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The thing about contrast is that many contain two colours in one. The yellow, for example, has yellow but also brown pigment. With the magic of paint sorcery, the brown flows away from raised areas towards recesses.

Essentially, you get highlight (white shows through) mid-tone (base coat) and shadow (as though given a wash from a darker colour).

So you’re getting a three-step process in a single application. In my opinion from what I’ve seen, that’s not just thinned paint, but the effect of three paints in one.

I have herd of what you are talking about, i think the paint line was called p9 paints or some thing or p3 paints ( literally cant remember ), and they were using this paint with the two brush method of blending and they also claimed there were two colors in one go like you are saying ( the 2nd color is exposed after spreading it out with the 2nd brush ), but then alot of comments were saying they see no difference or don't really believe it is doing what they say, but its an interesting thing any way this whole "two paints in one" thing, but i find it hard to believe but then thats me being ignorant i guess but yeah, who knows, you are right though.

Yep. They form nice base from which to work. Got 15 moranon orcs and 6 warg riders in battle ready in no time. Then just some additional detailing and voila.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Stormatious wrote:
But is it worth spending the extra for thinned paint when you can spend less and possibly get the same amount or more thinning down the regular base paints on your own.

If i need to make a glaze or a thinned down paint, i just put a dab of regular base paint on the pallet, then add a drop of water and there all done.


EDIT - Its like this, with regular paint you get regular paint + thinned paint. With contrast you only get thinned to a certain thinness paint.

Except contrast isn't just thinned down paint. There was nice comparison paint of contrast with inks and whatnot and difference was notably different.

Actually contrast paints are inks + acrylic medium...or Vallejo model air + medium, I tried it.

I don’t know if it helps, but here’s a dude I painted in contrast, except for the metal areas, which were quickly shaded with Agrax and had silver reapplied for the shine. Took no time at all. As you can see, it does more than a thinned layer of paint, and shades the areas as well.
He’s hardly showcase lvl, but for the amount of time it took, the results are pretty good I’d say.

I'm not sure, based off what I've seen so far, that they're for me, but I'm certainly curious. I might well grab a few pots just to test 'em out, next time I put in a big paint order.

They're formulated in a pretty new way, unlike any paints, certainly I've ever seen before and honestly I'm not sure that even GW studio painters can really say that they're used to them enough at this point, so it's a hard call as to whether they're really all that amazing, but they deffo seem to have their uses, at least for people who aren't as into painting/learning to paint, but don't want to just play with bare models. I think the assertion that their effects can be easily replicated at home, with existing GW paint products is a bit off the mark, as the end result is certainly a bit more complicated than just a wash or a glaze.

 Stormatious wrote:

Crispy78 wrote:
Yes I expect so. They look useful. I don't get a lot of painting time so anything that helps me get a decent tabletop standard quicker sounds good to me.

I'm curious - you seem quite biased against them (called them junk in a previous thread) but also admitted you hadn't used them and didn't seem to know what they were / how they worked. What's that about?

Because i don't see any difference at all if you compare it to regular base paint from GW, all i see is thinned down regular paint, which IMO is nothing special and hardly useful unless you like spending extra money for thinner paint.

Sorry for a very very very late reply i have been away.


Thanks,

Stormatious.


EDIT - Am i incorrect in my statement regarding contrast paints?, because i am yet to see how, but im not an expert or any thing, infact im noob so i don't know but this is just my feelings.

Lots of people have already said on this thread that it's not just thinned regular paint.

Not used any myself yet - at the moment I'm after Darkoath Flesh and my FLGS hasn't had any in stock since release, it's that popular.

Several of my friends are using Contrast and are reporting great results. One of them got 20 of these Space Hulk genestealers painted like this in about an hour and a half.

I think that's the point of Contrast, which you're not quite appreciating. It's primarily a quick and easy way to get models painted to tabletop standard, for people who don't otherwise have the time or the talent. It's not for winning Golden Daemon.

Well, I'm not fawning over them like the second coming of Christ like some places are, but I will pick and choose them for specific things. I'm like a few other posters here in that I have techniques and styles built up over years (you can take that black undercoat from my cold, dead hands) and not a big enough project to use them on (Yet. I'll get to that later ). With that in mind, the only one I picked up so far was Apothecary white as white is a pain in the arse to paint and boy it is excellent. Painted a trio of Imperial Daleks in a single sitting.

