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

[blinky465 17028xp 3]

I have quite a few contrast paints – not quite the full range, but quite a lot – and I love them. They made me fall back in love with the hobby; they make painting fun again.

I’ve also seen looooaaaaadds of forum posts about people complaining that they’re not getting the results they want after firing them through an airbrush or cutting them 50/50 with home-made deionised water or something! They’re not complex paints, you don’t need a complex method to use them. The strap-line when they launched just about says it all – “one thick coat”.

Sure, if you spray your minis with a different primer (the two “contrast primers” have a slightly satin finish, to help the contrast paints do its job better whereas lots of people use “proper primer” which leaves a slightly gritty surface finish as a “key” for the next layer of paint which stops the contrast paints from sliding around so much) or try to emulate your favourite Youtube painter by messing about with advanced painting techniques but not quite pulling it off, your minis will look less than brilliant.

But they’re designed to be painted on *thickly*. Whack the paint on. Good and thick. Over *a proper basecoat*. And they work really well – high, sharp edges appear almost white (stained slightly by the paint) as it slides away from the highest points (thanks to that slightly slippy wraithbone/grey seer contrast primer) and the deepest recesses appear really dark. The bit inbetween retains much of the colour of the “stain effect”.

Yes, you can mess about with them, and try out different techniques – but don’t then be surprised (or, worse still, take to the internet to complain about) if they then don’t always work the way they should!

I discovered that painting purple contrast over a human flesh colour gives a really cool finish for my Space Hulk genestealers. And it’s really quick – block in the flesh, whack on the purple (good and thick) and you get really nasty, alien-looking skin.

 

Also, use as big a brush as you can for contrast – bigger brushes with a good point are far better (and much, much more enjoyable) to use for miniature painting. Contrast paints made painting quicker but also more enjoyable for me – I wouldn’t paint a mini without them now!