Buying guide · two paint lines
Army Painter Speedpaint vs Citadel Contrast
Both paint an army in a fraction of the time a full layering job takes. Neither is a universal winner — they solve the same problem with a different undercoat, a different finish, and a different relationship to the miniature they're going on.
Army Painter Speedpaint and Citadel Contrast are both one-coat miniature paints that shade as they dry: paint pools into recesses for shadow and thins out on raised surfaces for highlight, so a single layer does what basecoat, wash and highlight used to take three coats to do. Speedpaint comes from The Army Painter; Contrast comes from Games Workshop's Citadel range.
Side by side
Same job, different habits. Here's what actually differs once you're standing at the workbench with a pot in each hand, before you've committed a single brushstroke to the model.
| Best for | Typical undercoat | Dries to | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Army Painter Speedpaint | Painters who want strong, saturated color fast, and don't mind a finishing step | White or a pale grey primer, sometimes The Army Painter's own primer range | Satin to slightly glossy — most painters seal it with a matte varnish afterward |
| Citadel Contrast Best for Warhammer | Anyone painting Games Workshop miniatures who wants the pooling calibrated to GW's own sculpts | A specific Contrast-compatible undercoat — Wraithbone is GW's usual recommendation, black and white are also used for different effects | Matte, closer to a traditional tabletop finish out of the pot |
Neither line publishes a single "recommended retail price" that holds across every retailer or region — check current pricing at your usual hobby shop rather than trusting a number printed elsewhere.
Army Painter
Speedpaint
Known in the hobby community for being heavily pigmented — a single coat over white or pale grey reads as vibrant, not washed-out, which is part of why it's popular for painting a full army box in a weekend. The tradeoff is the finish: Speedpaint tends to dry satin-to-glossy, so most painters spray a matte varnish over the finished model to knock the shine down to a normal tabletop look.
Limitation: that extra varnish step is one more thing to get right, and a rushed matte coat can dull the contrast the paint just built in. Skip it and the model reads slightly plasticky under direct light, especially on flat armor panels.
Citadel
Contrast
Games Workshop makes both the miniatures and the paint, so Contrast's pooling behavior is tuned against GW's own sculpts — the recesses it's designed to find are the recesses a Citadel model actually has. It dries closer to matte out of the pot, which is why a lot of painters skip the varnish step entirely on a Contrast-only model.
Limitation: the specific undercoat matters more here — the wrong base color under a Contrast paint can leave a muddier or flatter result than intended. On a non-GW sculpt with unfamiliar recesses, the pooling can land somewhere you didn't plan for.
How we compared
PaintMini doesn't manufacture or sell either paint line, and this isn't a hands-on lab test with a stopwatch. What's above is drawn from the published product information both companies put out and the consistent, repeated consensus across the painting community — the kind of thing you'd hear from three different painters at a club table before you'd hear disagreement. Individual results vary by miniature, primer, and how thin you thin your paint, which is true of any paint, speed or otherwise.
Where the two lines genuinely agree: both cut a full army down from a multi-week layering project to a weekend, and both still benefit from a normal basecoat underneath rather than going straight onto bare plastic or resin. Where they don't agree is exactly the part that makes "just buy both" a reasonable answer rather than a cop-out — the undercoat and finish differences aren't cosmetic, they change how much extra work the model needs after the speed-paint step.
How to choose
- Are you painting mostly Games Workshop miniatures? Contrast's pooling was built against GW's own sculpt lines, so it tends to need less fighting on a Citadel model specifically.
- Do you already own a matte varnish and don't mind one more step? Speedpaint's extra saturation is worth the finishing pass for a lot of painters — if varnishing isn't a hassle for you, it's not really a downside.
- Are you painting a mixed collection — several manufacturers, several scales? Both work outside their "home" brand's models; pick based on the finish you want, not the sculpt.
- Do you want this as your only technique, or a fast base for later layering and edge highlights? Both take highlights and edge work on top once dry — see the edge highlighting guide for what that looks like over a Contrast or Speedpaint base.
Plenty of painters keep both on the shelf and pick per-model. That's not fence-sitting — it's the honest answer once you've used each a few times.
Questions people ask
What's the actual difference between Speedpaint and Contrast?
Both pool into recesses and thin out on raised surfaces in one coat. Speedpaint is generally more saturated and dries satin-to-glossy; Contrast is calibrated to Games Workshop's own miniatures and dries closer to matte. The undercoat each expects also differs — see the table above.
Can I use Speedpaint and Contrast on the same miniature?
Yes. Painters mix brands on one model regularly — there's no rule against it, and neither company makes the other's paint stop working. Test on a scrap piece first if you're combining them for the first time, the way you would with any new paint.
Do I need to varnish over Speedpaint or Contrast?
Varnish is optional on both, but common on Speedpaint because of its satin-to-glossy finish — a matte varnish brings it to a more typical tabletop look. Contrast dries closer to matte already, so many painters skip varnishing a Contrast-only model.
Does the undercoat color really matter?
Yes, more than with a standard basecoat paint. Both lines are designed to interact with a specific pale undercoat — the wrong one changes how the color pools and reads, not just how bright it looks.
Which is better for a first army?
Either gets a large batch of miniatures to a presentable table-ready standard fast, which is the real goal for a first army. If most of the models are Citadel-brand, Contrast has a slight edge from being tuned to those sculpts. If you want more saturated color and don't mind an extra varnish pass, Speedpaint is the better fit.
Can I still layer and edge-highlight over either one?
Yes. Both are a fast base coat, not a ceiling — painters regularly add edge highlights, washes, or even non-metallic metal work on top once the base layer is dry.
See either paint line rendered on your own miniature
Upload a photo, tell PaintMini which paints you've got, and get a scheme, a step-by-step guide, and a printable PDF back — before you commit a single pot to the model.