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So, what do we think of the new Contrast paints?


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21 minutes ago, 5kaven5lave said:

I know it’s 40k but just painted up a unit of 5 Aeldari Wraithguard in about 2 hours. It dries better than I looks when wet. I’m pretty happy with it for models that aren’t my main game.

Could you post few pictures please? Colors?

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     Ok so I’m still not able to get any of the new contrast paints to try myself, and I’m hoping someone here has had the chance to play with them and can help me out. How well does the apothecary white work in comparison to transitional white mini paints? I hate painting white and that is my only interest in this range. I’ve used both GW’s and Reaper’s whites and would like a comparison of Apothecary’s performance against them.

     If it works as well as advertised or at least better than the whites I’ve tried before I’ll try ordering some online when it comes back in stock... if not then I’ll just be done with the waiting. It’ll be at least two more weeks before I can even try to buy from my (not so) local store due to my work schedule and the website is still currently sold out. If it helps/matters my original intent was to airbrush the two new basecoats while brush painting on the new white. 

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27 minutes ago, Lior'Lec said:

     Ok so I’m still not able to get any of the new contrast paints to try myself, and I’m hoping someone here has had the chance to play with them and can help me out. How well does the apothecary white work in comparison to transitional white mini paints? I hate painting white and that is my only interest in this range. I’ve used both GW’s and Reaper’s whites and would like a comparison of Apothecary’s performance against them.

      If it works as well as advertised or at least better than the whites I’ve tried before I’ll try ordering some online when it comes back in stock... if not then I’ll just be done with the waiting. It’ll be at least two more weeks before I can even try to buy from my (not so) local store due to my work schedule and the website is still currently sold out. If it helps/matters my original intent was to airbrush the two new basecoats while brush painting on the new white. 

The white is astonishingly good. Some of the other paints I'm mixed on, but the white is special. 

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Something that crossed my mind was pairing a Zenithal highlight with a gloss varnish and then the Contrast paints. The gloss could give the same smooth surface as the new primers (and is something that is used by some painters for doing interesting things with washes) and make it work over a wider variety of base paints.

I won't start messing with them until next weekend. I've got some ideas I'll be doing for my Everchosen entry (basically some stuff involving colored metallics by basically spending too many hours shading and highlighting silver to then put thinned coats of contrast over it), so it'll be interesting if I can nail the effect I'm looking for.

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I did some experiments with contrast this afternoon. I was excited for the release and played around with the demo poxwalkers at my local store prior to release.

Below are 3 skinks, one done in the traditional 2 thin base coats and shade, 1 done with contrast and some traditional base colors over Wraithbone, and 1 done with contrast and some traditional base colors over Grey Seer.

The traditional one (with the darker shield) took 50 minutes. In comparison, I was able to complete both contrast skinks in 47 minutes. The traditional one is definitely better looking, with cleaner colors and fewer pooling marks. However, the difference is negligible from tabletop distance.

I found that the Contrast dried so quickly that I had issues touching up areas or removing pooling. Admittedly, I live in a very dry and hot part of the US, so your mileage may vary in other climates. I think this will also make it difficult to wet blend without medium and it also meant a lot dried on my palette.

I plan on layering and highlighting them to see if the difference is noticable after layers and highlights. If there is no noticable difference, I will use Contrast to speed up the process but not leave the paintjob at just Contrast.

20190615_143555.jpg

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     @The World Tree Thanks, now I’m conflicted on weather I should be more exited to try it or more disappointed about having to wait lol. 

     @Spears I hate painting white as a primary color, I can use it for details and small highlights somewhat ok but not for larger areas (such as cloaks and capes). My intent is to find an easier way to get a decent white (heck even a 1/16th decent white). My process is currently either light grey or white primer with an airbrush followed by shading recesses in the shadow color I want followed by catching the higher areas with actual white paint. Comes out looking like ****** every time so I want to try substituting apothecary for the whites I’m currently using (corax, screaming skull (?),  pallid wytch Flesh, and Reaper MSP pure white). So far every white I’ve tried just looks like chalky ****** and no matter how much I try and it just gets worse the more I try to improve (my ability/skill) so I’m tired of even bothering. Either this works or white will be removed from my arsenal as a main color. 

