Initial Contrast Experiments (from us all)

[Gederas]

I used Contrast on both of the Primarch models I have

 

Ffor Curze it's his base. Specifically it's Skeleton Horde over a pre-shaded base, then drybrushed with Karak Stone.

 

 

For Sanguinius it's the daemon. I did Black Templar over Khorne red, then drybrushed with Mephiston Red.

 

I'm currently thinking I'm gonna use Basilicanum Grey over the same metallics I used on Curze (Iron Warriors > Nuln Oil Gloss > Leadbelcher Drybrush > Ironbreaker layer highlight > Stormhost Silver) to get the Metallic Dark Grey armour the GC-Era Wolves had for Russ when I get him.

Edited October 23, 2019 by Gederas

[Evil Eye]

I don't know if anyone saw this, but its using contrast paints for HH from Warhammer community site. 

 

https://www.warhammer-community.com/2019/10/21/painting-the-traitor-legions-with-contrastfw-homepage-post-2/

 

AL one seems dead on, while SoH one feels not great. Some are hits, others misses. I found it interesting anyway. 

The white on the World Eater is really nice especially. Not all of them work but the ones that do are brilliant.

[DBadger]

Left the lid slightly ajar on my Black Templar, and it's turned into a rather nice blue...

 

Really not what I want, but still.

[MegaVolt87]

Left the lid slightly ajar on my Black Templar, and it's turned into a rather nice blue...

 

Really not what I want, but still.

 

Thin it out to make a blue glaze for power weapons etc. Turn the lemons into lemonade. 

[Kolgrim DeathHowl]

Nice guide everyone it was really helpful! I'm just now starting to jump into the contrast paints and want to use them for doing my Space Wolves. And probably will try some out on my Deathwatch eventually, I'm kind of nervous about black cause well black is just black. But I watched one video of a guy using Agrax and SW Grey and got it into a grey and then kept adding depth to it. Would eventually like to try that.

[jaxom]

2x Grey Seer, 2x Corax White, 1x Apothecary White (CP), Highlight/touch-ups Corax White.

 

  

 

  

 

What was learned? Apothecary White really depends on the paint underneath. Grey Seer was too grey so I had to add the 2x Corax White step. The Apothecary White could probably have been toned down with some medium to get a smoother look for the deeper crevices (I fixed that with a Corax White glaze during the touch-ups). If I had a better base colour (Wraithbone or Corax White) then I could see this as a very useful recipe if I had to paint a lot of white cloth (though I'd want to experiment more with cutting the Apothecary White with medium for larger, flatter areas).

[jaxom]

Snake-Bite Leather over Administratum Grey:

 

 

 

It's a really nice effect if one is looking for table-top quality leather with only one layer of paint.

[jaxom]

Gryph-charger Grey on Administratum Grey

 

 

 

Has an odd blue-green tint. The flow worked well on the smaller area, but did have pooling issues on the larger, flatter area (not unexpected at this point and I could have been more careful with how much I loaded onto the brush).

 

Edit: 

 

Gryph-Charger Grey on Alaitoc Blue

 

 

Gryph-Charger Grey on Teclis Blue (left) and Caledor Sky (right)

 

Edited April 15, 2020 by jaxom

[No Foes Remain]

Thank you for you experiments Jaxom, in regards to the Apothecary White: have you tried using it over runefang steel?

[jaxom]

Here ya go:

 

 

 

 

My experiences with Apothecary White have led me to this: it's a mix between a glaze and a wash. The pigmentation is more grey in colour so it relies on a white base layer to actually be white. The Apothecary White provides a glaze-like transition to the edge of an area and then settles as a grey colour in the recesses. Any strong base colour will overwhelm it unless one does multiple coats (i.e. like a glaze). The contrast medium (of the paint from the pot) did bring down the specularity of the Runefang Steel.

 

If one is going for a simple white-over-steel then I think a normal white glaze would be better. If is looking for recess contrast than a normal recess wash would be better. 

[No Foes Remain]

Ah yeah, I get what you are saying. Its strange that the contrast paints vary so much, as I've used Black Templar and Ultra Blue as 'normal' paints and they've worked fine but Basilicarum Grey doesn't work well using that technique and from what you've sayed it doesn't seem like Apothecary White would either. Thank you very much for trying though.

[Slips]

This video by Duncan might help explain why some contrast paints behave differently: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJGqInWb2yo&t=0s

[TPS]

Been messing with Contrast over metallics in the last days. Gryph-Charger Grey over Grey Knight Steel makes a pretty good impression. I followed up with a light drybrush of Grey Knight Steel to get rid of any blotchy areas and ended up with a nice recess shade.

 

[Fajita Fan]

I'll post pictures later but contrasts work really nicely on cardstock to make banners.  Those of you with Adobe Illustrator and color laserjet printers may not find this useful but I'm making banners for my AT titans and knights, the contrast colors work really well between black pen lines to fill in colors that are the same shades as your amy.

[jaxom]

Spur of the moment whim while I was waiting for paint to dry.

 

Krylon White Primer

Gryph-Charger Grey

Athonian Camoshade

 

 

[jaxom]

That spur of the moment became something a bit more. Here's the relevant part: the pooling that occurs in the terminator helmet was not an issue with a model with less intense curves.

