, of course, you mix paints that are more opaque (such as Instant Color or some Dipping Inks) with purely transparent paints (such as most Contrast, Speedpaints and Xpress Colors).
Great stuff friend 👏 👍
Love this channel. So useful
I tried contrast and speedpaint 1 before I ended up buying the 1.0 mega set. I only had a few cases where the reactivation caused more than a few moments of challenge, and am looking forward to the 2.0 set. The colour range plus the price makes it more economical, and I like that they have become another tool I can use to get good results, a little bit faster.
Thanks for another great review!
Working with inks and also oils for years I'm no stranger to sealing off your work. As such I find it a damn shame that people hate so much on speed paint 1.0 blending capability which was honestly one of the things it had going for it. I've seen countless people using water based acrylics not retarding their color in anyway and this is one simple thing that could hugely improve their painting.
Once Vallejo expands their range, I think they could easily move up to S tier. The few colors they have so far are very solid already, and if they come out with more vibrant shades with the same properties, contrast is in trouble.
Great video. I agree
Besides coming in easily tipped over pots instead of dropper bottles plus the high cost Ill choose Army Speedpaint over contrast every time
only by the kind of bottle Contrast have, can't be on S tier
I'm currently having a week of testing Warcolours again and the antithesis paint I bought confuses me. They're apparently meant to be used like contrast paints but as you say, they are opaque. However, the transparent paints by Warcolour behave in a way somewhere between contrast style and ink style paint and might have been better for this video. So far, my impression of Warcolours is that they suffer less from a low quality product than from not properly explaining their products...or rather a general lack of marketing which would allow you to grasp what you're buying before you have actually bought and tried it, actual colour of the paint included. At least they're fun to work with, if you have a miniature to spare for learning purposes only.
One of the best reviewers at it again!
For me, I rate diversity very high. Like if they airbrush well, if they can easily be used together with other paints thinned or mixed and so on. But I really like the review with mainly the speedpaint purpose in mind and then some added considerations, it makes it very useful as reference.
You mention some of your favorite colors in dipping inks, would you mind listing them? Or from any of the lines really.
I've got speed paint 1.0. and will be moving to xpress color. But will supplement with specific colors from GW, Greenstuff and AP.
On my Patreon I have a graphic with my favourite one coat paints from each range, bit too much to list them all here, but to answer your question: I really like Glorious Magenta, pretty much all purples except for Nightshade Purple, Dusty Blue, Green Shark Skin, Azure, Hulky Green, and Skeleton Bone most. These are also the colours that don't overlap too much with the Contrast range.
We are getting closer and closer to a list of best products per type of paint (metallics, washes, base etc) 😊
Good ideas for future videos :)
Metallics: Vallejo Metal Color + GSW pigments, Vince already did a comparison
I wish I could try other brands. There are 4 stores within a lunch walking distance of my work with contrast paint (and the GW store just a little too far, and many more around town) but there is not a single place in my city (population ~500K in Canada) with another brand of "one coat" paints. Ordering from from Large Internet Company is an option but I can't see them before purchase, get any comments from FLGS on their colour quality, or buy one as needed (like I do with contrast). I know that contrast is much more expensive than other brands but they are the only true option where I am.
Will xpress paint ever be sold in kits???
Haven't heard, guess you need to try them directly.
I have speedpaints 2.0 drying out on my wet palette really quickly.... I guess they fixed the reactivation issue by making the paint not thinnable with water at all. I enjoyed using them with my airbrush more than contrast paints and they seem less blotchy. So mixed bag.
I've been experimenting with the concept of a mother color. Prime black, zenithal white and a very thinned down coat of speedpaint, giving the model a light green or violet tint. Then using that as a base and layering speedpaints on top of it. Tints every color a little bit and makes them work better together, I feel. It's a neat concept.
Sounds intriguing. If you like, come over to the Tale of Painters Discord and share some pictures :) And yeah, I recommend thinning one coat paints with a matching medium.
How to find new express color
If we are talking strictly Contrast Paints I am putting TAP above Citadel solely for the painting pots. Also agreed most of the Citadel purple contrast colors or more of a wash than a true paint.
Coming back to this to say; Mix in one part Golden SUPER Matte Medium for each part contrast and you get a longer, easier working time and roughly the same finish as the eXpress colors.
Stupid question, but what’s with the mask? Great review, as usual.
I'm not comfortable showing my face on the internet, but on the other hand, I also found it boring to show only my hands. So the mask is a compromise, and maybe something people can remember.
@@stahly_taleofpainters I understand! Thanks for clarifying.
Thank you. We have alternatives to Citadel Contraste that don't justify higher prices than the others.
I deplore the omnipresence of Citadel paintings on youtube and the internet
I got a few droppers of Xpress Color and found them quite watery. Maybe I got a bad batch...
