Reply To: Contrast Paints, is everyone really using them and are they actually quicker?

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I have a collection of the whole set of contrast paints.  I enjoy using them as they tend to be just the right consistency straight out the pot, which makes life simpler.  I’m an experienced painter of nearly 40 years (although only of average skill, you’d have thought by now I’d be better than I am!) and while for the first few models while I was working out how the paint behaved the results were not the greatest, since then I have learned how to dilute them when necessary, and gained confidence in mixing them.  I find they do save a little bit of time when batting out large batches, and give nicer results than my previous preferred mass painting technique of “dipping”.

Having said that, because I tend to do quite a bit of historicalsI find there are certain colour schemes and uniform types that I find do not lend themselves quite so readily contrast – so the muted, camo shades of WWII for instance, or the fiddly cross-straps for Napoleonics.  On the other hand something like a Celtic warband does suit the brighter colours of contrast.

I also find I like to use the blacks, dark greys and some of the darker browns and other colours as a wash, which perhaps wasn’t how they were envisioned, but they do the job well I think.

So to answer the OP I don’t find they save me oodles of time, but I do find that perhaps I get a better standard of paint job than I would have otherwise bothered trying to attain.  At heart I am fairly impatient, so I’ve never been one to spend hours and hours on a single figure.  Contrast lets me perhaps shoot for a better result than I would have tried for before.  Also I find the process of using contrasts (one or two coats over a light undercoat, say) less faffy than going for two or three shades with maybe a couple of coats of each, which nowadays I rarely bother with, and only for particular character models where the colour scheme justifies it.

Certainly when it comes to the “one thick coat” for beginners as they were originally marketed, then I don’t really use them in that way, but TBH I don’t know anyone in person who does.  Any n00b who comes to me for advice at the club, I tend to recommend undercoat light grey, block colour, overall wash with Nuln Oil or diluted Dark Tone, then very light overall drybrush with a bone/off white.  A sort of modified “dip” technique I guess.  I find that is the simplest way to get half-decent results for n00bs with no experience.  Once they get comfortable doing that they tend to have mastered brush techniques enough to try more complex things such as different coloured washes, shading/highlighting etc.  Then only at that point would I suggest paying the big bucks for contrast paints in a few widely useful shades, such as dark grey, flesh, medium brown etc.  Once they get to that point though they tend to be competent enough to work things out themselves and experiment.

Just my own experience, YMMV.