Contrast Paints and Baby Blue Space Wolves

[sbarnby71]

I will freely admit to finding painting the armour of my SW dull, dull, dull.  I know that when I have half an hour to spare to paint I look at the armour plates and think, I might just build another model instead.

 

Then Contrast paints come along and I think maybe all the hundreds of models I built (instead of painting the armour on the model sat on my desk) could finally get worked on.  Now from the word go GW will say SW will need this paint to achieve Space Wolves Grey (the Fang with some highlights), well I don't paint that way, the main armour plates for me are the light Baby Blue a few people hate, but I don't care I've been painting SW for 20+ years and I like the colour:

 

 

So why this thread?  I want to hear from anyone who might have had a chance to use the paints and might even share my love of the most Brutal Loyal Chapter being painted in the colours of the baby-grow you'd place on a new born boy.  To you I say, how are you gonna do it????

[Guest]

From what I read on reddit, it seems the new contrast paint is much more neutral grey toned and less blue toned. Think they said it was the 3rd or 4th darkest color.

 

Here is a good picture of space wolf grey in bottom right.

https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-iMGUJv9-Vxs/XNhx-n4CP7I/AAAAAAAAVLU/5RVpUkvCwFw4ns3RJDEHWwTiJ7lF6YazQCKgBGAs/s1600/IMG_20190512_151003.jpg

 

If you want baby blue you are going to have to find a different color like talassar blue (mixed with some medium to tone down the blue strength) in upper left here.

https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-BgxzDNpeLU0/XNhx-kgHLFI/AAAAAAAAVLU/5iGYf1avxe4ZFrARu_96RIbcQGITWCgKgCKgBGAs/s1600/IMG_20190512_150956.jpg

[MegaVolt87]

I think you could get the blue effect with the off white, then a thinned coat of a light grey with the talassar blue. 

[sbarnby71]

Thanks brothers, it's odd that when you see the Space Wolves Grey Contrast applied, on neither of the different bases does it look like the darker blue GW Space Wolves colour scheme we normally see.  I'm hoping I can try a few test runs out at my local GW store before I splash out too much cash on different paints.

[Wolf Guard Dan]

Thank you Jarl Caldersson. Unfortunately I don't think those contract paints would work for my space wolves. :(

 

They look really good for an organic looking army. The blue and red look good for armor.

[PeteySödes]

Yea I’m mostly hoping I can play with the white one for plasma coils or frost weapons.

[Ciler]

Here's what I managed with the space wolf grey contrast paint today at my local GW, and a standard (fang undercoat/russ base (2 thin coats)/agrax recess shade/fenrisian grey highlights) for comparison :
-

Please note that this is 2 coats of space wolf grey

[sbarnby71]

Thanks for the pics brother, I think for me it's going to be too dark for my style, might give the apocathory white a try.

[Ciler]

Thanks for the pics brother, I think for me it's going to be too dark for my style, might give the apocathory white a try.

Please note my edit above, this is 2 coats of the contrast grey, one coat would come out much lighter.

[sbarnby71]

 

Thanks for the pics brother, I think for me it's going to be too dark for my style, might give the apocathory white a try.

Please note my edit above, this is 2 coats of the contrast grey, one coat would come out much lighter.

Thanks for update, one coat might work. I've pre-ordered the paints so give them a blast next weekend.

[GrFlur]

I've ordered wolf grey as well to see how it develops for me

[Harald Fairmane]

Courtesy of our brothers over at Reddit;

 

Cıtadel have been able to put both the grey and blue sceme ın one bottle ıt seems, dependıng on the prımer you use.

 

 

ıt wıll turn out gray(ish) wıth the grey seer prımer (1)

 

 

 

and blue wıth the Wraıth bone prımer (2)

 

[sbarnby71]

Courtesy of our brothers over at Reddit;

 

Cıtadel have been able to put both the grey and blue sceme ın one bottle ıt seems, dependıng on the prımer you use.

 

 

ıt wıll turn out gray(ish) wıth the grey seer prımer (1)

 

 

 

and blue wıth the Wraıth bone prımer (2)

 

That is closer to my colour scheme. But I'm torn as I think I like the warmer colour created with the Wraith Bone primer.

 

The other option for me would be keep with the standard greyseer and then do an all over drybrush of Stormfang to bring out the baby blue colour.

[PeteySödes]

Man you really gotta annihilate those mild lines with these though. I’m not sure which shade I like better, they’re both pretty nice.

