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 stahly wrote:

 ced1106 wrote:
Always appreciate your written reviews!

Now, if only there was a one-coat paint that didn't use primer!

Cheers. Maybe that will be the next gen of one coat paints!

I hope not. I can handle various primers for various materials, but I would not like the soup you would need to concoct to do a brush on primer basecoat combo that works on metal, plastic and resin. there would still be overlaps and that requires more things to learn. So Citadel One Coat Primer yellow doesn't go over PVC but the red does, Citadel One Coat Primer white is slightly grey when painted on metal, but looks Ok on plastic, while Vallejo One Coat Primer is better on metal but has a gloss undertone that doesnt work with blues...
Things are complex enough with not all Contrasts working the same. Priming is currently simple, even if it is an additional step.

GW base colours range comes close though, so long as you only paint over plastic. The entire series of Hachette productions are based on this method. There are no primers used in any of their campaigns, you paint basecoat directly over plastic, with the starter brush and are expected to get results.

Peachy gives the Speedpaint 2.0 line a try...

So, speedpaint 3.0 confirmed to correct cracking issues and make them more contrast-y again like speedpaint 1.0?

It's a real shame that there are so few written reviews these days. Multiple video reviews without video summaries don't help if you can't watch them.

 Taaloc wrote:
Does no-one do written reviews any more?

No and it infuriates me.

Agreed on the non-written reviews. Seems sometimes like writing is on its way to be lostech sometimes >_>

Also... ooof. I like the way the original speed paints flow on a mini and how they dry more slowly and give a more balanced effect. Having to seal them before doing anything else felt like a small price to pay. These... seem to have changed that, yes, but with a whole lotta new drawbacks.

Ah well, no matter. I'll wait for the XPress paints range to get more... well, range.

Stahly/TaleOfPainters does written reviews as well, usually.

Difficult to tell much from the quality of that video, but they just look like regular metallics.

 insaniak wrote:
Difficult to tell much from the quality of that video, but they just look like regular metallics.

Have a bunch sitting here. Still need to play around with it some more, but I'd like to add a couple points to that:
(1) They flow *and* cover incredibly easily and well. The coverage is relatively flat-ish - takes more of an edge to leave a sharp highlight than contrast paints IME, but OTOH coverage on flat(ter) surfaces is far more even; less splotchy, if you will.
(2) This guy's zenithal is almost a basecoat. You use these on something that has a little more effective dynamic range in the zenithal, those gradients and shadows shine through very visibly, and very directly.
(3) Even just at a fairly cursory glance at the first model he does,* do note that there is, in fact, a good bit of pooling around rivets etc that does give a nice depth effect. Normally you'd at least apply a wash over your first coat to do this, right? This basically provides similar wash-esque shading except with far less splotchiness and uneven gloss, in my so far limited experience.

No, it's not a magical-display-quality-paint-job-button. But from the first model I tried these out on, I was /sold/ for any tabletop quality paintjobs where I can/would zenithal. Honestly the video does not remotely do it justice.

*agree that the quality isn't good enough for a paint test video, so not really inclined to sit through the rest!

Having played around with my speedpaints 2.0, they work well for what they're intended to be, Slapchop friendly paints. They cover well and quickly, and honestly no contract equivalent that I have seen creates table ready shadows and highlights outside of a few colors in each range.

They're easier to work with than contract, and have a wide range of colors. You can use a bit of water to thin them, and they dry matte.

I've done a lot of terrain in the past week and didnt experience the cracking, but I also didnt use a hairdryer.

Some of the colors seem cloudy, mainly the pastels. I'm thinking the opacity is intended as a highlight, almost as though they were mixed with Dana Howl's go to VMC Pale Sand.

 Bossk_Hogg wrote:
Having played around with my speedpaints 2.0, they work well for what they're intended to be, Slapchop friendly paints. They cover well and quickly, and honestly no contract equivalent that I have seen creates table ready shadows and highlights outside of a few colors in each range.

They're easier to work with than contract, and have a wide range of colors. You can use a bit of water to thin them, and they dry matte.

I've done a lot of terrain in the past week and didnt experience the cracking, but I also didnt use a hairdryer.

Some of the colors seem cloudy, mainly the pastels. I'm thinking the opacity is intended as a highlight, almost as though they were mixed with Dana Howl's go to VMC Pale Sand.

