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Forgive any amounts of potato this brings, I took quick pictures with my phone while I worked and then cropped them down later. So some background: I wanted to have an easy side project while I work on my #Everchosen entry that I could make large amounts of progress with in a short amount of time, and this turned into me working on a Feral Orks army that will also be playable as a Bonesplitterz army in AoS. The thing is that the Contrast paint definitely has a layer of depth in the color, but I wanted a higher quality result that helps pull the highlight and shadow further than the paint can do on it's own over a flat primer coat. This lead to me treating the paint more like a heavy glaze and doing a bit of prep work on the base coat to get the effect I wanted. I started with a base coat of Mechanicus Standard Grey out of a rattlecan, followed by a layer of Grey Seer applied from a 45 degree angle to the top of the model and finally a straight down shot of Corax White to hit the highest points. Here's a bottom shot to try and illustrate the way the paint creates a gradient of shadows to highlights. The first step washed out the model's texture so I gave the model an all over wash of Nuln Oil, keeping it thin so it wouldn't pool on the high points. To pick out the high points I did a directional drybrush of Pallid Wych Flesh, only flicking the brush over the model in a downward direction to hit the highest points and leave the recesses darkened so the texture has more contrast. This was followed by giving the model a coat of Munitorium Varnish to smooth the texture of the model and give the Contrast paints a smooth surface to move over. This was followed by a layer of Ork Flesh, applied starting at the high points and working down to prevent it from pooling at the top of the model. You can see the recess shading is more pronounced, in part due to how the higher points are a much lighter color where the dry-brushing picked the texture out. A back shot to show how the color gradient from the successive layers of primer create a natural shading effect that simulates shadow being cast by the Ork's upper body onto his legs. Another low shot to show how the Ork flesh looks over the torso, and how the wash helped give the recesses some extra contrast for the darker flesh color. A Wurrgog Prophet model done at the same time in the same way. Due to how recessed his body is under his cloak his skin is darker than the Savage Warboss model, but this fits the natural shadow his body would have. Final example is a Wardokk. His more exposed skin shows off the way the highlights have helped create more texture for his skin by pushing the contrast over the other high points, allowing us to look like we spent more time layering green than we actual did. I hope this helps some people who are trying to get a little bit higher quality result out of their Contrast paints while keeping the whole project from becoming too much of a time sink.

Is it possible, realistically, to do proper zenithal priming without an airbrush, say, with a normal set of brushes like you'd use for anything? I don't own an airbrush, and I'm minimum-wage, part-time, fast-food expensive-hobby levels of broke, so I can't afford to get one. However, with Contrast reacting SO strongly to the undercoat you give it, I'm wanting to experiment with zenithal priming. Is there a way to do it without an airbrush?