SPEED PAINTING AMERICAN WAR OF INDEPENDENCE WITH SPEEDPAINTS

WHY? I have tried painting various things now with The Army

Painter Speedpaints, from Broo to Wolves to Stargrave,

and I have to say I like ‘em. So for a change I thought I

would have a go at something more uniform, well

something wearing uniforms to be exact, something that

has definite colours and that would have to be near

enough the right colours too. Now I’m not talking 1970’s

Humbrol Authentic colours, but near enough to pass

muster. I also wanted to see if I could use them in a fine

precise enough way for 18th century British regular

infantry, a way that might not be their raison d'etre I

should think. The British regular infantry in this case are

from North Star’s Muskets & Tomahawks American War of

Independence range.

UNPAINTED For those of you that read my first go at the Speedpaints

will know I have more than a few undercoated and or

wholly unpainted figures around the place and still more

from my day job at North Star that I prime up grey for my

photography. But Speedpaints seem to be denting the

ever increasing pile of lead.

NOT ODD I’m a convert to the Speedpaints and that’s not odd, given

what I do for a living, there are so many models to paint

and game with and, well to be blunt, only one lifetime in

which to do it. I am no stranger to fast painting (in spite of

my reputation), I’ve been doing it for years. In fact I have

completed a whole series of articles on fast painting

armies for Oathmark using the previous iteration of The

Army Painter fast painting method using their Quickshade

washes and Quickshade Varnish, CLICK HERE.

GRAIL SHAPED They are still not the Holy Grail but they may be a grail

shaped object; but they still won’t do it all for you. They do

require thought and handling in the correct way to get the

best out of them, and in some ways require more thought

than normal paints, especially in preparation and planning

as I will explain. UNIT So I set out to complete this whole unit in a shorter space

of time as I could. I didn’t have time to do it all in one

sitting as I was fitting it in around my proper job and other

painting commitments. Luckily most of the cleaning up

was done and they were primed grey, as these were

models I had already photographed for North Star web

images. As it turned out I reckon the painting took about

half an hour per model when doing a whole unit, which for

me ranks as super speedy. TIME As I said before these paints aren’t any help speeding up

the preparation and finishing time of the models. You will

still need to spend as much time cleaning up and/or

assembling your models and the same sort of time

varnishing and basing them up, although Speedpaint

could assist in the basing, but not this time. Some people

just love the prep and finishing and hate painting,

Speedpaints are ideal for them.

FROM THE TOP As the models were already primed grey, I went for a

white zenithal undercoat applied from above over the grey.

If you search on YouTube for zenithal undercoat you will

see what it is. I applied it with my very elderly airbrush, but

a spray can of white primer could do just as well, if you are

using Army Painter cans be aware they put out a lot of

paint. The idea is not to obliterate all the darker primer but

leaving it underneath, creating a shadow effect and thus

some shading for free, so a light touch is needed. You can

also spray apply the zenithal white over a black undercoat

too. Or you can dry-brush white on, know as slap chop if

you want to look it up. When using spray cans always test

the spray out before you commit it to the figures, it can go

gritty if not shaken up properly, just saying.

Above. The finished unit of speed painted Muskets & Tomahawks AWI British Regular Infantry.

PLANNING Speedpaints are semi-transparent, they are much more

akin to a wash or a stain, similar to the old watercolour

blocks, but have a more sustained pigment and an

interesting way flowing and don’t seem to leave

tidemarks. The paint properties require some planning as

you are less able to hide errors with subsequent layers or

colours as you could with conventional painting. With

them I always plan to use lighter colours first and then go

darker in the hope to minimize any mistakes. Also the

peculiar properties of the Speedpaints mean that if you

have left any mould line on the models they will

accentuate them, so be prepared to clean up the models

diligently. PAINTS These Mk1 paints also have another unusual property

which is, when you paint over the Speedpaints with

normal Army Painter War Paint, the Speedpaint has a

tendency to bleed into the normal paint as stain it slightly,

so if you are trying to correct an error by applying more

white undercoat, expect this phenomenon. These models

are mostly done in the Mk1, using only a few colours of

the new Mk2, as I didn’t have some specific colours I

needed in the Mk1 (and not wanting to waste the paint I

am trying to use up all my Mk1s before using the Mk2, but I only had the small set of the Mk1). The Mk2 versions

seem to have cured this phenomenon, so hooray,

although it didn’t overly bother me, I have noted the Mk2

as I use them. BRUSHES The watery nature of these paints means that they will run

up the bristles of the brush into the metal ferrule and are

the devils own job to completely clean out, so don’t use

Above. As the models were already primed grey, I went for a white zenithal undercoat applied from above over the grey. If you search on YouTube for zenithal undercoat you will see what it is.

