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Author Topic: GW Contrast Paints.  (Read 4575 times)

Ratman_tf

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GW Contrast Paints.
« on: May 24, 2019, 12:05:44 PM »
I just heard about these this morning.

https://www.warhammer-community.com/2019/05/23/contrast-meet-the-rangegw-homepage-post-2fw-homepage-post-2/

It reminds me of a technique I toyed around with a few years ago, painting a bright, highlight color, and then a series of washes.



Looks like the contrast paints are designed to do this in one layer. I'll have to pick some of this up and play with it.
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shuddemell

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GW Contrast Paints.
« Reply #1 on: May 25, 2019, 12:42:59 AM »
I have been somewhat interested in these. Normally I am a Vallejo man myself, but if the process is easier I might make the jump. If only they'd get away from those damnable paint pots and use dropper bottles like every other sane paint manufacturer...
« Last Edit: May 25, 2019, 12:45:20 AM by shuddemell »
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kythri

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« Reply #2 on: May 28, 2019, 03:24:48 PM »
Can you explain the process here, for a total mini painting noob such as myself?

Ratman_tf

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« Reply #3 on: May 28, 2019, 06:05:19 PM »
Quote from: kythri;1089701
Can you explain the process here, for a total mini painting noob such as myself?

Noob explanation:
Start out with a very light primer color, like white or light grey. Slap on the contrast paint, and it will "automatically" create a shade and highlight effect with one layer of paint. From there, you can fiddle with details, but really, you could easily get a table top quality miniature (in theory) with just the primer coat and the contrast paints.

Primer coat: Paint doesn't stick to bare metal or plastic well. Most painters will hit a miniature with a primer, from a spray can or an airbrush. Primer can be painted on with a brush in a pinch, but it's usually more efficient to spray.
Shade: Painting recesses dark to simulate shadows.
Highlight: Painting raised surfaces lighter to simulate light falling on the figure.
Contrast: Miniatures are so small, painters will use effects like shading and highlighting to exaggerate contrast and make the details on the miniature easier to see.

This guy does some more advanced techniques, but you can see the effect of the contrast paints and how they work.

« Last Edit: May 30, 2019, 02:47:28 AM by Ratman_tf »
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Tod13

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« Reply #4 on: May 29, 2019, 08:20:47 AM »
Interesting. I wonder how it will look on 6mm. (6mm figures tend to react differently to washes. You have to use extra bright colors since the wash dulls it is down more than it does on 25/28 or even 15mm.)

Delete_me

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« Reply #5 on: May 30, 2019, 02:58:54 PM »
I am looking forward to trying these out. Maybe it will help me get less lazy on painting the like... 500+ high elves I have laying in a cabinet.

Ratman_tf

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« Reply #6 on: June 08, 2019, 04:32:01 PM »
MWG Kris has a video taking an Imperial Fist from primer/base to finished using only Contrast Paints + a drybrush pass.



Using these paints, if you ever make a mistake or need to do a touchup, GW sells the primer colors in pots as well. You can "erase" a portion and start over if you make a big mistake.
« Last Edit: June 08, 2019, 04:35:19 PM by Ratman_tf »
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Ratman_tf

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« Reply #7 on: June 11, 2019, 01:33:55 PM »
Contrast medium + Nuln Oil = super easy panel lining paint!



I've tried making my own mediums, and never was quite happy. The stuff you get from an art store is very thick and has to be watered down, which changes the consistency of the medium. Thus I buy premade wash medium (the Reaper medium is very good so far.) and I love Lahmian Medium for thinning paint for layering.
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Chivalric

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« Reply #8 on: June 11, 2019, 04:27:41 PM »
My local warhammer store was given some of these to show off and let customers play with.  Some things I learned:

Don't let it pool.  A few minutes after you apply it, take a barely damp (not wet!) brush and clean up the pools.  The pools will be super intense in their colour and you'll have a hard time finding the exact shade to fix them afterwords.

Varnish the miniature.  Contrast paint dries as a very thin layer and you can rub it off more easily than a normal hobby paint.  Many colours also have this strange sort of sheen to them that doesn't look good.  So matte varnish is your friend.

They work fine on white.  You don't have to use their new fancy base paints or spray primers.  I couldn't really tell the difference between their grey seer and a miniature a friend brought with him primed with vallejo surface primer in grey.

The colour in the pot is nothing like the final dry colour.  Don't eyeball your colors based on the paint pots or the stuff when it is wet.  And orangey brown might dry as a bright yellow.  A grey might dry as a toothpaste green.  The colour swatches show the middle of the range of how it dries.