[sbarnby71]

Man you really gotta annihilate those mild lines with these though. I’m not sure which shade I like better, they’re both pretty nice.

Yeah the contrast paints won't be forgiving of the mould lines, I tend to remove as much as I can, then base coat which shows up what I've missed and I do a second clean up, won't be so easy with these new paints.

[Jorin Helm-splitter]

I like the grey better than the blue, I'm pretty excited to try these, I just probably will use them more as tool for certain mini's then as miracle product.

 

 

Man you really gotta annihilate those mild lines with these though. I’m not sure which shade I like better, they’re both pretty nice.

Yeah the contrast paints won't be forgiving of the mould lines, I tend to remove as much as I can, then base coat which shows up what I've missed and I do a second clean up, won't be so easy with these new paints.

 

 

It shouldn't be any different though, because of the two base coats that you have to use first. I think the mold lines will still show up fairly well with the grey seer or wraithbone.

[PeteySödes]

I like the grey better than the blue, I'm pretty excited to try these, I just probably will use them more as tool for certain mini's then as miracle product.

 

 

Man you really gotta annihilate those mild lines with these though. I’m not sure which shade I like better, they’re both pretty nice.

Yeah the contrast paints won't be forgiving of the mould lines, I tend to remove as much as I can, then base coat which shows up what I've missed and I do a second clean up, won't be so easy with these new paints.

 

 

It shouldn't be any different though, because of the two base coats that you have to use first. I think the mold lines will still show up fairly well with the grey seer or wraithbone.

 

For sure, somewhat ironic that the easier method thats really great for beginning hobbyists tends to really highlight mistakes. Thats how we learn though! I just found the lighter color to be especially glaring.

[sbarnby71]

Just saw the GW video on painting SW with the contrast paints... undercoat mechanicum grey, base with the fang, contrast with space wolves grey, drybrush with etherium blue. So I don't see the point in the contrast paint here, it's just making the fang slightly darker. Just a replacement for Nuln Oil in this setup.

[Lord Ragnarok]

Man you really gotta annihilate those mild lines with these though. I’m not sure which shade I like better, they’re both pretty nice.

Just obscure them with more primer!

[NightHowler]

 

Man you really gotta annihilate those mild lines with these though. I’m not sure which shade I like better, they’re both pretty nice.

Just obscure them with more primer!

LOL. I’ve tried that, but not on purpose and I didn’t like the way it turned out.

[DBadger]

I forgot to order the sprays so when my paints come I'll only have either skull white*, stormvenim fur or codex grey* (*whatever those are called nowadays) pots. I'm going to start priming some models for when my contrast paints do arrive. What's my best bet for an undercoat for a baby blue SW?

[sbarnby71]

I forgot to order the sprays so when my paints come I'll only have either skull white*, stormvenim fur or codex grey* (*whatever those are called nowadays) pots. I'm going to start priming some models for when my contrast paints do arrive. What's my best bet for an undercoat for a baby blue SW?

So from everything I've seen and read you need the recommended primer due to the smoothness of the finish they give. Greyseer looks like the best base to give the light blue finish. I'm still not convinced I'm gonna get the baby blue I'm after.

[TiguriusX]

I see these and other images making the rounds on social media

You might find it useful to see what the base and paint combinations result in

I personally like the grey seer and basilicanum grey

[Radu]

 

I forgot to order the sprays so when my paints come I'll only have either skull white*, stormvenim fur or codex grey* (*whatever those are called nowadays) pots. I'm going to start priming some models for when my contrast paints do arrive. What's my best bet for an undercoat for a baby blue SW?

So from everything I've seen and read you need the recommended primer due to the smoothness of the finish they give. Greyseer looks like the best base to give the light blue finish. I'm still not convinced I'm gonna get the baby blue I'm after.

 

I was listening to a podcast, I think it was The Long War (maybe), and they said the deal with the spray primer is that it has a small amount of semi-gloss mixed in, which allows the contrast paints to work better over it. It might be possible to achieve the same effect with regular spray primers and then hitting the model with a thin coat of semi-gloss and then contrast if you don't want to buy everything. Just a thought.

[RikuEru]

I personally like the grey seer and basilicanum grey

I agree, BUT I think it will take some time to get a smooth finish with it.

Some of the more vibrant colours are more forgiving, while i found the grey a bit more tricky to get right.

There is a fine balance between superfast but kinda sloppy and too slow, kinda spotty finish (atleast with the warm temperatures we have currently)