Now, I do have my eye cast to them for whenever my Relic Knights KS stuff shows up (Yes, yes. I know. A man can dream....). They seem purpose built for the super bright anime style the game has.

I currently paint my tau the old fashioned way. However, I don't have a lot of patience and tend to get frustrated quickly, resulting in messy models rather than nice clean results.

I started collecting Gloomspite Gitz around the time that contrast launched. So I picked up a bunch of contrast paints for them, and I honestly am considering switching my tau over to the contrast paints as well. It's just so much easier to paint this way and while the cleaning up mistakes, in contrast, is a pain in the but. Not having to deal with highlighting or dry brushing is a godsend, as that's always where my patience gives out.

Here are some photos of my work, both classic and new.

EDIT: I should also mention that I painted so far two of the big Squig and 20 of the little squigs in so far half the time that one riptide took. So the time saving on contrast paints is pretty big.

I think the claims that it self highlights are dubious. But the fact that I can spray, and slap contrast on and its a perfect base and shade in one coat is amazing. Also, if you are worried about the odd extra couple of dollars per x number of bottles of paint.. you're in the wrong hobby. To that point, I would argue one bottle of contrast is SAVING you money if you would need to buy a base paint and a shade to achieve the same effect. Has the mega bonus of time saved.. which in my life literally translates to dollars, on top of saving money buying multiple pots which this little magic bottle does in one step.

I've been using Gryph Hound orange on my new Kabalite project, and I'm really impressed. It does indeed shade and highlight, but the paint needs to be applied generously as GW has suggested; it doesn't achieve the effects properly if the paint is brushed thinly.

The real selling point for me is that I would normally struggle to highlight such small, finely detailed models, and they seem tailor-made for the constrast paints.

Fair enough i understand now. But i still find it hard to believe you get brown out of the yellow and things like that. Any way you can get the same results using a wash, and this would probably self highlight better then the contrast because you get a light tint instead of very strong tint plus small highlight.

But yeah what ever, i get it now, and what you guys have painted look fantastic!!

Thanks for the help every one.

Edit - How is it psychically possible to get the two colors in one any way?, is one pigment heavier ( brown ) and one lighter ( yellow ) and that's how this works?. I don't like the sound of this sort of thing, it seems strange and hard to believe....


EDIT - But i am not saying i don't believe you guys and GreatBigTree.

Another tool in the toolbox. There are also parts of models I hate painting in the base, shade, highlight way and this will help me avoid those parts.

I'm too lazy to keep doing classic painting, so most of my collection sits in boxes, nowhere near the table
So, any labour-saving option like Contrast paint is handy.

I got 4 primary colours, and 3 browns.
If I can use them over the top of a range of basecoats (yeah, I know), to get different effects, it's a timesaver I'll go for.

I mostly got them for my dozens of Zombicide models. I've sprayed them in Zandri Dust to get a greenish base, and 'Contrasted' them the Plague paint.
Add some Leadbelcher and a bit of colour, and done.

 Skinnereal wrote:
I'm too lazy to keep doing classic painting, so most of my collection sits in boxes, nowhere near the table
So, any labour-saving option like Contrast paint is handy.

I got 4 primary colours, and 3 browns.
If I can use them over the top of a range of basecoats (yeah, I know), to get different effects, it's a timesaver I'll go for.

I mostly got them for my dozens of Zombicide models. I've sprayed them in Zandri Dust to get a greenish base, and 'Contrasted' them the Plague paint.
Add some Leadbelcher and a bit of colour, and done.

But why not just use a wash to achieve this method, wouldn't that be better because of the light tint it gives meaning that your raised areas would be more of a highlight as oppposed to contrast?

Cheers Mate.

I am a fan of using inexpensive craft paints. I find them easier to mix, and I don't have to paint from the original container.

Yes, I picked up the complete bundle so I have all of them. This may have been a little overboard, but I'm OK with it.

