Short answer: One-coat techniques finish an area with a single pass of paint that colours, shades and partly highlights it all at once. In other words, you compress the classic basecoat, wash and highlight sequence into one move. That is why they rely on transparent paints like Citadel Contrast, Army Painter Speedpaint or Vallejo Xpress, and why they sit at the heart of every speed-painted army.
The logic behind it is simple: a transparent paint pools into the recesses to make shadow and thins on raised areas to leave a highlight. You lay one coat, and physics does the rest. But this trick only works over the right base. Below is how to set that base up, which materials to use, and exactly where painters tend to trip.
What is it and what is it for?
At its core, the one-coat method applies a single principle to paint: get every step to do as much work as possible. Traditional painting needs at least three separate coats per area — colour, shade and highlight — whereas one-coat collapses all of that into one.
What makes this possible is a family of highly transparent paints: Citadel Contrast, Army Painter Speedpaint, Vallejo Xpress, Instant Color, Dipping Inks, Quick Gen and the like. Unlike normal acrylics, these don't bury the surface in flat colour; instead, they let the underlying value (the light-to-dark map) show through.
So when should you reach for it? When you want a 60-model army table-ready by the weekend, or when you want to test a colour scheme fast. A model you finish in an hour would take three hours with the classic three-coat method. And if you're chasing display quality, treat one-coat as a strong starting layer and add classic techniques on top — because this is less a single technique than a whole workflow philosophy.
How does it work?
One-coat paints build volume in a single pass over a light or zenithal (top-lit) base: thin and pale on raised areas, dark and dense in the recesses. If you want to go deeper into that mechanism, see the Contrast & Speedpaint Systems guide, where the chemistry of the paint is laid out in detail.
Volume in one coat means shadow and highlight arrive in a single stroke. Yet the real secret isn't in the paint — it's in the value underneath. So the better your base prep, the more three-dimensional that single coat looks.
There are two reliable ways to build that value base. The first is Zenithal Priming: black primer first, then grey from above, then white from straight overhead. The second is Slapchop: drybrushing grey and white over black. Either one hands the one-coat paint a ready-made light-and-shadow map to grab onto.
How do you do it step by step?
Now for the practical part. The flow below is more than enough for a table-ready model in a single coat. As a tip, work the whole model with one area colour and then move to the next colour — not part by part.
- Build the right base. Prep a light, white, zenithal or slapchop ground. The success of one-coat hinges on this step, because over a flat dark base the effect simply dies.
- Lay one coat of colour. Pull a single coat of one-coat paint across each area. Let it flow into the recesses (shadow) and thin on the raised parts (highlight). Load the brush generously, but don't flood it.
- Manage pooling. On flat surfaces, lift any excess with a clean, lightly damp brush. Pooled paint dries into a dark, glossy stain.
- Finish or push it. Most models are table-ready right here. If you want, add one or two classic highlights to a few critical spots — the face, a blade edge, an insignia.
Which paints and brushes?
One-coat shortens the materials list, but the right materials still matter. Here's what you'll need.
- One-coat paints: Citadel Contrast, Army Painter Speedpaint 2.0, Vallejo Xpress Color, Instant Color, Dipping Inks or Quick Gen. These are the engine of the technique.
- Base materials: light or white primer; add grey and white sprays for zenithal; and grey and white acrylics suited to drybrushing for slapchop.
- Brush: a synthetic or kolinsky brush with a full belly that holds plenty of paint. Because one-coat paints carry a lot of fluid, a fine detail brush won't keep up.
- Clean-up brush: keep a separate clean, lightly damp brush handy to wick away pooling.
- Medium (optional): thin a one-coat paint with medium and use it like a glaze (a transparent transition); this hybrid approach softens transitions and lets you control where colour collects.
The most common mistakes
One-coat is fast, but it punishes mistakes just as fast. These four are the ones that hurt the most.
- Painting over a dark base. A black or dark flat ground swallows the transparency, and the light-and-shadow effect vanishes entirely. The base has to be light.
- Forcing it onto everything. Some effects — smooth Blending or clean NMM (Non-Metallic Metal) — demand many layers. One-coat simply can't reach them.
- Leaving pooling uncorrected. Excess paint on a flat surface dries into a dark, shiny patch, so lift it while it's still wet.
- Thinking "one coat = done." The name is misleading. Skipping critical accents like eyes, insignia or a crisp edge leaves the model half-finished.
Professional tips
Finally, here are a few refinements that push the technique past pure tabletop speed.
The golden rule of the one-coat philosophy is this: make every step do as much work as possible. The secret of the single coat isn't in the paint — it's in the value underneath. Set up the base well, and the paint handles the rest.
- Invest in the base. One-coat quality comes entirely from the light-and-shadow map below. The ten minutes you spend on zenithal or slapchop add more than the hour you spend on paint.
- Think hybrid. Use one-coat as the foundation, then add Edge Highlighting to selected spots. That "contrast plus edge" mix makes a visible jump for minimal effort.
- Use it like a glaze. Thin the paint with medium and build it in layers to gain control and deepen the tone.
- Pick your critical spots. Don't try to lift the whole model; focus on the three or four places the eye lands first — eyes, face, blade edge, insignia. Leave the rest to the one-coat pass.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does one-coat really finish in a single coat?
Colour, shade and base highlight all arrive in one coat, so in that sense, yes. But there's a gap between tabletop and display. For tabletop, one coat is enough. For higher quality, treat one-coat as a starting layer and add a few classic accents on top.
Can I use one-coat paint over a dark base?
You can, but the effect collapses. That's because these paints are transparent and work off the light value beneath. A black or dark flat base swallows their glow, leaving a dull, single-tone result. So always use a light, zenithal or slapchop ground.
Is there a difference between Contrast, Speedpaint and Xpress?
All three are paints in the same one-coat family, with only small differences in flow, drying time and colour range. Which one works best for you comes down to testing. For the detail on their chemistry, the Contrast and Speedpaint systems guide covers it.
Does it make sense to speed-paint an army with one coat?
Absolutely — this is exactly where one-coat shines. With a light-grounded army you can work colour by colour and reach table-ready in hours, not days. Pair it with a batch-painting workflow and the speed climbs even further.
Why does pooling happen and how do I prevent it?
One-coat paint carries a lot of fluid, so on flat, broad surfaces gravity collects it, and it dries into a dark, glossy stain. To prevent it, load the brush without flooding it, lift any excess while it's wet with a clean damp brush, and rotate the model as it dries to balance the flow.
Which base is best for one-coat techniques?
Zenithal priming and slapchop are the two best options, because both give the model a three-dimensional light-and-shadow map; the one-coat paint "reads" that map and builds volume in a single coat. A flat white base works too, but you only get colour, not built-in volume.
Key takeaway and next step
In the end, one-coat rests on a single principle: build a solid value base, lay one coat of transparent colour, and let physics produce the shadow and highlight for you. The secret is in the base, not the paint. Invest in the ground, manage pooling, accent a few critical spots — and the rest is fast and fun.
The right materials make this technique sing. At Terminal Wargaming you can pick from paints, brushes & hobby supplies suited to this workflow and get your first army table-ready by the weekend.