The Army Painter Speedpaint Mega Paint Set Brush Combo, 24 Bottles of Non Toxic 18ml Acrylic Paints including 2 Paint Brush for Mini Figures and Miniature Model Painting

I have always been a person that liked the idea of the miniature wargaming hobby but never found any success with the painting side. Painting was a high amount of effort to get results that were so poor compared to the images you see, particularly on those boxes of miniatures. The closest to success was citadel contrast paints but their big disadvantage is the uneven coloration on flat areas that for me ruined the finish. I know citadel have new contract paints out but it appears that the problems are either still the same or the the contrast has good coverage but not enough contrast in them.However, these speed paints are a game changer for me. I open the box and in 30 minutes painted a (white based) miniature to a such a high quality that I had never achieved in the past. It was so much fun that I faded a red into a purple on a sword to experiment with good results. I can only say these speed paints are excellent. All of the paints have very similar consistency and spread perfectly, so not to runny that you cannot control and not too thick to produce unevenness. I notice the paints stay fairly wet but I think this is needed to give time for the paint to flow and allow more even coverage on flat surfaces. I even accidentally got paint on a wrong area but found I could wipe off easily with a cloth. This particular mega set has all the colours you could possibly need and has a nice touch of including 2 free high quality brushes. For the first time in a long time I'm looking forward to painting miniatures!