Honest question on that point: are you using these over a flat basecoat, rather than zenithal (or similar preshading)? Because that's where the semi-transparency really shines IMO, and using them over flat coats certainly works but it's hardly making the most of it...

 Shadow Walker wrote:

She rates AP Speedpaints as being the best overall, doesn't mention the cracking issues. She also says that GSW's Dipping Inks are bad because they are too thin, then praises another range for being very thin...

Being totally honest there are very few people producing this kind of content that I trust to be unbiased. We know that companies like Army Painter have made deals with influencers to promote their product in the past.

 Undead_Love-Machine wrote:

 Shadow Walker wrote:

She rates AP Speedpaints as being the best overall, doesn't mention the cracking issues. She also says that GSW's Dipping Inks are bad because they are too thin, then praises another range for being very thin...

Being totally honest there are very few people producing this kind of content that I trust to be unbiased. We know that companies like Army Painter have made deals with influencers to promote their product in the past.

Thanks for that. It saves me clicking on that kind of video. Theres only a few I trust too and usually those are 5 start painters which means they have a pigment understanding far superior to errrr content creators wannabe painters.

for her not mentioning the cracking issue, just means it was not an issue for her
and I never had that issue as well, so calling that biased because some people just don't encounter it is not fair

also stahly does not mention it, so I guess he is biased too

she rates them first over contrast because all colours she got are working the same, which is not the case with contrast
and most reviews mention this as the main problem with contrast as well, that some colours work and others don't and if you don't know about which one those are before you buy, it is a big prolem

It's not just these painters. It's the entire internet. If you're not paying for the review, odds are that somebody is. You can certainly research the reviewer (stahly I trust from another AP wash review), but I find watching video reviews of content I'm only mildly interested in to be drudgework, rather than of interest, while I can get info about a product much faster with a written review or comments in a forum. Colored primers and washes are less expensive and work fine, although I'm waiting for the paints which remove mold lines, myself.

There's certainly a nomenclature issue with Contrasts, because they are really multiple ranges that do different things squashed into one, with no indication of which is which.

That is a real problem.

 kodos wrote:
for her not mentioning the cracking issue, just means it was not an issue for her
and I never had that issue as well, so calling that biased because some people just don't encounter it is not fair

also stahly does not mention it, so I guess he is biased too

I never said that she was biased for not mentioning the cracking issue. I simply said that she didn't mention it.

I said that there were few content producers who I trust to be unbiased, for all sorts of reasons. Bias is everywhere, unconcious or otherwise, to not accept that is a little naive, IMHO.

 kodos wrote:
she rates them first over contrast because all colours she got are working the same, which is not the case with contrast
and most reviews mention this as the main problem with contrast as well, that some colours work and others don't and if you don't know about which one those are before you buy, it is a big prolem

Yes, the inconsistency within the Contrast range has been mentioned many times at this point, it's definitely a barrier to the newcomer.

 kodos wrote:
for her not mentioning the cracking issue, just means it was not an issue for her
and I never had that issue as well, so calling that biased because some people just don't encounter it is not fair

also stahly does not mention it, so I guess he is biased too

she rates them first over contrast because all colours she got are working the same, which is not the case with contrast
and most reviews mention this as the main problem with contrast as well, that some colours work and others don't and if you don't know about which one those are before you buy, it is a big prolem

I'm not biased, but I didn't encounter any cracking, despite testing the Speedpaint 2.0 on multiple (miniature) spray primers, airbrushed models sealed with polyurethane varnish, and of course on acrylic paints. In the video, Gray Scalp mentions the cracking only occurred on models airbrushed with Liquitex Ink, which has a super glossy finish, which might be the issue. Maybe he also got a bad batch or didn't shake the paints enough? Army Painter's quality control can be so and so from my experience. Anyways, if I found cracking an issue, I would have said so, as I did with the first gen's reactivation.

I think different painters have different paint styles and the way "they do things". Like with first gen Speedpaints, the way I used them (like Contrast in a more controlled way, painting on top of them, using them for glazes) made the reactivation a deal breaker, while other people who used them more like advertised, as single layer paints only, never had any issues (perhaps it was also a lack of experience to recognize the problem). Or with Green Stuff World's Dipping Inks, which Lyla ranked pretty low in her video (even though she said she only tested a handful). I reviewed the whole range and gave them a quite high score, though I can also recognize the issues she has with them, and thus why she would, based on her preference, give them a lower score.




