Best Contrast Paints & Speedpaints (2026)

Contrast paints (also called speedpaints) are the biggest shortcut in modern miniature painting. They act as a basecoat, shade and highlight in a single application, letting you get a whole unit tabletop-ready in a fraction of the time. If you have a horde army, they are transformational.

How they work

Contrast paints are translucent and self-shading: applied over a light undercoat, they pool dark in the recesses and stay light on the raised areas, doing the shading for you in one coat. They work best over a white or zenithal primer - the lighter the undercoat, the brighter the result.

The three main ranges

• Citadel Contrast - the original, with the widest colour range and excellent consistency. The most expensive. See the Citadel paint chart.
• The Army Painter Speedpaint 2.0 - great value in dropper bottles, strong colours, and reformulated to fix the early "reactivation" issues. See the Army Painter chart, and compare every Speedpaint set - Starter vs Most Wanted vs Mega - with full contents and current prices.
• Vallejo Xpress Color - smooth, slightly more matt finish, good value in droppers.

All three are largely interchangeable - if a recipe names one, the paint matcher finds the nearest match in another range, and the conversion charts list every pairing with live prices.

Getting the best results

1. Prime white, or zenithal (black up to white) for instant depth.
2. Apply in one confident coat - don't overwork it or you'll get tide marks.
3. Layer a second coat only where you want it darker.
4. Add a normal highlight on the sharpest edges to lift the model above "speed-painted".

Tips

• Light undercoat is everything - contrast over dark primer looks dull.
• One coat, don't fiddle - going back over a drying coat causes streaks.
• Brilliant for skin, cloth, wood and leather - organic textures shade beautifully.