Tamsin's Test Lab: Army Painter Speedpaints Test #2

I've been feeling a bit grotty for last few days, which is why I didn't do this post on Thursday. I'm feeling better now though.

When I left things on Wednesday, I had just done some of the follow-up tests and was leaving them to dry overnight before taking photos. I actually ended up taking the photos today.

Does Varnishing Prevent Reactivation?

I airbrushed matt varnish onto the four figures from my first batch of tests. After letting it cure for a few hours, I repeated the previous reactivation tests. Smooshing a damp brush over the figure showed no sign of the Speedpaint reactivating. I then applied white paint over previously untested areas:

For the weaker colours, a single coat of white paint is enough to cover them up. For the stronger colours (red, blue, green) several coats were needed - the blue needed at least two; the red at least three, the green at least four. It's quite possible that using an off-white would need less coats to cover them (white paints are quite translucent).

Conclusion - Varnishing does prevent reactivation of the Speedpaint, but for touch-ups over the stronger colours you need to use a more opaque paint than white.

Testing Different Primer Surfaces

I'd noticed that there had been some run-off in my initial tests. I wasn't sure if that was a result of the figures, the amount of paint applied or the surface. I decided to test the Speedpaints over different primer surfaces - spray primer, Vallejo primer brushed on, Vallejo primer airbrushed on and Vallejo primer airbrushed on followed by an airbrushed coat of matt varnish:

The type of primer seemed to make no real difference to the run-off. However, the matt varnish did seem to reduce it but there looked to be a little less movement of the Speedpaint away from highlights and into recesses. It's difficult to be sure as it's not the same pose of figure (that might be worth another test).

Conclusion - Type of primer used and how it is applied doesn't make any noticeable difference. However, varnishing after priming might reduce the effectiveness of the Speedpaints to work as intended.

Over Different Primer Colours

I also tested them over some different primer colours to see what the effects would be:

White; Grey; Grey with white zenithal; Dark Yellow (Dunkelgelb); Plate Mail

There was no discernible difference between the white and two grey primed figures - I'll stick with the grey primer for future tests as it is easier to see that the figure is fully primed. The dunkelgelb primer had an interesting result; not too surprising as the Speedpaints are meant to be translucent. The Plate Mail primer does still look metallic, but matted down. The grey in it has darkened the colours somewhat.

Plate Mail; Plate Mail plus matt varnish

It's more obvious with these two that the matt varnish has reduced the movement away from highlights into the recesses, although that could be down to the plate mail primer having a more satin finish than the non-metal colours.

White with black wash; Grey with black wash; Dark Grey with white zenithal

I also tried a couple of figures with black wash applied over the white and grey primers and then a white zenithal (as an alternative to doing a white zenithal over a dark primer). There seems to have been less run-off but not as much reduction on the movement of the Speedpaint compared to matt varnish. The third figure was mainly to see how the Gravelord Grey looked over a dark grey base.

Conclusion - as expected, applying Speedpaints over different base colours gives different end results.

I'll be starting some more tests tomorrow, to see if mixing different mediums into the Speedpaints affects how they work and also if they prevent reactivation. I'll also be repeating the test of varnished primer, this time using identical figures.

Another test I want to do at some point is to compare different light coloured base coats. I also want to do a proper comparison of light primer against dark primer with zenithal - I think from my tests so far, that my white zenithal wasn't strong enough, so it might need to be a two-stage grey-white zenithal over black. I was also doing them with white ink rather than paint/primer which might have made them less effective.