I stopped into my local Warhammer store and tried them out before deciding to buy. I painted a Primaris marine in the quartered blue & white Sons of Guilliman scheme in about an hour and absolutely loved the result. The others who where there trying them out had great results as well. They had painted: Ultramarine, Blood Angel (this guy also brought in and painted a AoS skink), Salamander a Raptor (the Raptor scheme worked really well with Militarum Green). The speed at which these often time consuming and sometimes difficult color schemes were being done really made the value of Contrast paint apparent to me.

I have quite an extensive back log of models, as I'm sure most of us do, and Contrast paint is proving to be a quick and simple method of getting some paint on those models and calling them done.

The Contrast method alone isn't going to win anyone a painting award and it certainly works better with some types of models vs. others, but overall the paints and method are fantastic for getting things done quickly to a decent tabletop standard and makes painting miniatures a lot more approachable for new comers.

 harlokin wrote:
I've been using Gryph Hound orange on my new Kabalite project, and I'm really impressed. It does indeed shade and highlight, but the paint needs to be applied generously as GW has suggested; it doesn't achieve the effects properly if the paint is brushed thinly.

The real selling point for me is that I would normally struggle to highlight such small, finely detailed models, and they seem tailor-made for the constrast paints.

I think this describes what I have had the most success with and envision using contrast paint for and that is to do parts of the models where I would struggle to do traditional block and highlight. I am getting older (closer to 50 than to 40), and between chronic joint pain, declining eye sight, and not having as steady a hand as I used to, there are parts of painting that I really struggle with and using contrast paints selectively really has helped.

I did try a few models all contrast and don't see myself personally using contrast only, but instead will use them more selectively. There are some colors that I have tried that so far have been real winners for me; flesh tearer red, black templar. gryph hound orange, snake bite leather, wyldwood, skeleton horde, and gulliman flesh.

The two disappointing ones so far are Plaguebearer Flesh (not as strong a green as I expected) and Nazdreg yellow (too much brown).

By the way the base colors they released along side the contrast paints are great.

There are others I plan to get and try so I am a solid Yes as the vote goes but these are turning out to be a compliement and not a wholesale replacement. However, I have seen enough examples where I am convinced that people could do 100% contrast and have acceptable table top models in times that have been described as significantly less than traditional block, wash, and highlight method.

I've bought a bunch because I like painting them over metallics. My Custodes will be sprayed gold, red contrast on the shoulders, a darker red for the plumes, shade, then a few streaked highlights.

My Gray Knights, who have languished for ages, will go together FAST. I've also had some LotR stuff for awhile and can confirm the gray, black, browns, and Dark Angels green all cover well and provide good contrast. The stuff takes a little practice to apply evenly (and you MUST let layers dry) but in practice this helping me speed up.

Almost done blocking out my AT knight household, I like the yellow and red but wish I had gone with a lighter blue. Too bad they were all sold out.

I picked up a few to paint up my Sylvaneth and I'm pretty happy with the results. They definitely don't replace my existing paints, but they're a powerful tool. Beyond speeding things up, I feel like the shading they provide is a little more natural than washes and in particular really seems to make cloaks and capes easier to get right. They still really need a highlight, which I've found can do a good job adjusting the shade without losing the effect (I paint an olive over the green to get a more natural plant color for example). Of them, the one I'm by far happiest with is Aerithmetic Blue, which is vibrant enough to become my go to spell effect paint.

I'm also pretty happy with contrast paints. They're certainly not replacing traditional painting methods for me, but they work well used in combination with them to speed things up. Their translucency also lends itself to things like certain weathering effects.

These are the first four miniatures I painted with them, about a month ago. I was going for speed over quality with these, and was also experimenting along the way.
Considering I'm not usually a speed painter, I think they came out fairly well for about an hour each. I certainly could have done better, but that's part of experimentation and practice.


I think Wyldwood has to be my favourite paint so far. All that trees bark took was one coat of Wyldwood, with a couple of flicks of drybrushed green afterwards to give it a slightly mossy look.

Yep. I aggressively hate base-coating over the old black spray primer, so I'm happy just for the Grey Seer primer to exist. Otherwise, they are making my harlequins go by faster, and they are perfect for my SO, who has pretty decent brush control but loathes base-shade-highlight simply because it takes too much time. So I've got something like 7 of the things for generic colors.

