Review: Two Thin Coats Wave 2 by Duncan Rhodes

After successfully launching his Two Thin Coats paint range with Trans-atlantis Games in 2022, thanks to Kickstarter now comes wave 2, which includes six brand new Glaze paints to help you boost the vibrancy of your paint jobs. In this video I’ll be reviewing all 60 colours from the second wave and sharing some of my long-term experiences and nitpicks with Two Thin Coats wave 1:

These items have been kindly provided by Trans-atlantis Games. Thoughts and opinions are our own.

Among the various new paint ranges I reviewed in recent years, Two Thin Coats is probably my most favourite because the range is sooo consistent. Unlike other ranges that might have strong acrylics but weak metallics, or, say, have fantastic reds but weak yellows, Two Thin Coats delivers across the board. I’ve already done a thorough review of the 60 colours in Wave 1, so I won’t go over all the basic paint properties again in this review.

To make a long story short, all the acrylics boast high opacity and smooth application, while the metallics and washes are great as well. Duncan has even taken the liberty of matching most of the colours to the current Citadel Colour range, making transitioning from Citadel paints incredibly easy with the help of handy colour match charts you can download on Duncan’s website.

The only flaw I could find and this is based on long-term use, would be the bottles. Although I generally prefer dropper bottles over pots, these bottles, along with ProAcryl’s, are probably my least favourite. While they do come with an agitator, which is a plus, the plastic is rather stiff, making them hard to squeeze. I also experienced issues with leaking and blocked nozzles, please let me know in the comments if you have had similar issues. Apparently, this was caused due to overfilling bottles in early batches, and I’m pleased to report that this has been less of a problem with wave 2. 

Two Thin Coats Wave 2 review

Speaking of wave 2, we get 60 exciting new colours, bringing the total range to an impressive 120 colours, plus 3 Kickstarter exclusive special paints and additives. The second wave breaks down into 9 new triads, 6 bright paints, 6 metallic paints, 3 washes, and 6 glaze paints. Kickstarter backers should receive their colours in the course of August 2023, at Wayland Games & Co wave 2 will presumably be available from 31 August.

The nine new triads

More on the Bright and Glaze paints in a few moments, let’s take a look at the new triads first, which I hand-painted on primed plasticard and photographed professionally under neutral 5500K light as usual.

There are three new bright magenta and pink colours, and a new muted red triad with a cool hue. On the right side I’ll put the counterparts from the Citadel Colour range according to Duncan’s conversion chart. As you can see, Evil Eye Red is meant to match Wazdakka Red, but it’s actually more of a light brick red.

There are new blues that are more vivid than the blue triad in wave 1 was, and also three shades of turquoise. There is a cool green triad that is very much based on the three teal greens from the Citadel range, though I think Hydra Green would be a closer match to Lupercal Green than Incubi Darkness. There is a muted green triad that can be used for orc skin, Orc Hide doesn’t go as dark as Waaagh Flesh as you can see.

There are also a total of six olive greens and three warm greys to cover more natural and historic tones. The grey greens have no real equivalents to the Citadel paint range, and the suggested alternatives from the conversion chart, which I put on the right, are quite off.

We also have a nice warm brown triad that transitions into a warm ochre triad, as well as a triad for light olive skin. This triad has no real counterparts in the Citadel range, which is why the conversion chart does not list any here. The brown triad for darker skin tones is a close match to the Citadel range though.

The six Bright paints

Now the Bright paints are clearly inspired by Citadel’s Edge paints, which initially existed as a separate subrange until they were eventually merged into the Layer paints label. There is a light yellow, orange, red, green, blue, and lilac. They are all pretty much what you expect from light paints, the coverage is surprisingly decent, though they don’t go as bright as Citadel Edge paints were.

Hellspawn Red stands out as its saturation is so intense, that for some weird colour perception physics it seems to be a nuance darker than Demon Red from the first wave. It’s a quite unique red paint, and almost identical to Bright Pyrole Red from ProAcryl, but I think it doesn’t really fit into the Two Thin Coats palette.

More metallics & washes

Moving on to the six new metallics, wave 2 expands the range with two additional bronze shades, which are both very similar, a feedback I gave to Trans-Atlantis Games. There is also a lighter and a darker reddish copper colour. A platinum colour and a dark silver identical to Iron Warriors from GW complete the metallic palette. Like the metallic paints from wave 1, these new metallic colours have fine metallic particles and a very high opacity, even brighter colours such as Top Brass or Platinum Crown. The paints do not separate as much as some metallic paints from Citadel, but still need to be shaken well.

Before I get to the glazes, I want to mention that wave 2 has three more washes to complement the six washes from the first wave: a red, purple, and blue wash. Two Thin Coats washes are quite nice, they dry rather matt and have more of a tint than the new formula Citadel Shade paints, more about that in my review of wave 1.

The six Glaze paints

Alright, let’s check out the new Glaze paints. Apparently, the old Citadel glaze paints didn’t sell that well so they were eventually discontinued, but they garnered something of a cult following. The yellow glaze, Lamenters Yellow, was especially popular as it was often used to brighten up the mustard-like Averland Sunset to paint yellow armour.

Now, let’s see how Duncan’s glazes compare to Citadel’s. I can attest that the Yellow Glaze is a perfect match for Lamenters Yellow, absolutely spot on. Red Glaze is obviously made with the same pigment as Bloodletter was. The Blue and Green Glaze also seem to use the same pigments as their Citadel counterparts, but they have a bit more punch. With a bit of thinning, they should be very close matches. The Orange and Purple Glaze are also good, but I think the Purple Glaze is a bit too dark and feels more like a wash.

So if you were a fan of the old Citadel Glaze paints, then Two Thin Coats glazes are the closest you can get now, and they will give you a more authentic experience than thinning Contrast paints.

All 120 colours in one chart

I just love doing charts, so here are the combined colour swatches with all 120 colours (plus the 6 Kickstarter-exclusive Effect paints) from Two Thin Coat’s wave 1 and wave 2:

This hand-painted swatch is available in my Patreon shop for a small donation (or by becoming an Autarch tier member). I also have swatches for Citadel Colour, Vallejo Game Color, Warpaints Fanatic, and AK 3rd Gen – all cross-compatible with each other so you can compare colours across different brands. Check out my shop for details.

Hope this helps you find the perfect colour for your next projects 🙂

Value

While on an individual basis, there are other paint ranges that may have washes or metallic paints that I like a tiny bit more, Two Thin Coats is currently one of the few paint ranges where everything is at a well-above-average level. The acrylics, metallics, washes, and glazes all have a consistently high quality with no duds at all.

So I feel you simply can’t go wrong with Two Thin Coats, whether you’re a beginner or an expert painter. And while the price is higher than other ranges (about £3.95 / 4.50 € for 15ml of paint) I believe it’s justified, as in my opinion, hobby time is too valuable to waste with subpar paints.

You can find the latest hobby products at our 🇬🇧/🇪🇺 partner stores Wayland Games, Element Games, and Firestorm Games, at 🇩🇪 Taschengelddieb and PK-Pro, and at 🇺🇸 Noble Knight Games with a welcome discount of up to 10–15% over RRP. Using our links helps to support Tale of Painters at no additional cost to you, so thank you very much for using them!

I hope you found this review helpful, feel free to leave a reaction or comment below, or post your questions here or discuss on our Discord channel.