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So I thought I'd give contrast paints a go but the result was not what I'd hoped. I was using Iyanden yellow and Ultramine blue and covering a miniature with some quite big surfaces. The result ended up rather blotchy, particularly on the smooth parts. Where am I going wrong? Was my brush too wet (maybe)? Was I pushing the brush around too much? (I saw a GW video and they seemed to be dabbing more than brushing the paint on - is that the way to go?) At some points I felt the coverage was a bit much so I was using the brush to try to move some paint—on one of the smooth areas—and I accidentally ended up with a smear where only the thinnest layer of paint was left. The blue worked slightly better than the yellow. With the yellow I ended up with a lot of stipply orange patches.

I thought contrasts would be easier than acrylics. What is your experience of them and how can I improve with using them?

Need to work quickly, get the paint where you want it then leave it alone. Unless done literally moments after applying, you'll find that you ruin the finish if you try to move the paint around. Helps if you plan your brush strokes to finish in recesses, as you tend to find paint pools at the end of the stroke.

Contrasts don’t necessarily work that well with big featureless areas. They are designed to combine coverage and wash in one, if there isn’t much for the wash to drop into, then they can be patchy. You can do multiple coats to help with that as coverage can be an issue with some of them. While Contrast in particular has been advertised as only needing one coat, that’s not necessarily true, and Vallejos version needs multiple coats to build up the colour for more colours.

I've been playing a bit with contrasts of late and I find that I get a better result with a couple of thinned down coats rather than one coat straight from the pot.

Personally I rather like the blotchy/patchy nature on larger smoother surfaces for organic/living things. I think it creates a more subtle mottled tone of colour that's closer to realistic skin/flesh tones than what you can often get - at least not without spending ages and ages.

For armour panels and bigger mechanical flat surfaces, contrast paints are perhaps not the best tool or require some slightly different working methods as noted above.

Have a look at Juan Hidalgo's contrast painting technique videos. Basically, what he does is put loads on to fully cover one area at a time, then wick it off from where it's pooling the most with the point of a clean brush. That way, you're not moving it around as it's drying and you keep the smooth transitions. Whatever you do, don't try moving it around or adding more once it's started drying.

Perhaps also not all contrast paint is made equal. For me Hardned Leather is amazing and Hive Deeper Purple is blotchy abd requires multiple coats or thinned coats, or glazes ets.

Haven't used Iyanden yellow yet

Contrast paints seem to work best for organic or non-uniform surfaces, as mentioned. For 'manufactured' parts of models, I avoid using Contrast paints on them, and stick to normal techniques.
But for crumpled or more 'natural' parts of a model, Contrsts paints do well, if adjusted as said. Slop it on, and wick it off where it looks to be pooling.
I haven't tried Contrast paints with an airbrush yet, but that might be the safest way to use it on large areas.

I tried to airbrush a Gladiator with contrast. Got to be really careful about thin layers. I went too heavy and it ended up pooling badly where I didn't want it to.

I find it’s good to have second clean brush to wick away excess contrast paint. If you are applying it to a space with no detail then remember you are basically adding a layer/glaze so don’t have too much on your brush. You might get better results if you thin the paint a bit with contrast medium