^^ You know grey primers have existed since.. Well basically forever? Just outside of the gw paint range...


The contrast paints are different to inks dude. They're another tool as someone has said. If you don't like the idea, don't use em. Personally I need to experiment more and see how they work for my style.

It's a no from me after seeing the examples in the paint app, Unless they are good vehicles I'll stick to the traditional way

Yeah well, its kind of a pain in the big spectrum of things, sort of lowers universal standards a bit, but im not saying the results are bad, but generally speaking it seems this is aimed at a quick way of painting and getting a nice result, but therefore also lowering universal standards compared to what it could be if you really put the effort in with the more traditional methods, so as long as this doesn't become the new "norm" which im sure GW would love it to be because less time painting = more time spending money, then it doesn't matter, but i would not like it to become huge and every one is only using contrast and hardly any thing else ( as in one coat of contrast and thats it ). But alot of what i have seen on Dakka is extremely good looking, and it looks like they did more then just 1 coat/color of contrast, so i don't know what im talking about.

Yeah its a another tool like alot of people are saying, that's the end of my story.

I think it improves the overall standard of painting because you get people to paint their stuff in the first place and depending on that person's commitment, they can get some really nice results.
If you get a long time player but never a painter to paint up their grey tide then surely that's positive regardless of how they get there?

No, it won't lower this universal standard of yours. Stop gatekeeping, that's the worst thing to do, especially in a hobby full of them in the first place.

Actually yes you are right, it probably would improve universal standards. I should say i just hope it doesn't become the norm and people give up on trying to do it the traditional way, but yes you are correct 100%.

If it lowers standards for other people, so what? If anything that should make your results better right? This was all covered in the N&R thread. If someone wants to slop some of these on and call it done, so be it. I've got some of them and my standards aren't going to drop because of them, and they certainly aren't going away, so use them or don't either way, it's cool.

The eavy metal team did a demo using them. Are they lowering the standards?

Base wash and layer is what they used to do on the cartoon models from the 80s.. And we've definitely raised the bar since then.

In my opinion they're available, and have potential uses. So I'll consider them.. Same as someone once considered using oil paints, or elmers glue, or hairspray, or salt chipping..

Blessed is the mind too small for doubt.

I mean every thing i have seen so far done with just contrast looks really really top quality good, but they are doing more then just 1 coat of contrast and 1 color and thats it basically ( but even 1 coat would still look good or better then un-thinned or just no highlights or shades and just a solid color ), so that's what im talking about really, the 1 coat and that's it sort of thing, but most things i have seen are more then1 coat so yeah ill exit this conversation.


Have a lovely night all sorry for my ignorance.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 queen_annes_revenge wrote:
If it lowers standards for other people, so what? If anything that should make your results better right? This was all covered in the N&R thread. If someone wants to slop some of these on and call it done, so be it. I've got some of them and my standards aren't going to drop because of them, and they certainly aren't going away, so use them or don't either way, it's cool.

The eavy metal team did a demo using them. Are they lowering the standards?

Base wash and layer is what they used to do on the cartoon models from the 80s.. And we've definitely raised the bar since then.

In my opinion they're available, and have potential uses. So I'll consider them.. Same as someone once considered using oil paints, or elmers glue, or hairspray, or salt chipping..

Blessed is the mind too small for doubt.

Yeah sorry i misspoke, what i mean is if every one did 1 coat of 1 color and thats it, but even then it would still look better then grey or just a solid color all over. So thats why im trying to exit this now because im making a fool of my self. I want to turn back time about 1 hour because im not making any sense and i am talking from a place of ignorance and little knowledge on the subject.

And no you are now lowering standards at all, no one is, but what im trying to say is if became a huge universal thing where it was just 1 coat of 1 color of contrast and thats it, and almost wiping out the traditional way, then i think that would lower standards, but ONLY if it became a huge universal thing and wiped out tradition. Look, i dont know what im saying, i am going to try to learn more about this paint for now on.



Thank you all Dakka participants for your participation in this discussion of my ignorance.

That wasn't a dig BTW, more of a message to stop worrying about the negatives and focus on the potential positives. Be happy you live in a time when you have unlimited types of supplies with which to paint your little plastic dudes.