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My wife has been out of the painting game for a few months. Was talking to her about these contrast paints and she thinks could be the thing to get her out of this particular slump. However the next paint job she needs to finish is a squad of pink horrors that are already primed in corax white. Soo to use this new fancy pink contrast paint what do we do?

Try painting one, see how she like the effect. If it doesnt suit, strip and start again.

Fictional wrote:
Try painting one, see how she like the effect. If it doesnt suit, strip and start again.

There is no need to strip if it doesn't look good. Just spray over with Contrast undercoat.

Try a satin varnish. It will give a smoother surface than the primer for the contrast to flow over.

You should be able to just apply the contrast straight to the model. I've not heard anything bad about using corax white as an undercoats, and I've seen several examples of contrast used over it. Though they say you need it to be as smooth as possible, and Corax tends to be chalky.

I sprayed over previously painted models with contrast primer and it worked well, no issues. Ironically, also on pink Horrors. The Volupus (I think that’s the name) pink is PERFECT!

jullevi wrote:
There is no need to strip if it doesn't look good. Just spray over with Contrast undercoat.

*shrug* depends how much detail you're losing, but true, you can just keep slapping thick layers over the top.

thanks for the feedback folks. Opinions are decidedly mixed, guess that's the trouble with new products. I'll pick up the pink and the primer this week and give it a whirl.

Contrast works just fine over non Contrast primers (unless they're really terrible). I've been trying it out all weekend over a variety of old primers, even some relatively rough ones.


Color matters far more. The Volupus pink over white WILL look different from the same pink over grey or brown. This isn't necessarily bad and can be a matter of taste. White should work, but some colors might look a little flat.

They don't work at all over dark colors, and some are terrible over the wrong color. Aethermatic blue, for example, just cries over brown colors, isn't very good over wraithbone. Guilliman flesh is a bit iffy over grey in my experience with it.


With all Contrast colors I'd highly advise testing the color over the primer first. spray some old sprue pieces or some spare weapon bits. You really need to know how the paint will react to the base color before you start painting models.

Also let it dry before you judge how it looks. They can look a bit different while still wet.

 queen_annes_revenge wrote:
Try a satin varnish. It will give a smoother surface than the primer for the contrast to flow over.

This. Most of what I've read and seen so far says Contrast works best over a smooth surface, and the satin varnish can achieve that, regardless of the primer used.

Voss wrote:
Color matters far more. The Volupus pink over white WILL look different from the same pink over grey or brown. This isn't necessarily bad and can be a matter of taste. White should work, but some colors might look a little flat.

They don't work at all over dark colors, and some are terrible over the wrong color. Aethermatic blue, for example, just cries over brown colors, isn't very good over wraithbone. Guilliman flesh is a bit iffy over grey in my experience with it.

Now, this is the thing that worries me, GW have gone all out for grey and cream as the base colour, as a total cover base colour at that.

Their assumption, nay expectation based on them saying the pots are for touch up, is that you spray them.

What about where you have multiple colours that look better on different bases? I suppose you go for the majority colour and base, and either repaint the other areas or accept how the Contrast paint looks on it.

Fictional wrote:

What about where you have multiple colours that look better on different bases? I suppose you go for the majority colour and base, and either repaint the other areas or accept how the Contrast paint looks on it.

In this case I would paint the "wrong" colours normally instead of Contrast. If you need to apply another undercoat for contrast, you might as well apply proper colour and wash for the same amount of time spent.

Fictional wrote:

Voss wrote:
Color matters far more. The Volupus pink over white WILL look different from the same pink over grey or brown. This isn't necessarily bad and can be a matter of taste. White should work, but some colors might look a little flat.

They don't work at all over dark colors, and some are terrible over the wrong color. Aethermatic blue, for example, just cries over brown colors, isn't very good over wraithbone. Guilliman flesh is a bit iffy over grey in my experience with it.

Now, this is the thing that worries me, GW have gone all out for grey and cream as the base colour, as a total cover base colour at that.

Their assumption, nay expectation based on them saying the pots are for touch up, is that you spray them.

What about where you have multiple colours that look better on different bases? I suppose you go for the majority colour and base, and either repaint the other areas or accept how the Contrast paint looks on it.

Peachy uses a pot of Grey Seer on the shoulderpads and the fur cloak (inside and out) on a model that was base coated in Retributor Armour:

Personally I've found that coverage of the primer is the most important thing, rather than the type of primer.
If there are parts of the model that you missed with the primer, then the contrast paint won't stick there, and will just run off like water on an oily surface.

I do wash my models before priming them. I suspect that the property of the contrast medium that causes it to pool in recesses means that it requires a surface with a bit of tooth to grip onto. More so than standard paints anyway.

These paints have come out during a project for me, and I’m halfway through a squad of wulfen. I primed these heads with citadel rattle cans, The two on the left here were primed with a Corax,, on the right with the new wraithbone. One coat of darkoath flesh. Both look fine to me, but really close up the detail is better on the new primer.