your best finest brushes. I have a decent stock of brushes

that are no longer any good for frontline service but are

ideal for Speedpaints duty till they meet there end.

SHAKE Do shake the bottles up well; very well, this can make a

real difference to how the Speedpaint goes on. Each

bottle has no less than 2 ball bearings in them to ensure

they mix up well when you shake them, so do that. APPLICATION The secret is to be controlled with them, there is a

tendency because of the speed label to slap them on any

old how, and this will not yield the most satisfactory

results. Don’t overload your brush, the Speedpaints will

flow. Be careful and apply them only to the areas needed,

avoiding slipping into other areas if you can, as you will

see I slipped over a bit but I was thinking they are mostly

going to be darker areas so I could get away with it. For

some fine work like the brown canteen strap for example I

used a very fine, if a bit worn, brush that I used to use for

faces. SPEEDPAINTS I started with flesh, as that’s what I usually do when using

normal paints. Also I chose the flesh as it seemed to be

amongst the lighter colours. It is really worth planning the

order of colours you are going to use from light to dark. I

didn’t use the free (and very nice) brush that is included in

the sets, as it was bit too large for my taste, I used a

smaller, old and a bit knackered Army Painter brushes,

already well broken in from other painting.

FLESH, Crusader Skin. BEARD, Runic Grey.

TROUSERS, BELTS, MUSKET SLING & HAT LACE, Holy White. HOLY The Holy White Speedpaint

was thinned with the thinner

supplied, and then the

judicial application of the

painters thumb was be

needed to get a whiter than

white finish.

THE REST TRICORN HAT, SHOES, BAYONET SCABBARD, CARTRIDGE BOX, HAIR BOW, Grim Black. CANTEEN STRAP, Warrior Skin (2nd edition). HAIR, Dark Wood. GUN BARREL, CANTEEN, BAYONET, BUTTONS, Not Speedpaints, normal Army Painter Warpaints, Gun Metal, then a wash of Mid Brown and then a wash of Strong Tone. TIDY I used some Humbrol white enamel paint to repaint and

thus tidy some of the areas where I had inadvertently

gone over with the Speedpaint like the belts and turn-

backs, and it seems to work fine and more resistant to the

Speedpaint bleeding through.

BASING Normal Army Painter Warpaints again, to match existing

figures bases. Leather Brown all over the basing

materials, then dry-brushed with Desert Yellow then very

lightly with Skeleton Bone, you can see much more

details about basing in my many other painting article in

the magazine. FINISHED Before basing they were finished off with a coat of spray

Anti Shine Matt Varnish. The Anti Shine Matt is a good

choice to use with the Speedpaints as it’s not a dead flat

finish it confers a subtle low sheen with is quite helpful

especially on the darker colours.

MORE SPEED PAINTING I had a few American Continental infantry lying around

so I did them too, and I also had previously painted the

Hurons and Mohicans from the range. See what you

think. YANKS FLESH, Crusader Skin. JACKET, Beowulf Blue.

CARTRIDGE BOX BELT, MUSKET SLING & HAT LACE, Holy White. TURN-BACKS, BRITCHES, STOCKINGS, WAISTCOAT, BREAD-BAG, Pallid Bone. MUSKET STOCK, WATER BOTTLE, HAIR, Dark Wood. CANTEEN STRAP, Warrior Skin (2nd edition). TRICORN HAT, SHOES, BAYONET SCABBARD, CARTRIDGE BOX, HAIR BOW, Grim Black.

HURONS

INDIAN CHARACTERS