The Army Painter Speedpaint Starter Set is worth buying for anyone who wants finished-looking miniatures fast and does not mind giving up some control over shading placement, since Speedpaint is built to basecoat and shade in a single pass. It is not the right first purchase if you want precise control over where your shadows land, because Speedpaint pools into recesses on its own and you cannot fully dictate the result the way you can with a separate wash step.
What is in the Speedpaint Starter Set?
Ten 18ml bottles plus one basecoating brush. Confirmed against the current retail listing, the ten colors are:
| Color | Type | What it is for |
|---|---|---|
| Pallid Bone | Speedpaint (contrast) | Bone and pale cloth |
| Zealot Yellow | Speedpaint (contrast) | Saturated yellow |
| Broadsword Silver | Speedpaint metallic | Steel and armor plate |
| Slaughter Red | Speedpaint (contrast) | Deep saturated red |
| Satchel Brown | Speedpaint (contrast) | Leather and wood brown |
| Purple Swarm | Speedpaint (contrast) | Deep purple |
| Beowulf Blue | Speedpaint (contrast) | Rich mid blue |
| Orc Skin | Speedpaint (contrast) | Green skin tone |
| Peachy Flesh | Speedpaint (contrast) | Warm human skin tone |
| Grim Black | Speedpaint (contrast) | Near-black for deep shadow and basecoating |
Note that Broadsword Silver is a metallic Speedpaint, so the set does include one metal tone even though it is easy to assume a ten-bottle starter box skipped metallics entirely.
How Speedpaint acts like an effect paint
Speedpaint is not a normal opaque basecoat. It is a thin, heavily pigmented medium that you flow over a model already primed white or light grey, and it does two jobs in one coat: it lays down color on the raised surfaces and it pools and darkens automatically in every recess, crevice, and fold. That is the entire pitch of the line, and it is why a ten-color starter box can paint a recognizable, table-ready miniature faster than an equivalent Citadel or Vallejo basecoat-then-wash workflow. The tradeoff is control: Speedpaint decides where the shadow goes based on the model's own geometry, not your brushwork, so two painters using the same bottle on the same miniature will get visibly different results depending on how much they thin it and how many coats they use.
Coverage gaps
Ten colors is a narrow starting palette. There is one metallic, Broadsword Silver, and no gold or bronze tone at all, so anything needing warm metal trim needs a separate purchase. There are two skin tones, Orc Skin and Peachy Flesh, which covers green and human-toned characters but not much else. There is no green beyond the orc skin tone, no true white, and only one grey-adjacent dark, Grim Black, so army colors like grey power armor or white robes are not covered out of the box.
Who this set suits
New painters who want a finished-looking army fast, and painters doing batch work on large squads where consistent one-coat shading beats hours of individual wash application, get the most value here. It also works well as an add-on for someone already running Citadel or Vallejo basecoats who wants a faster shading step; check the Army Painter to Vallejo conversion chart to see how these ten colors line up against a Vallejo palette you might already own.
Who should skip it
Skip it if precise, controlled shading matters more to you than speed, or if you are painting display-quality single models rather than army-scale batches, since a traditional basecoat and wash workflow gives you more control over the final result. Painters comparing Speedpaint against Citadel's similar Contrast line should look at the full Army Painter range and the Army Painter vs Vallejo comparison before committing to either one-coat system.
Stock and current price move on Amazon, so check the live listing: Army Painter Speedpaint Starter Set on Amazon(affiliate link).
FAQ
How many colors are in the Speedpaint Starter Set?
Ten 18ml bottles plus one basecoating brush: nine standard Speedpaint colors and one metallic.
Does the Speedpaint Starter Set include a metallic?
Yes, Broadsword Silver is included and covers steel and armor plate.
Is Speedpaint the same as Citadel Contrast paint?
They work on a similar principle, one-coat basecoat-plus-shade, but the two are formulated differently and are not identical in how they pool or dry. Treat them as comparable systems, not swaps.
Can I use a normal wash over Speedpaint?
Yes, though it is unusual. Most painters use Speedpaint's self-shading and then spot-highlight with a normal paint rather than adding a second wash on top.
Is the Speedpaint Starter Set enough to paint a full miniature?
For a model in bone, red, brown, blue, or one of the two included skin tones, yes. Outside that palette you will need additional bottles.