So I just completed a massive AWI painting project, over 600 models all told. Of that, about 300 give or take were British.
Over the past several years my go-to method of painting that I developed was using Contrasts/Speedpaints primarily, with regular acrylic model paints over them for drybrushes and highlights.
With the Citadel Contrasts this technique has proven to be enormously effective. Just this past year, 2023 I added to that technique arsenal the Army Painter Speedpaints.
My AWI British were the first real and substantial usage of the Speedpaint colors. I used a red Speedpaint as the base color for all my British coats, "Blood Red":
This is from the newer "2.0" Speedpaint line. Apparently with the initial release of the SP's in 2022 Warlord Games was dealing with an issue that many painters were reporting of dried SP's reactivating when another layer of paint or wash, etc. was applied over them.
According the Warlord, the reactivation issue was corrected with the newer 2.0 range, they claim that the formula was changed and that it was no longer an issue.
Well I am here to tell you that, at least with the colors I've used, the reactivation issue was NOT resolved with the 2.0 range release. For this project I ended up using about 20 or so of the SP 2.0 range and I can report that the reactivation problem happened with at least 5 of the colors.
But the worst culprits were the red and blue. The Blood Red pictured above had an absolutely horrible reactivation. When painting the British coats, and inevitably getting some red onto the cartridge box straps, etc. When attempting to go and paint the white strap over the red to clean it up, the red was so strong and reactivation was so bad that it turned the white strap into a medium pink.
This was even after letting the red SP dry for as long as a week. It does not cure.
It was so bad that even after SEVERAL coats of white over the red to cover the cartridge box strap, the red was STILL coming through and soaking into the white.
I finally came up with a solution for this, which was to first paint the strap in a blackish color, I used SP Gravelord Gray:
This caused the red to mix with the black liquid and left you with a gray base to work with, which you could then paint the white over for the final finish.
During trial and error, another color which seemed to dilute the red was Vallejo Game Color Wolf Gray:
For some reason, putting a light gray over the reactivated red seemed to arrest the process, and when you painted white over it the white finally covered it fully.
The reactivation of the red wasn't as bad when it was adjacent to other colors like dark or medium browns, those could be disguised much more easily. But as I said, when it came up against anything you had to paint white, like the straps or like the white tail linings of the Brisith coats, it was an absolute nightmare.
Down below are pics. of one of my Contintental regiments, which had red coat facings and red coat lining so I ran into the same red up against white problem that I did with my British, you can see that the cartridge pouch straps turned out pretty solid white. However, in person if you look at these up close you can still see even now some hints of pink in the straps, although it's very subtle.
SECOND WARNING:
If you are using red speedpaint, or any speedpaint for that matter, DO NOT attempt to use a brush on varnish after painting!! When I eventually reached my varnishing stage for the project, the miniatures had had about six weeks to dry! And when I put some liquid acrylic varnish onto the first British soldier, the varnish immediately reactivated the red and the entire model was coated in a pink-toned varnish. Horrified, I immediately ceased brushing on varnish and reverted to Testors Gloss Cote and Dull Cote spray varnishes.
It's as simple as that. My rule of thumb now is ANY MODEL where I'm using ANY Speedpaints on it, must be given a spray varnish, you can't trust the SP's because they simply don't cure. Remember, this happpened on models that I let sit for a month and a half before varnishing.
Now the good news is it seems that after you get a couple coats of spray varnish over the SP's, the colors finally get locked down and the reactivation is finally halted. I tested this and went back and used some matte brush on varnish over spots of models where the Dull Cote hadn't completely eliminated the first coat of gloss. The red didn't budge, and the brush on varnish went on clean. No reactivation at that point.
I informed Warlord about this issue but haven't gotten any reply or feedback.
It's POSSIBLE that this is an isolated thing and that maybe I accidentally had 1.0 liquid that they put into 2.0 bottles somehow? I highly doubt that, it's very unlikely. What's much more likely is that 2.0 still has the same problems as the first release and that whatever Warlord claimed was changed in the formula either wasn't changed or something went wrong in the chemistry.