 

Gryph-charger grey

 

Athonian Camoshade Wash

 

Pallid Wych Flesh Drybrush

 

Second addition: Guilliman Flesh on White Primer. The key thing learned was that the quantity of paint the brush does more to impact the skin tone and less to impact pooling. This may be because pooling was dealt with by either using the brush to absorb some paint from the pool or using it to push the paint around to even it out. A lighter touch gives a look similar to Cadian or Ratskin Flesh followed by a recess wash while a heavier touch is more like if the wash was done all over.

 

 

 

 

[Fajita Fan]

Contrasts really pop on flat white primer. 

[Fajita Fan]

If you guys haven't seen Duncan's new contrast paint video you need to see it.  Really great stuff here.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJGqInWb2yo

[jaxom]

If you guys haven't seen Duncan's new contrast paint video you need to see it.  Really great stuff here.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJGqInWb2yo

 

Is it just me or is that Ultramarine a shade darker than normal?

[Fajita Fan]

Dunno, seems okay to me.  

[Evil Eye]

I'm not posting pictures as they're AoS models, but I had a go at airbrushing Contrast onto some Rockgut Troggoths Stone Trolls, and the results were very interesting!

 

I made a mix of Talassar Blue, Basilicanum Grey and Akhelian Green directly in the airbrush cup, no thinner at all, and sprayed just over 10 PSI. I found that spraying from further away, it behaved much like an ink or a regular clear paint (albeit matte) and it simply tinted the grey primer (preshaded with FW black ink, also airbrushed) with the colour. However, when held closer to the model, it still did the "Contrast thing"- it didn't flood the model or run everywhere, but it did "autoshade" the model and settle in the recesses, very much like if applied by brush, albeit without brush strokes. I also did the same with Darkoath Flesh, with similar results.

 

Overall I was highly impressed with how they handled, and will definitely be using it again. I will say, however, that the colour was definitely intensified by the airbrushing process, especially in the case of the Darkoath Flesh- what is normally a pale and translucent colour was actually quite dark when sprayed. So that's worth keeping in mind.

[jaxom]

Two coats of Gryph-charger Grey on white basecoat followed by a very thin coat of Agrax Earthshade. The technique I used for the Earthshade was almost like stippling or pushing the wash around one place to another to get the texture/coverage I wanted.

 

[EDIT: This is referring to the skin tone of the nurglings.]

 

 

Edited December 27, 2020 by jaxom

[jaxom]

Okay, I may have cracked the Blue Contrast Paint Issue. The blues are infamous for being among some of the hardest to work with.

 

Before use: Shake vertically and horizontally with a small washer or screw, not a ball-bearing. A flat bottom is important so it scrapes against the pigment on the bottom when shaken horizontally.

 

I was using Ultramarines Blue with a tank brush and switched to a smaller one for a cranny. The difference was clear. A stiff bristle, rounded tip brush made 'pushing' the paint so much easier. UM blue pools very easily so pushing it away from the initial point of contact point on the model is vital to avoid that coffee stain, uneven coat. A light paint load into the reservoir can than give an almost Guilliman Glaze blue.

 

All tank brush:

 

Smaller, sharp tip, soft bristles

[Xenith]

Some efforts from my Tyranids and Eldar. I'm an absolute convert to contrasts for anything but power armour, and they've sped up my painting by orders of magnitude, once you factor in motivational aspects.

Time to play with some Rogue Trader Eldar! Eldar were a pain to paint for me, having lots of texture and bright colours. I'm hoping contrast paints will be the solution to all my problems, so I've undercoated a Swooping Hawk, a Striking Scorpion and a Howling Banshee to test out some contrast versions of classic schemes. First, the Swooping Hawk.

Grey seer undercoat

One coat of Aethermantic Blue

Second Coat of Aethermantic, one coat of Warp Lightning on the wings, Apothecary white on the helm and wings, averland then iyanden on the sash, wraithbone then skeleton horde on the gun. Grey seer extreme highlight on top surface of armour plates.

Maybe an hour tops inc drying time. Will paint the rest of the unit in the same way.

So I got my Tyrannofex finished, this model was pretty fun to paint, maybe less fun to make, it's pretty fiddly in places. As with the harpy, this represents another maturation of my colour scheme - the pink soft bits are gradually getting phased out for pure flesh tearers red, as it's pretty close to screamer pink, and it also has this icky satin sheen that changes up the texture of the model a bit. Tis is mainly a speed thing - screamer pink needs to be watered down to settle into recessed vents, and volpius pink doesn't go over the blue base well, but Flesh Tearers Red has both pigment density and flow quality to cover and sink into recesses. Honestly, painting all those skin vents has never been so quick.

So:

Undercoat grey seer

Hard tissue/exoskeleton: 50/50 akhelian green/contrast medium

Carapace: grey seer tidy up; all over 50/50 magos purple/medium; chunky recess shade pure magos; feather highlight grey seer; feather highlight corax white, preserving brush strokes for texture effect.

Soft tissue: pure Flesh Tearers Red.

Talons/hooves: 50/50 shyish purple/medium. Additional coat to bed of talon.

*just realised on upload that I forgot to paint the vents/muscle on the rear right leg. The things you see when zoomed in.

This chap also took one hour, and was painted using only contrasts.

Edited February 26, 2021 by Xenith

[jaxom]

Ooh, is that skeleton bone on wraith bone?