They are a bit more weakly pigmented than Contrast or Speedpaint, but did you gave them a really good shake?
I think Zenithol highlight, or drybrishing a medium gray then white over black primer, and then transparent paints from Monument hobbies give the best results for everything but skin tones.
Instant colors are way cheaper now. They went from 4.50 to 2.75 in my local store, here in Spain
Green stuff ones are surprisingly good and cheap.
My only problem is how difficult is to get them. Almost just in his website which is pretty bad.
Is this the same Stahly that use to be on the Warseer tale of painters!? I was a big part of that for a bit. (dwarfhold13)
Subscribed.
Yes, that‘s me 😊
@@stahly_taleofpainters that's awesome. Good coming across you again. I don't even know what ever happened to my "creature feature" on that page. I had kids and life kinda exploded.
Cheers bud.
is two thin coats considered contraast paint
No
Excellent video. I’ve been wondering though, why does he wear a mask always?
Thanks. It's a compromise, I'm not super comfortable showing my face on the internet, but thought that just looking at my hands all the time would be a bit boring and impersonal. And maybe it's something that people remember.
Biggest crimes from Citadel will always be the insane price and crap pots that you either migrate the paints to droppers or replace them every few months...
I've had some Vallejo paints sit in their droppers for literally 20 years and come out great with a good amount of shaking!
In my experience, looking for the best brand of paint is not as effective as looking for the best version of each color from each brand.
This video is outstanding
Sehr detaillierter Vergleich👍
Damit bleibt mir nur noch eine Frage: Haben Speedpaints 2.0 und Contrast Farben ein gleiches Finish oder ist eine Range matter als die andere?
Vielen Dank❤
Gern geschehen :) Ich würde sagen, ziemlich ähnlich, AP vielleicht noch einen Hauch matter als Contrast, aber nicht so matt wie Xpress Colors. Gibt aber auch einige Speedpaints, die etwas mehr glänzen, ebenso wie auch einige Contrast-Farben etwas mehr Glanz haben.
You don't necessarily have to put anything in S tier so I don't disagree with your decision not to let anything go higher than A tier
A limited paint range can be drastically expanded by mixing colors... Play around, learn color theory, and have fun making custom colors! :)
Another outstanding review. Sounds like a company needs to approach you to help them design their 1-coat solution next. ;)
How does Vallejo get away with naming their paints Ultramarines blue, Militarum Green or Black Templar? Seems like they're asking for a copyright infringement suit from GW...
Great video man, I really appreciate it, but man, I'd put Sccale in the trash
GSW also offers Intensity Inks, which can hold their own against Contrasts imo... (except the reds... GSW seems to have trouble hitting their mark when it comes to reds)
Yeah they don't seem to have access to a really good red liquid pigment... but if the inks are good I put them on my review list!
@@stahly_taleofpainters They're maybe just a little prone to washing out details if I'm too impatient and let it pool too much, although I suppose the same goes for some of the other paint ranges... Two or three coats of Opulentus Black over a silver basecoat (or overbrush) is my recipe for black Batman-like armor, has a really nice depth I don't quite get with Contrast.
Sounds like a cool recipe, will have to try that!
S-Tier: Nuln Oil
Thanks for all these paint comparison videos. I find it hilarious that back in the 90s games workshop used awful pots and we heard about how they were going to make much better ones, but I return to the hobby and think the newer ones are possibly slightly worse. Why can't they just make some dripper bottles :)
You can decant their paint into other bottles but you shouldn't have to and it's just making plastic waste in addition to costing you more.
note
1:50 contrast palest look
I argue the paint pots design make GW's contrast paints invalidated for "don't do anything badly" sentiments.
I prefer Xpress color, also the intense range doesn't need multiple coats.
Speed Paint 2.0 is the best
Agree with dipping inks. i would say some of their greens are even better than contrast but they have lots of green and not many of the other colors.
I think by price they're the best but the company is not the best to buy at since just a few shops sell them and the color range is very limited.
Would i buy just dipping? Nope but them + contrast are a must
Them speed paints 2.0.... i feel scammed by 1.0 . Almost 100€ in unusable paints so i really doubt i will ever again buy paints to this company even if the new are as good as you say. Maybe they have now good quality paints but them lost my trust forever and didn't even offer some compensation for the faulty inks to the owners of 1.0 sets.
Vallejo are kind of good , but the ultra matte finish.... Not for me. But maybe mixing it with contrast medium they get more satin finish. I bought lots of them so i will have to test them better
I've used Vallejo Express colors, and I was massively disappointed. Not with the color or application of it, the blue was exactly what I wanted - but even after *two days* of drying, applying a wash to some recesses I wanted darker didn't just reactivate the paint, it fully stripped it down to primer. Completely unacceptable and I won't buy Vallejo colors again.
