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I am curious if anyone has attempted any experiments with contrast medium yet?

Done any different ratio mixes with standard paints to see if you could create your own contrasts? Anyone give a try? Pictures of results?

GW said pretty much from day one that normal paints with Contrast medium will not make them Contrast paints due to the medium used in the normal paints.

 Ghaz wrote:
GW said pretty much from day one that normal paints with Contrast medium will not make them Contrast paints due to the medium used in the normal paints.

Yeah. I know GW has said that. But that doesn't mean some experiments with mix ratios won't yield good results. It is in GWs interest to tell you contrast medium will not work that way.

I thought it was more that you needed the contrast medium to thin the contrast paints, as they don't like being thinned with water

I mix contrast medium into washes and it seems to make them flow quite well and don't leave the tide marks you get if you cut them with water. Makes the wash flow into the recesses more so you don't tint the overall surface.

Here's an example of contrast medium with reikland flesh shade for the skin and carroburg crimson for the cloaks. I tend to layer up after washing so the effect can't be completely seen.

 Lance845 wrote:
I am curious if anyone has attempted any experiments with contrast medium yet?

Done any different ratio mixes with standard paints to see if you could create your own contrasts? Anyone give a try? Pictures of results?

The contrast paints are based on liquid inks. If you mix the medium with ink from a craft store you might get something but I'm not sure if figuring out the proportions then trying to reproduce that mix over and over is worth the effort.

 Fajita Fan wrote:

 Lance845 wrote:
I am curious if anyone has attempted any experiments with contrast medium yet?

Done any different ratio mixes with standard paints to see if you could create your own contrasts? Anyone give a try? Pictures of results?

The contrast paints are based on liquid inks. If you mix the medium with ink from a craft store you might get something but I'm not sure if figuring out the proportions then trying to reproduce that mix over and over is worth the effort.

I was thinking more along the lines of making a few bottles at once. If I knew it was 2 part "ink" 1 part paint. then I will just dump the 3 whole bottles together, blend and redistribute into 3 dropper bottles for future use.

Anyway, was mostly curious if anyone had tried doing any experimentation with the contrast medium and what their results were. Doesn't sound like anyone has really given it a real run yet though.

Did you miss my previous post or something?

 Tyranid Horde wrote:
Did you miss my previous post or something?

I did. You made washes flow better into the recesses which is useful in and of itself as a wash enhancer. But that doesn't do anything for taking a standard paint and creating something closer to the contrasts/inks. Which is primarily what I was asking about. I did see a video of someone showing off what you did with the wash.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmF_13Xnb80

0:50 for the part where he shows the wash being applied to the primed gun.

Okay, so I did some experimenting on my own.

What I found is that I could make use of a Army Painter product instead.

So the color I use for my nids as a base is Gamescolor Dark Fleshtone (it's a very deep reddish brown).



I primed a couple Hormagaunts with Army Painter Skeleton Bone (the color I use for my teeth, spikes, hooves, and scything talons) which I figured would be "white enough" and picked up a rattle can.

I then got some of Army Painters Quickshade Wash Mixing Medium.



I started experimenting with mix ratios and the dropper bottles allowed me to measure it out pretty consistently. Basically, even just a 1 to 1 mix had pretty good results. Though 3 drops medium 2 drops paint worked better with a little better flow and much better contrast between the basic body and the "shades".

I recommend people give this a go. I was able to replicate the effect in 5 different little pools of paint on my palette on 5 different models consistently without noticeable variation in color and no splotchyness in the higher mix.