There was a lot of fuss made when the Citadel Contrast Paints were released. They were expensive and so I didn’t bother. But the Army Painter Speed Paints were even more enthusiastically embraced and were cheaper. So I got the starter set. Initially I tested them on a unit of Celts Sloshing the Speed Paint straight onto the white undercoat. It worked well but I find any kind of wash technique on white a bitty messy and muddy. I definitely feel that one has to frame the washes with solid paint on things like belts and other accoutrements. I also found that they did not work on the shields which made sense; lacking crevices to flow into the whole purpose of the product was lost. So, the shields got solid colour, painted designs and conventional highlights. Overall I was quite pleased and it went quickly.
I tried another technique on a small unit of cavalry. This time I did a zenithal primer, starting with black and dry brushing the whole figure (horse and rider; I always glue everything together before painting) with white. Once dry I used a brown Speed Paint on the horse and in one coat got a very pleasing effect. Score!
Overall I like these paints. I will continue painting my Napoleonics, Renaissance and SYW collections with a black undercoat and deliberate highlighting in 3 layers. But for some ancients and colonials this set of paints works well, especially those with simple tunics.