Whoa, what times have we reached that in order to say anything good about GW there’s a need for “I’m not a GW shill” disclaimer to not get hounded.
We took a bad turn somewhere as a community or just as people.
Either way, great video as always
You complained about the reactivation of Speed Paint 1.0, then complained about not reactivating with 2.0.
Actually, I complained that 2.0 didn't remove the reactivation 100%. But I also wanted to address people who used 1.0 for blending, which is not so easy anymore with the new more stable formula. Hope this makes sense? :)
Weird take at the end, despite listing the multiple issues with contrast such as high price, blotchy finishes, shorter working time, inconsistency between paints, some not having contrast effects at all, and the dislike of citadel pots they are moved to S tier?
Would have made much more sense to see something like army paint 2.0 move up with the only issue being slight reactivation, or vallejo despite the limited range.
Or in my opinion probably more honestly, moving contrast down into B tier and leaving S empty due to all lines having some limitation or another.
Did you watch the end? I kept them all in the A tier and left the S tier empty. I might have a small bias towards Contrast since they were the first, but if you prefer others, that's a totally valid opinion as well.
@@stahly_taleofpaintersmy apologies, I must have missed that quick take back and move back to the A tier, but upon rewatching you definitely did.
Thanks for clearing that up 😊
I personally think it still could have gone a little further down in the a-tier at least due its issues, however that is also probably a little bias as well.
Still a great video as always despite differing opinions.
I have been painting minis for over 35 years and I totally disagree with list. Every brand of paint requires a different approach or technique to utlilize the paint the best way possible. If you are using the same technique for the other paints as you do for citadel then of course citadel will come out on top. Citadel paints are expensive, dont come in dropper bottles and have massive inconsistancies across their range. Best paint for beginners Vallejo or TAP 2.0, best paints for experienced TAP 1.0.
Totally valid opinion, thanks for sharing!
Personally I'd say that the Contrast paints are one of the worst ones.
• Expensive
• Too thick out of the pot
• Dry Blotchy
• Come in terrible pots
Totally valid opinion!
I agree Gw Contrast is the best, but the price…and the god damn bottle
not sure how xpress gets that high a rating with hardly giving a highlight. painters like you and me dont care because we usually do our own highlights. i fear because Juan was the main tester and he does the same, he never gave that feedback.
Dipping inks got B for being lower pigment, but then Xpress Color has the lower pigment specifically called out as a plus because it would enable Slapchop to show through, and they got A…
Dipping inks were also said to be more opaque removing any benefit the lower pigmentation would have for slapchop.
Yeah, Dipping Inks have a few colours, like the reds and skin tones, but also the light greys, that are quite weakly pigmented, but are on the same time also quite opaque, which makes for a very weird combination that doesn't work with Slapchop at all and even needs multiple coats over white/light primer. Xpress Color has much better reds and skin colours.
@@stahly_taleofpainters True, dipping inks are weak for skin colors. The new "nude skin" is too pink. The new "red opulence" is a great red though, highly pigmented, bright red, and translucent for slapchop. Definitely filled a hole in the range.
Say the reactivation is mostly fixed and yet still ranks Speed Paint lower than Contrast despite MUCH lower price, more color diversity, better bottle and also more consistent color behavior. This review makes no sense...
Probably because he isn’t a fan boy that drinks the cool aid and speed paints have taken two goes on a product and still haven’t got it right and there are still issues.
Mostly is not completely :) I put them all on the A tier, and as I‘ve mentioned, they all have their pros and cons.
@@stahly_taleofpainters Yes each paint have their pros and cons, but as a reviewer you are supposed to put them in perspective. Are you telling me that the small bit of reactivation left is so bad that you would rather recommend the terrible pot, the much higher price, and the inconsistency of Contrast? Anyway , you are free to have your personal preference especially since you have been painting with contrast for longer and you are used to it, but once again as a reviewer you are supposed to be a bit objective.
Yeah, smells like shilling all the same.
@@Thorrk_THT the facts are ap sold a product that they abandoned after 1 month so they could sell you the same product again. That they had to redesign it only for the reactivation issue to still show up as well as other issues (see the painting phase) shows that the product still has issues. If any other company had done that then they would get ripped apart, instead you lap it up.
Maybe if you want more “objective” reviews you should to to watch it paint it or spikeybits… not like they are shilling at all
The title does not reflect the review, one coat means you should not talk about painting over the one coat from the contrast paint, but fine review otherwise
I think this "review" is close to useless as the individual colors are important to rate and compare, not the ranges. Dana Howl has a page where she painted a Skink with each Contrast and Speed Paint, giving you a pretty good impression of how they'll perform.
I have the set of instant colors and I mostly use them as a glaze and filter. I never use them as a contrast or speed paint.