Miniature Painting
Speedpaint vs. Traditional Paint - Which Should You Use?
Use speedpaints for textured, organic surfaces and whole-army batch painting; use traditional acrylics for smooth armor plates, bright colors over dark ones, and anything you want full control over. Most experienced painters use both on the same miniature. And if you're choosing your very first paints, start with speedpaints and add traditional paints as specific needs come up.
The actual difference
Traditional acrylics are opaque. The color you see in the bottle is the color you get, wherever you put it, over whatever was there before. Shading and highlighting are separate steps you do yourself with darker and lighter paints.
Speedpaints (Citadel Contrast, Army Painter Speedpaint, Vallejo Xpress Color) are translucent paints with a shading medium built in. Over a light undercoat, one coat settles dark in the recesses and stays lighter on raised surfaces. Automatic shading, at the cost of control. What's underneath always shows through.
That single property (opaque vs. translucent) explains every practical difference below.
Head to head
| Speedpaints | Traditional acrylics | |
|---|---|---|
| Time per mini (tabletop standard) | 30–60 min | 2–4 hours |
| Shading | Automatic | Manual (washes, layers) |
| Works over black primer | No; needs light undercoat | Yes |
| Large flat surfaces | Streaky, shows strokes | Clean and even |
| Fixing mistakes | Hard; layers stay translucent | Easy; paint over it |
| Color range behavior | Color shifts with undercoat | True to the bottle |
| Cost to cover the basics | ~$40 for 8 bottles | ~$50–70 for paints plus washes |
| Skill floor for a good result | Very low | Moderate |
| Skill ceiling | Moderate | Effectively unlimited |
When speedpaints win
- Your first miniatures. The gap between "first mini ever" and "looks great at arm's length" is one evening with speedpaints. That early win keeps people in the hobby. We see it at every paint night.
- Batch painting. Twenty goblins, a zombie horde, rank-and-file troops. One coat per color across the whole batch is the only sane way.
- Organic textures. Cloth, fur, feathers, scales, skin, leather. The translucency actually looks better here than flat basecoats, because texture does the highlighting.
When traditional paint wins
- Smooth, flat surfaces. Vehicle hulls, shields, power armor. Translucent paint shows every brush stroke on flat planes; opaque paint levels out clean.
- Bright over dark. Yellow trim on black armor is trivial with opaque paint and nearly impossible with speedpaint.
- Corrections. Slip with a speedpaint and the fix is repainting the undercoat first. Slip with an acrylic and you just paint over it.
- Freehand and fine detail. Eyes, symbols, edge highlights. You want paint that stays where you put it.
The hybrid approach most painters land on
After a few months, almost everyone converges on the same workflow:
- Prime light (or prime black and drybrush light grey over it, the "slap chop" method).
- Speedpaint every organic surface: skin, cloth, leather, fur.
- Traditional basecoat the flat surfaces and metallics.
- One targeted wash or edge highlight where it counts, then matte varnish.
That gets you 90% of a fully layered paint job in about a third of the time. If you're starting from zero, our step-by-step first miniature guide walks through exactly this, and the beginner speedpaint buying guide covers which bottles to buy.
What we'd tell you across the counter
If you're painting to play (your D&D character, a warband, a board game upgrade), buy speedpaints first. Nobody at the table is inspecting your layering from four inches away, and a finished mini you're proud of beats an unfinished masterpiece in a drawer. Painting a character you'll actually play in a campaign is the best motivation there is.
If you're painting to paint (display pieces, competitions, the joy of the craft), start building a traditional paint collection early, because that's where the ceiling is.
Frequently asked questions
Can you mix speedpaints and regular paints on the same mini?
Yes, and you should. Speedpaint the organic textures, basecoat the flat armor with regular acrylics, and use regular metallics for weapons. They layer together fine once each coat is dry.
Are speedpaints cheating?
No. They're a tool, and the "one thick coat" result still rewards brush control, color choice, and clean prep. Competition painters use contrast-style paints as glazes and underpaints all the time.
Do speedpaints replace washes?
Mostly, on organic surfaces, where a speedpaint is roughly a basecoat and wash in one. Over traditional basecoats you'll still want a dedicated wash (like a dark brown or black shade) for recesses, since speedpaints will tint the whole surface, not just the cracks.
Which is cheaper overall?
For a starter set, speedpaints: about $40 of bottles covers a whole warband, and you skip buying separate washes. At scale the costs even out; serious painters end up owning both.