Review: Warpaints Fanatic Historical paint sets

The Army Painter just released three new paint sets specifically for historical miniature painters – and they claim to offer historically accurate colours developed in collaboration with a respected military historian. But are these just repackaged Fanatic paints or do they offer something new, something useful for painting WWII armies with authenticity?

The Army Painter’s Warpaints Fanatic paint range, with its improved pigmentation and revamped formula, was a real step forward compared to the former generation of Warpaints. The paints have been very well received in the community, and The Army Painter has been able to secure several collaboration partners. I recently tested the Infinity paint sets, for example. But their focus has mostly been fantasy and sci-fi until now. With the Historical sets, they’re branching into World War II.

There are three faction-themed boxes, out now:

• WWII American
• WWII British
• WWII German

Unboxing the Warpaints Fanatic Historicals paint sets

Let’s start with presentation. The sets come in sturdy boxes with faction-themed artwork. Each box contains 20 paints in the familiar 17ml size, but no miniatures or brushes. Each set has 14 regular acrylics, 4 washes, 1 metallic, and 1 effect paint, all in the well-known Warpaints Fanatic quality. 10 of these colours are identical across all sets, and with the exception of the new colour Rifle Brown, these are existing colours from the Warpaints Fanatic range. The remaining 10 paints per set are themed to each faction and are a mix of existing and new colours.

The sets don’t come with tutorials, but the generic The Army Painter hobby booklet. It offers a solid overview of miniature painting and The Army Painter’s product range, but doesn’t feature the Historical range (yet). That said, The Army Painter have released a series of tutorial videos for each set on their YouTube channel.

The historical intent

What sets the Historical range apart from the regular Fanatic range is the historical intent behind the palette. The colours were curated in consultation with historian Dr. Stephen Bull to reflect common WWII uniform, vehicle, and equipment colours. From what I’ve heard from my contacts at The Army Painter, the Historical range has been in development for longer than the Fanatic range was. But after the overwhelmingly positive response of Fanatic, The Army Painter decided to re-do the entire range but in the high-coverage, high-pigment Fanatic formulation. We’ve already taken an in-depth look at the characteristics of the Warpaints Fanatic range in a separate review. So in this review, we’ll focus primarily on the contents of the three paint sets.

Digging into the Historicals colour palette

Each of the three sets includes 10 specific colours as well as 10 colours that are identical across all sets. The 10 identical colours are WPF Matt White and WPF Matt Black for highlighting and shading, a red, the new reddish brown WPH Rifle Brown, a steel metallic, a rust effect paint, and four washes: Brown Tone [WPF Strong Tone], Black Tone [WPF Dark Tone], WPF Military Shade, and WPF Warm Skin Tone – the latter originally from the John Blanche Masterclass sets, which I reviewed here.

The Army Painter seems to have something of a fetish for renaming existing colours when it comes to collaborative paint sets – and the Historical range is no exception. To add to the confusion, some paints keep their original Fanatic names, while others do not. WPF Pure Red from the Fanatic range even appears under two different names: Command Red in the British and German paint sets, and Flag Red in the American set. Also, Dark Feldgrau from the German set and Dark Drab from the American set are the same. Fortunately, the original Fanatic name is printed in small text on the label, or there’s a “Unique colour” note for Historical-exclusive paints.

Note that the Historical paints don’t follow the flexible triad system of Warpaints Fanatic, where each colour is part of a chromatic family of six shades from light to dark. Instead, these paints stand on their own and need to be shaded and highlighted by mixing or with the use of washes. However, each box does include three colours tailored to the uniforms of its respective faction.

World War II American Paint Set

In addition to the 10 colours shared across all sets, the American paint set features a selection of beige, brown, and flesh tones. The new colour Boot Brown is a dark, warm, slightly reddish brown, reminiscent of GW’s Doombull Brown – a tone currently missing from the Warpaints Fanatic range. If this colour becomes available individually, I’d highly recommend it to any Warpaints Fanatic enthusiast.

The uniform triad consists of WPH Dark Drab (identical to WPH Dark Feldgrau from the German set), WPH Medium Drab, and WPH Light Drab (which is the same as WPF Olive Drab). While the other sets’ uniform triads follow clear chromatic steps from dark to light, WPH Medium Drab stands out, leaning significantly more brown. You can see this clearly on my professionally hand-painted Warpaints Historical swatch, available as bonus content on my Patreon. The difference is also visible on the official product photos.

Patreon bonus content: Get the complete Warpaints Fanatic Historical swatch here.

World War II British Paint Set

The British paint set includes the triad WPH Dark Battledress, WPH Medium Battledress, and WPH Light Battledress – a khaki gradient from dark to light. It also offers a range of subdued greens and browns, as well as a new skin tone, which, like the other skin tones in the Warpaints Fanatic range, leans quite pinkish. A true standout is the Historical exclusive shade Beret Moon, an intense dark red with strong coverage. It also fills a notable gap in the Fanatic range, and I’m really looking forward to seeing it released individually in future, as it would make a great addition to the warm red flexible triad.

World War II German Paint Set

And then there’s the German paint set, with WPH Dark Feldgrau, WPH Mid Feldgrau, and WPH Light Feldgrau forming the classic Wehrmacht field grey triad. You also get various greens and browns for camouflage patterns, along with a light and dark blue-grey.

One thing I noticed while testing the paint sets – the Warpaints Fanatic range tends to have slightly thicker paints compared to other brands. With the Historical paints, however, the consistency can vary quite a bit. Most paints are in line with the usual Fanatic consistency, but I also had a few that were noticeably thinner, and one or two that were really thick – so much so that they were difficult to squeeze out of the bottle. This is an area where The Army Painter could improve, though it’s also possible I just got unlucky with the sets I received.

Value

Each of the three The Army Painter Historical paint sets has an RRP of £60 / €70 / $80. Divided by the 20 included paints, that comes out to £3 / €3.50 / $4 per bottle – which offers a decent saving compared to the individual prices of £3.60 / €3.60 / $4.35 per bottle, at least in the UK and US. Later this year, the colours are expected to be released individually alongside the John Blanche Masterclass paints. The paint sets are already out, and you can save even more with our partners:

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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.