I bought the Mega set which contains 24 16ml bottles and two brushes which arrived yesterday morning. To be honest, for what you get they are bloody expensive, but as you only use a tiny amount when painting they should last a good while.To my annoyance each bottle has one of their little mixing balls in it. I would rather they had made that optional for the buyer, but it's a small thing. I use a medical vortex agitator to mix paint as I can't shake it manually. If I do, the bottle will fly out of my hand on a random trajectory causing damage or injury to whatever it impacts on it's ballistic trajectory across the room. The addition of the ball makes mixing more noisy that necessary. However, the ball is useful for hand mixing by shaking the bottle. Be aware though, these need a really good shake to start with as the acrylic will have separated from the medium and settled in the bottle. 20-30 minutes should be enough to get it started and then just a few minutes every now and again.Anyway, onwards.There is a reasonable selection of paint colours that is more than sufficient to begin painting. I threw paint on a fairly large group of models for this experiment.These are extremely runny paints, almost like painting with a wash; which I suppose technically is what this is. They cover well, but with caveats.1. You do need to be careful painting. If you get paint on a part of the model you don't want this paint, you can't cover it like with ordinary acrylics. So you will need to undercoat that area again or the colour you use over that will darken unrealistically, to the point with some colours appearing black. However, with careful planning and application you can use this to make something look worn and dirty. Also in some ways this is a good thing as you can play around a little with light and shade.)2. The Zenithal airbrush trick of light and dark spraying top and bottom of models doesn't work particularly well with these paints. While acrylics will adopt to a certain extent the colour that is under them - which is why paints can look different depending on the colour of your resin, for instance grey and flesh resins - that doesn't work as well with speedpaints. Yes, they do get darker, but, not in a way that is satisfactory. Remember, speedpaints are a wash as well so will gather in craters, folds, pits etc and make that area darker by drying in a thicker coat. If you spray, you get a much darker result that most often just looks wrong. However, for diorama painting it's probably okay but you might need to plan ahead a bit more than with standard acrylics and apply the Zenithal technique a little more carefully. I don't tend to bother with it myself as I don't do much display painting and it's a bit of a waste on game board minis where you can't really see and appreciate the effect Zenithal applies to a painted model.However, having said that. If you plan ahead carefully, you can use similar coloured paints to offer darker shades with this. So rather than the common white + dark grey or black spray method, look for a colour that is similar to the speedpaint you want to use and apply that either as a wash or via an airbrush and you will get a fairly decent "shadowed" result.3. Undercoating needs to be uniform. I've seen sometimes from using an aerosol primer that parts of the model can be missed and only lightly coated with the resin colour in primary. With ordinary acrylics this isn't really an issue as you can cover the area and still get the colour you want. With Speedpaints, that doesn't happen. Even multiple coats will not cover, they just adopt the colour of the resin and darken. An airbrush and good quality primer is probably the best option to be honest, though you can brush paint primer for full coverage and still get a smooth uniform coating if you are careful.I was surprised at how vibrant the colours are once applied to a model. They really do look rather nice and even with the limited selection of colours they look good when applied and you can get quite a bit of variation with careful use and mixing.Yes, mixing works to an extent, you can alter the existing colours by mixing another colour into it. This doesn't necessarily work on the CMYK standard that is more usual with acrylics but it does work. So while there are only 24 colours in the largest set I could find, you can create variations and new colours with careful mixing. It's not a great way of doing things but, when needs must. Interestingly, you can also mix these with standard acrylic paints. Mostly all that does is thin them same as applying water. But the lighter colours can be changed and they will "mostly" work like the speedpaint you are mixing with.With the Mega set (I don't know if it's in any smaller packs) Army Painter include a bottle of "Speedpaint Medium". This enables you to take any other acrylic colour you want to use and make your own speedpaint. Apparently. I have not tried this yet, but I will play with it when I paint the dwarves, just to see how it works and if it works well.I have to say I was doubtful about these things, even after seeing them used on a dedicated miniature forum. But, having used them now, I will say that they are very nice, work surprisingly well and are great for rapidly getting painted minis onto a table. I have a lead and white-metal dwarf army that I stripped some years back and haven't re-painted yet. That is going to be my next project. I want to see how long it takes to paint something like that, and whether it looks acceptable once done.Overall I do like these paints. The colours are vibrant, they cover well - which is surprising considering how thin they are. Also they look pretty good once dried and while they won't be replacing the conventional acrylics I use these are definitely a good addition to the painting arsenal. In the summer once I can get my airbrush station out again I will experiment a little to see how these behave alongside the Vallejo air colours I have.One thing I won't be doing is using these on large scenic or vehicle models. They might work okay, but the price is prohibitively expensive and I don't want to use large amounts on large models, effectively costing me even more to paint minis. However, I am extremely curious to see how these will behave in an airbrush. They are already extremely runny, so shouldn't need any more thinning and I have a dedicated Aztec acrylic airbrush that should be fine with them. Again, I have to wait for warmer weather to explore that. Admittedly I won't be using much in the airbrush - again the speedpaints are too expensive - but maybe a couple drones or the smaller tank robots.Surprisingly pleased with these paints, they will get used. Definitely. It's just unfortunate they are so expensive. Perhaps as more people buy them and the range increases the price will come down. Probably not, but there is nothing wrong with optimism.I'm not a fast painter by any means, so speedpaint is a bit of an oxymoron where I'm concerned and I'm not a particularly good painter either. But, as you can see from the attached image. With these paints even I can turn out reasonable table-top ready minis in short order. This selection was painted during the afternoon-early evening, so, eight hours or so which I think averaged out at two minis an hour. Admittedly I did splash through somewhat in an effort to see what a "quick" attempt would come out like. With a bit more care and time spent I think these could have come out better, but I'm not entirely disappointed.Would I recommend these to others? Absolutely, but not as a replacement for conventional model acrylics. However, for rapid deployment of minis, and for people who just aren't that good with painting, these are brilliant. Not museum standard, but more than acceptable for the majority of purposes. I just rather wish they were cheaper, it would encourage more people to pick up a brush. Some things are missing, a few core colours and of course, metallics. The Mega Set is a good starter set I think with a decent selection of colours, some mixing possibilities and other paints can always be bought later on. More than enough paint selection here to start with and get a reasonably decent looking group onto a game table.Rather looking forward to tackling that Dwarven army to be honest.Oh, one thing, don't use these with the Army Painter Wet Pallette, or similar item. These paints are not designed for that.

As along time model (Warhammer/Blood Bowl/Titan legions etc) painter I'd describe my efforts as good - very good but....I am soooooo slow! These paints are a game changer.Before starting I watched several videos and prepared myself for a drop off in quality but challenged myself to get my backlog of models painted quickly to an above average tabletop standard. My test model was a genestealer cultist and I drybrushed white all over a black primer. I then liberally applied any colour I grabbed all over the chosen area, no plan just painted whatever I fancied.I was amazed at how well the model came out, overall it took 15 minutes to finish. The day after I covered it in soft tone and happy days. In the last week I've finished more models than I normally do in a month with no major drop off in quality.As I say, im extremely pleased with the results. Great product

Disappointed didn't do what they promised and you can really only use them over a white undercoat, I tried black and grey and didn't work at all. Feel like I wasted my money. My advice is buy a small set or one or 2 bottles first and see if they give you the covering you want. Don't believe the hype!

This set arrived in good time in perfect condition.I have spent a good amount of time getting to know these paints and I happy am very happy with the results that I am getting. However they do take an amount of practise. I have to say that I love these paints and I strongly suspect that the results I get will only improve with time and further practice.For those of you who are wondering, yes it is faster to paint a mini this way and you can get good results.