Quick Gen is AK Interactive’s range of contrast acrylics that compresses the whole painting process – base, colour, shadows and highlights – into a single coat. The paint is built on a next-generation resin: it stays thin and light on the raised surfaces and gathers and darkens in the recesses and folds. What takes three layers with standard acrylics happens here on its own while the paint dries.

Intensity: Low, Medium, High

Every shade carries an INTENSITY scale on the label with three boxes. It is not marketing, it tells you how much pigment the layer lets through:

• Low – stays translucent and tints mostly the recesses. Exactly what you want on white cloth, bone, pale skin and for layering.
• Medium – balanced coverage. One coat gives readable colour and shadow without swamping the sculpted detail.
• High – saturated on the first pass. Ideal for dark cloaks, armour and anywhere the colour should shout; thin it with medium for subtle transitions.

Our filter carries intensity as its own parameter, so you can choose by what you are painting rather than by the name of the shade.

Three parts of the range

Quick Gen Color (AK17001–AK17064) is the colour core – fantasy shades, flesh tones, greys and blacks for shading. Quick Gen Metallic (AK17065–AK17070) are metallics with real metal pigment and carry no intensity scale. Quick Gen Military (AK17071–AK17079) are historical uniform colours with full coverage – Feldgrau, DAK, US Olive, British and Soviet khaki.

How to paint with it

The base has to be light. White primer gives the most saturated and cleanest result; bone or light grey mutes it. Over black primer a contrast paint does not work, because the difference between the flat and the recess disappears. Apply it neat, in one continuous stroke; for a thinner film or a transition thin it with Quick Gen medium, never with water – water breaks the surface tension and the paint pools into stains.

Quick Gen or 3rd Generation?

3rd Generation is a classic acrylic: it covers, mixes, layers and handles exactly the way you are used to. Quick Gen is a tool for speed – an army that would otherwise wait in its box tends to get finished over a weekend. Most painters use both: Quick Gen for the surface and the base, 3rd Generation for detail and the final highlights.

FAQ

Does Quick Gen need shaking?
Yes, thoroughly. The resin and pigment settle faster than in a standard acrylic – shake the bottle for at least half a minute before every use.

Can Quick Gen be airbrushed?
Yes, thinned with the medium at roughly 1:1 and around 1.5 bar. Even through an airbrush it still gathers in the recesses.

Should I varnish the model afterwards?
We recommend it. Contrast paints stay semi-matt and rub off the edges during play – a matt varnish evens them out and protects them.

The same paints in a brush-tip marker are in the AK Quick Markers category.