The Army Painter Speedpaint 2.0: Ancient Honey

One Coat, Rich Colour, Done

Ancient Honey is a warm golden-amber Speedpaint from The Army Painter's Speedpaint 2.0 range — a single-coat formula that lays down rich, shaded colour in one pass. Like all Speedpaints, it flows into recesses and builds natural shadow automatically, giving you a tabletop-ready finish without layering multiple paints or applying a separate wash. For anyone painting in volume — squads, hordes, entire armies — that time saving is significant. Ancient Honey works beautifully on leather straps, wooden stocks, bone detailing, desert cloth, and any surface where you want a warm, honey-toned finish with natural depth.

Speedpaint 2.0 — What's Improved

The 2.0 formula addresses the main limitation of the original Speedpaint range: reactivation. Early Speedpaints would partially dissolve when a second coat was applied over a dry layer, causing streaking and muddying. Speedpaint 2.0 dries to a more stable finish that holds up better under additional coats and layering, making it far more practical for painters who want to push beyond a single-pass result. You can highlight over it, add a second Speedpaint for blending, or use it as a shading tone under traditional paints. The range sits comfortably alongside Citadel Contrast, but with its own distinct colour character and this improved handling behaviour.

Who Should Pick This Up

Speedpaint 2.0 is one of the most beginner-friendly paint types available — prime your model, apply the paint, and the shading does itself. Ancient Honey specifically suits painters working on fantasy armies with warm earthen palettes, sci-fi forces with desert or ochre armour schemes, or any models with leather, rope, or bone elements that need a quick, convincing finish. Experienced painters will find it useful as a speed-layer for secondary palette areas, freeing more time for highlight work on focal points. It works across any miniature range — Warhammer, Warmachine, historical, sci-fi — wherever the colour fits the scheme.

Specifications