As my Pile of Potential continues to grow, I have dove in head first to fight my tide of grey before AdeptiCon 2026 inevitability sees me bringing home more plastic, resin and metal than I know what to do with. Recently I’ve been working on ways to paint quickly while still providing the best results possible. Prior to painting my Fireflies I picked up a good number of AK Quick Gen paints to compared them to Vallejo Xpress Color, Army Painter Speedpaints, and Citadels Contrast Paints. I set to work testing my AK Quick Gen paints on 80 Bolt Action Imperial Japanese infantry, 1500pts of Empire of Japan for K47, and my Axis K47 army. After those initial tests (that, I must say, turned out wonderful) I was ready to give them a go on my US Fireflies.

A quick note on the AK Quick Gen paints. Out of all of the speed type paints available, AK Quick Gen have become my favorite. They flow nicely from the brush, the paints are more consistent within the line than other brands, they offer military colors, and they settle in the recesses better than other due to the formula avoiding as much white opaque pigment. If you already own a full set of speed style paints it may not be worth it to go out and buy a whole line of Quick Gen. However after using these paints from AK, I fell in love with them and have began to replace my AP Speedpaint, Vallejo Xpress and Contrast with AK Quick Gen paints.

Product Links

I love being able to source all of my hobby products from one location for a project. Kickass Mail Order is my go to shop. Below are all the products I used and a link to their page on Kickass Mail Orders website. I am not affiliated with Kickass nor do I receive any type of compensation from these links. I simply appreciate Kickass being a place that I can source all my Bolt Action and Konflikt hobby needs.

Now back to the paint guide!

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0. Prime and Prep

For any speed style paints one of the most important steps is priming with a well thought out zenithal or slapchop method to push the properties of the speed paints to the limits. What I mean by ‘well thought out’ is the application of the zenithal/slapchop and the colors you use to do so. Both are equally important. You will need a solid application of the colors to avoid the speedpaint being to dark or washing out and you will want to ensure the application is smooth to avoid harsh transitions in color once the quick paint is applied and to avoid the chalky look that a patchy undercoat will leave.

A quick note: I do use an airbrush in most cases since it allows for a smoother application of the undercoat (zenithal) and benefits quick paints more than slapchop (dry brushing the undercoat on). Fret not if you do not own an airbrush because you can still achieve amazing results without one. For how to apply the slapchop effect please reference my article on how to paint US Bolt Action Marines. If you are going to use a dry brush instead of an airbrush the undercoat colors are the same as the ones I will mention below that I used for airbrushing the zenithal undercoat.

Start by priming your Fireflies with Rustoluem Camo Brown. Make sure to get a smooth application and to cover all of the recesses. Next apply a zenithal highlight using AK Ice Yellow. Do another layer of Ice Yellow and keep going until all the raised edges look yellow. The first few passes it will look white. This is okay on the lower areas however you will want the yellow to look yellow on the raised edges and highest points of the model. Finally to get that raised edge pop even more drybrush White in a downward motion on raised edges. The end results should look something like the photos below. I promise the color is slightly yellow. I had trouble getting the yellow to show on camera due to my hobby lighting.

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1. Basecoats

1. Shoulder Pad Phase 1 – Wash the shoulder pad with a very thin Black AK Quick Gen just so the recess are more visible for when you go to paint the color on shoulder pad.
2. The base uniform – Bone Brown 2:1 with the AK Quick Gen medium.
3. Green – US Olive Green 2:1 paint and AK Quick Gen medium.
4. Skin – Human Skin AK Quick Gen with a little water. Like just some in the brush.
5. Firearms – Black AK Quick Gen. Then highlight with the darkest steel you have after the mini is varnished. I wait to varnish until the mini is completely painted and decals have been added.
6. Leg straps and Belt – Ochre Green AK Quick Gen.
7. Leather – Dark Leather AK Quick Gen except for the boots. The boots are Dark Leather and Infernal Red 1:1.
8. Buttstocks (wooden parts of the firearms) – Whatever Brown Quick Gen you fancy. In my case I used Wood AK Quick Gen
9. Glow Effects– Paint white with a traditional white paint. This may take two coats. Make sure the white is dry before adding the glowing effect. I used the AK Enamel Blue Fluor. If you don’t own that I would instead buy the AK Quick Ice Blue, for the jet pack and pew pew glow. I use this paint as well for the goggle lenses. Also at this step I paint in the white on the shoulder pad.
10. Gloves – Two coats of AP Speedpaint Honey Yellow. I’m sure their is an AK equivalent I just don’t have it yet. I believe Dirty Yellow Quick Gen would work well.
11. Shoulder Pad Phase 2 – Any red, white and blue traditional paints will work. Take your time as this process requires a lot of brush control. The end results are worth it. The edge of the shoulder pad I used a traditional green paint. I do think that a metallic gold or silver would also work splendidly for this bit.

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2. Varnish

Varnish the model with AK Ultra Matte Varnish or your own preference of matte varnish.

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3. Basing

I ran out of basing materials while wrapping up my Axis force. Below is picture of the Axis mini with the basing style I plan to use for my US force.

1. Apply your choice of basing texture paste. I used a random one I had left over from a commission since the color will not matter since it will be painted over.
2. Apply VMS Heavy Brick Rubble and seal with VMS Sand and Ballast Freeze.
3. Add some rubble. I used coffee stick stirs broken to size.
4. Coat the entire base in a slightly off-black traditional paint.
5. Then proceed to slapchop the basing materials with a bright grey and then white.
6. I used Leather AK Quick Gen to paint the wood bits.
7. For the bricks I then used a traditional red paint diluted with AK Quick Gen medium in a 4:1 ratio.
8. I drybrushed the bricks with a bright red and then bright orange traditional paint.
9. For the wood I dry brushed with Birch White from Scale 75. Any khaki color will also work just fine.

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Final Result

And here we have it a completely painted Firefly. The AK Quick Gen paints have exceeded my expectations, were a pleasure to work with and let me knock out 18 Fireflies in a week. I look forward to using them on my future Bolt Action and K47 armies alike. The undercoat is critical for getting results like this so make sure to take care during the priming and pre-painting steps whether that is zenithal from an airbrush or slapchop using the over brush and drybrushing techniques. I can’t wait to get these models on the table and to see what Warlord comes out with next for K47.

Until next time, happy hobbying!