Playing with the new Contrast Paints

There is an old adage "Use the right tools for the right job", and this is certainly true when it comes to the modelling and painting aspects of our hobby. My hobby circle has been buzzing for the last few weeks about the new "Contrast Paints" and certainly the Games Workshop PR machine has been in overdrive telling us all about them. 

There has been a repeating marketing theme along the lines of "getting models table top ready in super quick time", and regular readers will know that's something certain to get my attention!  My local store hosted a Contrast Demo day and so I went along to see these paints in action.

My first attempt was applying a grey onto a Space Marine Intercessor. The result was underwhelming; very patchy, and quite thin in places. Apparently the pot wasn't shaken well enough, and the Contrast Paints can pool on flat surfaces. Hmmm, so temperamental and not necessarily suitable for all models.

Contrast Paints are essentially highly pigmented washes, allowing a base coat and shade to be applied in a single coat; the more texture there is on a model, the greater the effect of the "Contrast". Undaunted, I've picked up a few pots to try on a few different models; these definitely aren't Space Marines.

This hungry chap is a Wiz Kids Mimic, a devious dungeon denizen who disguises itself as a treasure chest to lure unwary Adventurers to their doom!

 
All the main colours have been achieved by a single coat of Contrast:

• Wooden Chest: Snakebite Leather
• Flesh: Guilleman Flesh
• Tongue: Snakebite Leather
• Teeth: Skeleton Horde

Once the Contrast had been applied and dried I used Leadbelcher for the metal work, touched up the teeth with Bleached Bone, applied a little tentacle pink to the muscles and used Warpstone/Moot Green for the eyes. Very quick and easy to do!

It won't win any awards but it's certainly table top standard, and very easy to do.

Mike the Mimic was actually the second model in the session; the first was a Frostgrave Skeleton (built from the Cultists kit):

This was literally an exercice in slapping the (well shaken) paint onto the model. With hindsight it's a bit too thick on the shoulder pads, but it's fine for table top, and easily meets the 3' rule. I applied Leadbelcher & Nuln Oil to the sword and a bit of glowy green to the eyes and called him done.  

The skeleton is an excellent (minion) addition to the Ragged Court, my Frostgrave Warband. Acecerak the Wizard approves!

(A side note; I've acquired some Renedra flagstone bases for my fantasy models, no more crap free hand cobblestones!).

Coming full circle; after some initial disappointment and skepticism, I'm actually pretty happy with the Contrast Paints and they are a welcome addition to my painting tool box. I won't be painting legions of Power Armour with them, but they are going to see use on plenty of other models!

I need to assess my back log of projects and add the appropriate colours to this lot: