the Army Painter... It's FINALLY TIME for This (Honest Review)

I got my fanatic complete set 2 days ago. My initial impressions are largely positive. Note I'm just some guy with a normal job and family - I've obviously not had the time to test even the majority of the colours. Most of my other "normal" paints are vallejo, citadel, and pro acryl. My old warpaints I just put into a box and stopped using lol.

The positives is the new paints are better than the old warpaints. I would put them comparable to the new game colour for the most part - at least what I've used. Some of the light colours like ivory/bone do not seem to maintain pigmentation very well when thinned though - and despite the marketing don't really have the great coverage. That said every ivory I've ever used has this problem. Typically the way to "solve" it is do 2 coats of pro acryl titanium white then put on the ivory.

I've seen some people say you need to thin with stabilizer. I'll try that, but it's going to get really annoying to need a bottle of this stuff at all times because this paint absolutely needs thinning. So unless they're going to start selling the stuff by the liter I would just use caution with the lighter colours.

bolder and darker colours I tried thinned totally fine with just water and flowed very well and smooth. Luckily this is most of the range.

There seems to be some holes with darker colours. Eg, no solid dark red-brown options and such (like pro acryl's Burnt Red). I know you can mix any colour you want, but this range has so many damn colours there was obviously room for them to cover all bases here. And, frankly, I bought these tons of paints because I don't like mixing colours lol. The irony is the more limited air range covers these holes.

Something also I've seen no one mention - the paint is thick but some paints are way thicker than others. Eg, similar to Model Colour ochre (if you've ever used it) - the ochre lines of the new warpaints are literally like toothpaste. Other's like the teals need almost no thinning at all if you use a wet palette. This isn't really a problem per-se, as it's all down to the paint chemistry, but what it means is that there's no magic formula like 1 drop of water for 3 drops of paint type thing since each colour has a different thickness.

The washes I used are still the same godly washes AP always had. I think they're basically the same, they smell just like the old washes at least.

The new metallics were disappointing. Ironic since the new speedpaint metalics are actually incredible. Maybe my hopes were just too high for them. I don't really know how to describe the new metalics , they're thick but also don't seem to cover all that well. You'll need 2 coats for sure. There's some great colours in the metallics line (Death Metal is really nice), but they really don't stand up anywhere near vallejo metal color in terms of quality. I was hoping the new aluminum formulation would bring it up close to those, but it doesn't. Oh well, is what it is. They're still perfectly usable - I just still think there's room for improvement.

I haven't tried the effects at all.

All in all I need to try more colours and just get more practice on the proper thinning ratios and such. I think this is a paint line that kind of has a bit of a learning curve, which sounds weird, but it is what it is. The one large and complex model I've painted with them so far I'm pretty happy with.

TL;DR

better than old warpaints. Good paints in general. That said, despite the marketing, this is still just acrylic paint. It's not going to revolutionize the world, it's not even going to revolutionize model painting - It's still got most of the flaws acrylic paints typically have. But, it's a good option and the availability is high.

Your yellow won't be one coat covering black unless you smear on like 2ml with a brush untinned - which is just not how anyone paints in reality but it makes for a good marketing trick. There's some annoying colour "holes" I feel I need to use other paint lines for. In general I would say there's an almost pointless amount of colours in the line and they could have instead looked at plugging these holes. If you already have an extensive paint collection you like to use, there's no reason to switch to this. In general it doesn't really seem superior to the new game color or pro acryl in terms of quality, but it's not starkly worse either.

I like that yoy mentioned the speedpaint 2.0 not being as cheap as V1. I feel that armypainter increased their prices as they got famous through the speedpaint line. Now their paints cost as much as vallejo where i live and buying them dont make sense to me. Vallejo is great and i know what i get. I bought the speedpaint v1 version and although i like them, i still feel that they should have been honest. There is no way they didnt know about the issues considering how much testing they claim to do.

$479 for the complete line

Fanatic Complete - over $1100 here in Australia - 216 x 18 ml = 3888 ml = ouch!

Ever gone up to your house walls and thought: "This paint is not very dense, I can see the colour pigments? If not, then just go with house paint - LOL - approx. $50 for 4000 ml - Just add water! (getting you even more) [$15 for 1000 ml - that's 75+, 1L paint colours]

You have options too 😄.

Interior
Ultra Premium Expressions Interior - for those of you who live in high humidity areas where mould/mildew will ruin your models in the years to come.

Do you display your minis in your bathroom/toilet area, just to give you something to look at when doing your business? Do you play on the kitchen table when mum is boiling the veggies, or making soup, on the stove? Does your house already have a mould problem? No problem - this is paint right up your alley!

PRODUCT DESCRIPTION
<REDACTED> Paint has been rated Australia's best paint by Canstar 6 years in a row! Our Ultra Premium Expressions Interior makes painting easy - it goes on thick, dries fast and is water based for a quick water wash up. Long-lasting, hard-wearing with a 7-year mould and mildew protection guarantee, it's perfect for all interior walls including bathrooms & laundries (excl. Matt finish).

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Exterior
Ultra Premium Solar Shield Exterior - for those of you who display or play where ultraviolet light is a constant threat to your colour palette.

Do your minis get dusty when on display? Hands get dusty when getting out your stored minis? Do you regularly eat cheetoz, or other foods, while playing? Don't wash your hands before playing? No problem - this paint repels dirt!

PRODUCT DESCRIPTION
<REDACTED> Paint has been rated Australia's best paint by Canstar 6 years in a row! Our Ultra Premium Solar Shield exterior paint is easy to apply, fast drying, resistant to mould and repels dirt to keep your exterior surfaces looking fresher for longer. Combining our UV resistant formula & colour technology - it delivers rich colour density for increased durability & coverage and comes with a 20-year guarantee against blistering, peeling & flaking.


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Just think of the Super Bowl adds you could see for hobby/miniature paint. They'd be a hoot.

I have mixed results with Army Painter. I found that I liked the coverage on their warpaint browns and mummy robe is fairly decent for the price, but the quality was very inconsistent much like vallejo’s game colors. Speedpaints 2.0 are wonderful tho, excellent tinting power and good to slap on big surfaces for a ok base color fast.

The warpaints fanatic looks fine so far from the channels that got preview copies, but I probably will try a color or two for fun or if AK interactive doesnt have a comparable one at my store before going for sets. Ill ignore the triad system probably. Still prefer the bottles of AKI tho. Easier to just drop a color test on the cap mess free for quick drawer searching.

I've got SP 1.0 and 2.0 I've also got the mega air set and the mega fanatic set on preorder if they are good enough for uncle atom and Sam lenz they're good enough for me. Their air range is amazing to use

I bought the full set of AP when I first started because the cost was right. I regret it to this day. It really is a subpar product compared to industry standard. However I am interested to see how Fanatic performs. Nice review as always!

I have the speedpaint 2.0 most wanted set. These paints are actually exelent and in my opinion behaves as intended. I don't use them as speedpaints but instead I thin them down and use them as washes and glazes. Works great. I was not aware of the fanatic line I will definitely trie them out when I can. Thanks for the review!

I like their metallics for zenithal highlighted models. Vallejo metallics are amazing when going over black but i dont love them over white. So i have a good metallic for my black based models and a good metallic for my zenethaled

I started painting with Army Painter Speedpaints, but quickly realized I didn't like it, so I bought their Warpaints instead, was a little happier with it, but it covers very poorly on many colors, but have now almost exclusively switched overto to Vallejo and AK Interactive, have some Citadel as wll, but don't like the pots, I'm going to buy some of their new Fanatic and see what I think. One thing you have to take into account when comparing prices is the size of the containers, because I think Citadel has some small pots that cost as much as their large ones and that is quite a big price difference.

I checked the price difference at my local hobby shop, Citadel 18ml 70 NOK, Vallejo 18ml 45 NOK and The Army Painter 18ml 39 NOK, and it is pretty much the same price everywhere here in Norway. NOK=Norwegian crowns, and 100 NOK is somewhere between $9-10.

Then Warhammer has a fixed offer for Citadel here in Norway anyway, offer if you buy 10 colors you get the most expensive one for free, but that's only if you shop in the Warhammer store.

If you buy cheap you buy twice, I like the scale75 inktensity paints

Personally I use both Speed Paint 1.0 and 2.0, Vallejo for standard paints and then a few GW ones that I get in their starter sets.

Ive been using AP for many years. I didnt know jack about painting or paints. I went the most bang for my buck route. There has been a lot of frustration in learning, but its been useful learning about mediums, thinners, retardants, etc.
Speed paint and slap chop changed the game for me. It almost looks like I know how to paint minis.
Hopefully the Fanatic paint line will get me back to 'actual' painting. Im not very good with a brush.

I picked up the mega set for 60 bucks a month before 2.0 released. I certainly wasn't happy at first because I didn't know how to really use them, but after learning a lot more about painting in general I use them quite regularly now. They work great with slap chop and zenithal and they're amazing for dyeing water resin for basing. I certainly don't recommend speed paints for beginners, even though they kind of market them to them.

I've used the Mega set of Speedpaints 2.0 from Army Painter and it has drastically changed my hobby style. I absolutely love them. ❤

These are really bad paints, avoid and spend your money on a better paint.