The marketing ploy is that you only need contrast paints and you can paint an army quickly with no skill. Its a magical paint that does the highlighting and shading in one step so well that you can have that unit on the table quicker, accolades sooner and the drink in hand while gaming.
So the bug bit and being curious about the paints and seeing what it can do. I decided to stop by my local hobby shop the Maroon Hornet Comics and Games in Oxford, PA and picked up Ultramarine Blue and Blood Angels Red. I chose those colours because they were the ones I was going to paint my 10mm warmaster Empire/Dogs of War army with.
Most videos online show Contrast paints being used on 28mm as that is the most popular scale, however i havent painted a GW 28mm figure in years since I dont play 40k or Age of Sigmar. I have gone to smaller scale such as 15, 10 and 6mm for my games especially for mass battle games such as Field of Glory, Epic, Dropzone and Warmaster.
I chose Pikeman and Halbediers from Warmonger-Miniatures out of Massachusetts. They have a line of Empire figures for Warmaster/Dogs of War in 10mm and are always adding more units. Fair price and good quality miniatures. Highly recommend them.
Okay onto the Contrast Test. You will see pictures of the primer i used for the figures, pictures of the figures after they are primed and then you will see pictures of figures with Contrast paint. So lets go:
This picture shows the primers I used, however you will notice that I did not prime Space Ships in Red Oxide. I primed in Flat Grey. So the picture of the can of Krylon i used is paint and primer combo and comes in Flat Grey (I painted the ships a while back and ran out of Flat Grey and disposed of the can).
These are the two Frigates from UCM DropFleet Commander primed Krylon Flat Grey:
Contrast of Blood Angels Red and Ultramarine Blue, straight from the bottle, shaken not stirred plus not watered down or anything. Single coat.
Contrast of Blood Angels Red and Ultramarine Blue, mixed with equal parts of Contrast paint and water. Single coat.
Contrast of Blood Angels Red and Ultramarine Blue, straight from the bottle, shaken not stirred plus not watered down or anything. Single coat.
Observation/Conclusion:
Based on the pictures you can see some obvious things. The Frigates first. They were primed a Grey colour then painted with Contrast straight from the bottle. In this case it looks like a normal layer or base paint effect. Not much depth or highlighting is noticeable. The paint went on smooth and easier than a layer/base paint and less paint strokes to cover the model. It felt like working with a wash but the layer brush I used held more paint so less paint strokes to cover the model. I guess if I watered down the paint it might provide the depth and highlight I was looking for.
The Pikeman and Halbediers were primed White using Privateer Press P3 primer. Both strips had the some figure poses to make comparisons easier. The figures as you can see have lots of detail and not many flat surfaces, so this will work well to show off the Contrast colours.
The first strip was painted in Red and Blue and straight from the bottle. One dip of the brush and the paint flowed nicely onto the figures flowing into the recesses and holding on any flat surfaces. This went on pretty quick with very few brush dips, so less paint strokes and the coverage was nice. The red come out nice with noticeable shading however the blue appeared a little dark though it did have the shading.
The second strips was painted in Red and Blue diluted with equal parts water. Again one dip of the brush and the paint flowed nicely, filling recesses and holding any flat surfaces. Though by adding water it basically became a wash, however depending on how much water you add you could get a better result. The models almost look like pastels when adding water so to much water probably not a good idea.
So this is my review and take on the Contrast paint. The paint went on nice with single brush dip and flowed into the recess as it should. The colour coverage was even with no blotchy spots. It did provide the shading and highlighting as it states. I can see how it could be used to base coat and shade/highlight a whole model in step. However I wouldnt just use contrast to paint models as the paint does provide good coverage and better than spraying a coloured primers as the base coat. Contrast is a good tool to add to your painting table and provides many options depending on the effect you are looking for and the time you have to paint or how quick you need your models painted.
One thing that you could try out is using a different base primer such as a tan or lighter grey. This may make the colours not look very pastel and provide a greater depth of colour to the contrast paint letting it pop. So add Contrast paints to your collection and use where appropriate. For me I will finish up these models with regular layer, base colours and see how they turn out. If it is adequate I have found a good way to get my warmaster armies painted.
