One-coat paints — high-flow color that shades and basecoats in a single pass — now come in two dominant ranges: Citadel Contrast and The Army Painter's Speedpaint 2.0. Most comparisons argue about formula feel. This one sticks to what the catalogs actually contain, because for most painters the deciding question is simpler: *does the range have the colors my army needs?*
Range size
Our catalog holds 61 Citadel Contrast colors and 90 Speedpaint 2.0 colors. Speedpaint's numeric advantage is real but concentrated: its expansion waves went deep on vibrant hues and metallic one-coats, a category Contrast barely touches.
Where each range is strong
Measured by color spread across the two ranges' swatches:
- Contrast owns the muted, grimdark end — its earth tones, bone shades, and desaturated flesh options are the reason slapchop armies of undead and Imperial infantry default to it.
- Speedpaint 2.0 owns saturation — bright reds, toxic greens, and its one-coat metallics have no direct Contrast equivalent at all.
- Both ranges cover the core wheel well enough that a generic "I need a blue" question is a wash; the differences live at the edges.
Crossing between them
The two ranges do not share names, and eyeballing translucent paints in a bottle is hopeless — the same glaze looks wildly different over white and over a zenithal. Every Contrast color's measured nearest Speedpaint (and vice versa) is on the Contrast paint chart via its conversion links, computed by color distance the same way as every other chart on this site. If you paint over a drybrushed value map, the slapchop guide covers which colors in both ranges glaze cleanly and which bury the underlayer.
Price per bottle, honestly
Both brands adjust pricing by region often enough that a printed number here would rot. The structural facts: Contrast bottles are 18 ml, Speedpaint 2.0 bottles are 18 ml with dropper tops, and Speedpaint's street price per bottle runs meaningfully lower in most markets. Droppers also waste less paint than pots — a real cost factor over an army.
The verdict pattern
Painting grim, muted armies mostly with brushes: Contrast's palette fits better. Painting vibrant armies, or lots of them, on a budget: Speedpaint's range and pricing fit better. Mixing both ranges freely: the correct answer, and exactly what the conversion charts are for. Neither range replaces regular acrylics — the beginner's guide to Contrast covers where one-coat paints stop being the right tool.