Tamsin's Test Lab: Army Painter Speedpaints Test #4

 As promised yesterday, here are the results of my repeat test on medium mixing and reactivation.

Testing For Reactivation by Water

Mixes L to R: Water; Vallejo Glaze Medium; Vallejo Matt Varnish; Vallejo Thinning Medium; Matt Medium; Golden Matt Varnish (all mixes 1:1 medium to paint).

In all cases, mixing something in diluted the pigment and increased the tendency to run and pool at the hem, by varying degrees. The two which ran and pooled the least were Vallejo thinning medium and Golden matt varnish.

Testing for reactivation by water also showed variable results. There was no visible reactivation (tested by wiping the brush on white paper) with the Vallejo matt varnish and Golden matt varnish; very little with the Vallejo thinning medium and the matt medium; some with the Vallejo glaze medium and the most with the water.

That being said, very little paint was removed from any of the figures.

Testing For Reactivation By White Paint

I tested for reactivation by painting increasing numbers of coats on each quarter on the backs of the figures without any "smooshing".

L to R: as before

Anticlockwise from top right: 1 coat, 2 coats, 3 coats, 4 coats

Reactivation was seen with all of the mixes (tested the same way as for the water reactivation), some more than others as with water. The glaze medium figure looks cleaner, but I believe that was because it had the most pigment dilution and ran and pooled more. The two with the least pigment dilution and runniness also appeared to reactivate the least.

The fact that there was reactivation in all cases with paint, even those which saw no reactivation with water, suggests that there is something in the paint itself that promotes the reactivation. As the paint dries slower than the water, that probably explains it. It might be worth testing with thinned paint, which should dry quicker, but that will have to wait a while as I plan to take a break from doing these tests.

Tamsin's Test Lab: Army Painter Speedpaints Test #3

 OK, more tests done.

Repeat of Varnished Primer Test

I just used two figures for this repeat test, one with airbrushed primer, the other with airbrushed primer and airbrushed varnish. This was to see if the varnished surface did stop run-off and affect how the Speedpaint worked.

Primer; primer plus varnish

Conclusion: Varnishing the primer doesn't seem to have affected run-off or how the Speedpaint works.

Speedpaint Over Zenithal Primer

I primed two figures black, then applied zenithal highlights. The first figure just got white zenithals; the second figure was done in two stages - grey and then white zenithals.

Grey & white zenithal; grey primer; white zenithal

Conclusion: The two stage zenithal looks better than the single stage. In both cases the shadows and highlights are emphasised compared to the grey primer. However, they do mute the colours.

Effect of Mixing With Mediums

This was done primarily as a test of whether adding matt varnish or matt medium to the Speedpaint would prevent reactivation. The secondary part of the test was if doing so affects how they work.

To this end I took six identical figures and primed them grey. To one figure I applied neat Speedpaint; the rest got 1:1 mixes of Speedpaint with respectively Vallejo Glaze Medium, Vallejo Matt Varnish, Vallejo Thinning Medium, the 50% matt medium mix I use to make ink washes and Golden matt varnish.

The figures were left for about 24 hours after painting. I then did two tests - first with just water on a brush, the second by applying a first layer of white paint over a small area, followed by a second coat over a wider area.

What I did notice was that, apart from diluting the pigment, the Speedpaint became runnier when mixed with mediums as evidenced by the pooling at the hem. Although that could just have been me applying more paint on the mix figures to compensate for the pigment dilution.

With water, I only saw a slight reactivation on the neat Speedpaint figure. With the white paint I saw a little reactivation with the glaze medium as well. I think I should probably have used one of the colours that I have seen reactivate for this test.

Conclusion: Need to repeat this test with one of the colours that showed strong reactivation (red, green or blue) being careful to apply similar volumes of paint to each figure. For the "neat" figure, it might be sensible to mix with water to give similar pigment dilution.
It does seem that adding medium or varnish may prevent reactivation. It's difficult to tell how much the additive affects how the Speedpaint works.

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.

Tamsin's Test Lab: Army Painter Speedpaints Test #1

 Before I crack on with a return to some actual figure painting, I decided to do some proper initial tests of the Army Painter Speedpaints I bought a few weeks ago.

On Model Railway People

Yesterday afternoon I quickly (and a little messily to be totally honest) used the Speedpaints on the four model railway figures I primed a short while back. One figure had been primed white, one pale grey and two were primed black with white zenithal highlights. Not all the colours in the starter set were tested.

Top Tip: Avoid the temptation to use the biggest brush you think you can get away with. You can't! These were done with an Army Painter "Regiment" brush and it was difficult to control where the paint went (although that might have been due to too much paint in the brush).

White primer, grey primer

Black/white zenithal primer

Grey primer, black/white zenithal

White primer, black/white zenithal

This evening, the figures having had 24 hours of drying time, I decided to see if the Speedpaints do reactivate. To this end, I brushed on un-thinned matt white paint.

Short answer - yes, they do.

Long answer - if you keep smooshing the paint around, you definitely get reactivation and bleed-through. this is more obvious with some colours (red, blue, green) than others (brown, flesh).

I also tested it by wiping a damp brush over them with the same results.

I think the black/white zenithal was too dark a base for them to work properly, although the Crusader Skin was an interesting result.

I also noticed that they seemed to run off some parts of these figures. I'm not sure if that is down to the models, how I applied the paints or the primer I used.

Follow-Up Tests

1. Does mixing the Speedpaints with matt medium or matt varnish stop the reactivation? Does it stop them performing correctly?

2. Try different primer surfaces (spray primer, brush on primer, airbrush primer, varnished airbrush primer).

3. Try different primer colours (including metallic).

Mixes

With just ten paints in the starter set, I thought it would be a good idea to see how well the different colours mix (mixing turned out to be no problem) and what colours could be produced by doing so. 

I planned to do 1:1 and 1:3 mixes, and the best way I could think of was to test each mix on the same texture. The easiest way to do that would be to use a regular-patterned wallpaper. So, off to B&Q I went to get a free sample. I then cut out some 22cm x 22cm squares and ruled an 11 x 11 grid on two of the pieces, fixed them onto art board with spray mount adhesive then gave them a couple of good coats of varnish to seal the surface.

After leaving them to dry for a couple of hours, I marked one for the 1:1 mixes and the other for the 1:3 mixes. Then I cracked on with mixing and applying the mixes.

Top Tip: Clean your palette within a few minutes of mixing Speedpaints on it to avoid permanent stains - running under the hot tap for a few seconds should do the trick.

Guide to grid - L to R and Top to Bottom: Zealot Yellow, Fire Giant Orange, Bloody Red, Hive Dweller Purple, Highlord Blue, Orc Skin, Pallid Bone, Crusader Skin, Hardened Leather, Gravelord Grey.

1:1 Mixes

1:3 Mixes

3 parts - colour across top; 1 part - colour down left side

As you can see, mixing in different proportions produces a good range of greens, browns and blues.

Pallid Bone and Crusader Skin are weak; Zealot Yellow is a bit less weak; Fire Giant Orange, Hive Dweller Purple, Hardened Leather and Gravelord Grey are quite strong; Bloody Red, Highlord Blue and Orc Skin are the strongest of these.

Now that the full range is available as singles, I might get a few of the other colours. The "white" and the black are definitely on my list.

Other Tests To Do

1. Varnish the painted figures and then test reactivation.

2. I'm sure another will occur to me at some point.