Reset with your base colour.  If you make a mistake and get a colour where you don't want it, you can't just cover over it with another contrast colour.  They're transparent.  So fix the area with white or their grey seer or wraithbone or whatever and then once that's dry, then apply the other colour.

Ratman_tf

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« Reply #9 on: June 12, 2019, 01:51:40 AM »
Quote from: Chivalric;1091628
My local warhammer store was given some of these to show off and let customers play with.  Some things I learned:

Don't let it pool.  A few minutes after you apply it, take a barely damp (not wet!) brush and clean up the pools.  The pools will be super intense in their colour and you'll have a hard time finding the exact shade to fix them afterwords.

Varnish the miniature.  Contrast paint dries as a very thin layer and you can rub it off more easily than a normal hobby paint.  Many colours also have this strange sort of sheen to them that doesn't look good.  So matte varnish is your friend.

They work fine on white.  You don't have to use their new fancy base paints or spray primers.  I couldn't really tell the difference between their grey seer and a miniature a friend brought with him primed with vallejo surface primer in grey.

The colour in the pot is nothing like the final dry colour.  Don't eyeball your colors based on the paint pots or the stuff when it is wet.  And orangey brown might dry as a bright yellow.  A grey might dry as a toothpaste green.  The colour swatches show the middle of the range of how it dries.

Reset with your base colour.  If you make a mistake and get a colour where you don't want it, you can't just cover over it with another contrast colour.  They're transparent.  So fix the area with white or their grey seer or wraithbone or whatever and then once that's dry, then apply the other colour.

Hey! Thanks for the report! Good stuff to know.
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Chivalric

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« Reply #10 on: June 12, 2019, 05:47:13 AM »
It's definitely a departure from their current painting system of base-shade-layer.

I think the Kris Belleau video about mixing nuln oil with the new contrast medium is awesome.  I love recess shading and that looks to be some of the easiest stuff to apply to the recesses ever.

Ratman_tf

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« Reply #11 on: June 12, 2019, 03:05:22 PM »
Quote from: Chivalric;1091711
It's definitely a departure from their current painting system of base-shade-layer.

I think the Kris Belleau video about mixing nuln oil with the new contrast medium is awesome.  I love recess shading and that looks to be some of the easiest stuff to apply to the recesses ever.

Yep. I do a lot of panel lines on spaceships, and I think the wash+medium is going to make it a lot easier. Can't wait till this weekend. :)
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Chivalric

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« Reply #12 on: June 12, 2019, 04:33:01 PM »
Friends of mine repaint x-wing ships a lot, so I sent them the video you posted.

Oil and enamel washes will likely always be the king of recess shading, but that takes so many extra steps like putting down a layer of gloss varnish, using solvents, long drying times and then another matte varnish.  Doing it with the same acrylics without any of that sounds like a great way to go.

Tod13

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« Reply #13 on: June 13, 2019, 08:38:59 AM »
Someone posted some 6mm Terminators examples (of the base and contrast) of these in the "6mm Miniatures & Wargaming" group on FB. They look pretty nice in 6mm.
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Has anyone figured out if these are just paints thinned with airbrush media? I've read a few posts from people that think that--tasting the paints gives the same taste/tingle.

Chivalric

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« Reply #14 on: June 13, 2019, 03:00:17 PM »
Yes, they are just a combination of pigment, mediums and additives (flow improvers, drying retarders, etc) like all paint.  You're basically paying for someone else to get the mix right for you instead of figuring it out yourself.  And it looks like they are using high intensity pigments.

Here's a video where Kris Belleau uses lahmian medium to thin down a contrast paint.  It ends up much runnier and makes the contrast paint behave a bit more like a GW shade paint.  Actually it behaves more like the mixture of nuln oil and contrast medium that he posted in a previous video.



I have a bunch of 3mm heresy stuff from Vanguard for a Battle of Calth epic30k game so I might get a blue and a flesh tearer red just for that.



I did some test models with shade and highlight and it was a pain.  There is enough detail on the vanguard stuff that you can edge highlight terminator shoulder pads at 3mm scale (lol):



I think contrast paints will just handle all that in one go at this scale.

Also, one thing I've noticed about contrast is that while there such a thing as applying too much (if it pools all over and you get splotches of super intense colour in one place that's not a deep recess, it's too much) you can also apply too little and the paint will sort of sit evenly across the surface and not flow away from the raised areas and into the recesses to give you the shade and highlight effect.
« Last Edit: June 13, 2019, 04:07:58 PM by Chivalric »