I also did a ranking a while ago, and my results are quite different from hers. Which doesn't mean that hers are wrong. People can and should draw their own conclusions in the end, so I try to make my thoughts and criteria as transparent as possible in my reviews.

 stahly wrote:
I think different painters have different paint styles and the way "they do things".

Honestly, this is the crux of pretty much the entirety of *ALL* discussions based around the hobby/profession of painting.

People need to locate a person that either paints similar or a person they aspire to paint like and then follow along.

I love the way Marco Frisoni paints, but that much oil isn't for me. I love Squidmar, but not his style. I like Miniac and the paint he uses, but his "futzing" bothers me. I like Ninjon and the paints he uses, but not how he gets to his end product sometimes. I love Vince V, his videos, his attitude, etc... so I tend to pay more attention to his process... and so on with Latham, Lenz, Stahly, et al.

I don't like others, and tend to pay less (if any) attention to what they post, say, do, etc.

I went hard into Contrast, can't stand AP, like Vallejo, and LOVE Golden High Flow.

Find your people and listen to them for best results.

Well I'm done with Army Painter. Their original metallics formula changed to crap, I bought speed 1.0 set (though now kind of glad but such a limited palette), and 2.0 cracks insanely badly no matter what I try. They have torched what was originally decent good vibes towards an early gw competitor.

 Bolognesus wrote:

 Bossk_Hogg wrote:
Having played around with my speedpaints 2.0, they work well for what they're intended to be, Slapchop friendly paints. They cover well and quickly, and honestly no contract equivalent that I have seen creates table ready shadows and highlights outside of a few colors in each range.

They're easier to work with than contract, and have a wide range of colors. You can use a bit of water to thin them, and they dry matte.

I've done a lot of terrain in the past week and didnt experience the cracking, but I also didnt use a hairdryer.

Some of the colors seem cloudy, mainly the pastels. I'm thinking the opacity is intended as a highlight, almost as though they were mixed with Dana Howl's go to VMC Pale Sand.

Honest question on that point: are you using these over a flat basecoat, rather than zenithal (or similar preshading)? Because that's where the semi-transparency really shines IMO, and using them over flat coats certainly works but it's hardly making the most of it...

Even over a zenithal its just the pre-shading doing the work. Yeah, it sorta shows through, but the paints tend to be too opaque without watering them down with medium IMO.

 Undead_Love-Machine wrote:

 Shadow Walker wrote:

She rates AP Speedpaints as being the best overall, doesn't mention the cracking issues. She also says that GSW's Dipping Inks are bad because they are too thin, then praises another range for being very thin...

Being totally honest there are very few people producing this kind of content that I trust to be unbiased. We know that companies like Army Painter have made deals with influencers to promote their product in the past.

It has the "Includes Paid Promotion" tag. Now that could just be referring to the short Squarespace trail at the top, but equally could be sponsored by any of the paint companies involved. The legal requirement to include that tag is really helpful but damn they really dropped the ball on not also insisting on listing the name of the company that paid you on it. For videos covering multiple products with in-video ads for unrelated things, it's much less useful!

Thanks, I didn't notice that!

I'm definitely suspicious of reviews involving AP products because I know they have "reached out" to a lot of content providers.

Edit: I'd just like to point out that I'm not painting everyone with the same brush. Thanks for the reviews Stahly, you are among the few that I consider to be unbiased, for what it's worth

I think with the ranges of paints available now no one should be married to one brand as the best. Most the companies make some paints that are outstanding and others that aren’t as good in any given range.

I find myself now using a paint or two from loads of different ranges so I have the best metallics, best glazing paints, best for coverage of given colours etc. because of this I find unbiased reviews or demonstrations vital but hard to find.

And you are right how you use a paint will effect which is best for you. The army paint speed paints have been pretty much dead to me since hearing all the reactivation stuff because that would drive me mad.

> Find your people and listen to them for best results.

Or give in to impulse buy sales and try out something new!

Frex, I picked up some Badger Freak Flex paint to reach free shipping (even though I don't have an airbrush and it worked fine for a glossy surface for some swamp terrain. As my Tamiya clears slowly dry out I'll be using Freak Flex for anything glossy.

Note: Does not save money if you do this.

Miniature Market has a daily deal on the AP Speedpaint set for $60 today. Not for me, but maybe someone else is interested.

edited to add link
https://www.miniaturemarket.com/amywp8053.html