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2 hours ago, Riavan said:

A lot are looking way too pastel for me.

I feel like that can be a selling point for certain armies (daemons, Orruks, Seraphon), and the color darkens down quite a bit when you give it a second coat in most test models I've seen.

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11 hours ago, Lior'Lec said:

        @Spears I hate painting white as a primary color, I can use it for details and small highlights somewhat ok but not for larger areas (such as cloaks and capes). My intent is to find an easier way to get a decent white (heck even a 1/16th decent white). My process is currently either light grey or white primer with an airbrush followed by shading recesses in the shadow color I want followed by catching the higher areas with actual white paint. Comes out looking like ****** every time so I want to try substituting apothecary for the whites I’m currently using (corax, screaming skull (?),  pallid wytch Flesh, and Reaper MSP pure white). So far every white I’ve tried just looks like chalky ****** and no matter how much I try and it just gets worse the more I try to improve (my ability/skill) so I’m tired of even bothering. Either this works or white will be removed from my arsenal as a main color. 

If you already own an airbrush I can't see the apothecary white being a better solution than just airbrushing the white on. I'd recommend inverting your process so you work dark to light.
In the interest of seeing what happens if you splosh the contrast white over an extreme preshade I had a go over white to black/purple, as you can see the results are pretty horrific. You could potentially get somewhere if the apothecary white is darker than either of the preshade steps but at that point why not just airbrush the white.

D9Fme4ZVUAA66ZJ.jpg

Edit: As an aside for anyone doing stormcast the iyanden yellow over silver makes a lovely gold.

Edited by Spears
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12 hours ago, LoopyZebra said:

dmittedly, I live in a very dry and hot part of the US, so your mileage may vary in other climates. I think this will also make it difficult to wet blend without medium and it also meant a lot dried on my palette

Had the same problem. Actually went back to the store today as I was trying to wet blend red to yellow without an orange but even with the medium I couldn’t get it right. So back to The store for gryphhound orange 😂

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This is over Vallejo white primer.

OUwSD1k.jpg

I would be very interested if someone colour matched Vallejo primers to the new GW undercoats. This is the best I can come up with based on pictures, but Vallejo's color charts are all over the place and in some catalogs Ghost Grey looks lighter than Grey and in some darker, same with Israeli Sand vs Desert Tan.

wtmWrCl.jpg

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I played around with a few colors yesterday and generally liked them quite a bit. Interesting note: Snakebite Leather is almost identical to Scale 75 ink tense wood but more matte. Black Templar was nice but I can almost exactly duplicate it with 1 part scale 75 flat black and 2 parts flow Improver. 

Warp Lightning Green is probably may favorite (of the 5 I tried). Solid coverage and got a neat effect on a skaven weapon by putting it over an edge highlight of yriel yellow. 

Cygor Brown is a little too dark but I think will be fine if thinned with some medium but my store didn't have any. Some glazes of ratskin flesh over it still produced a nice effect for skaven skin/fur. 

I think a traditonal zenthol in general isn't necessary for these paints. They're high pigment and opaque enough that the shadows are already pretty dark. A zenthol of white over the base might help emphasize highlights.  In general I've found a solid prime of ghost grey (similar to grey seer) works best. 

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I tested it yesterday

the two on the left

basecoat: grey seer

contrast: gryph-charger 

drybrush: grey seer

 

middle to right:

mixed skeleton horde mit gryph-Charger 

right: skeleton horde + same drybrush

 

Sadly my shop also had no Contrast medium.

I like the Conor’s (though the ones I tested didn’t fit for FeC)

ino once you‘ve learned how to use them, they‘re real timesavers!

each model on the pictures took about 2 minutes excluding drying time.

 

 

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Edited by JackStreicher
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After doing some layers + highlighting, the Contrast skinks versus the traditional ones look identical, so I think I will keep using Contrast to shave off time in the early stages. I was also able to use some of the Contrast colors to do the feather color effect.

I also used Contrast on some board game miniatures (Rising Sun) as well as on a larger endless spell model. Contrast looks terrible anywhere there's a flat surface, so I would never recommend it for use on anything other than flesh, fur, fabric, or textured materials. It made a mess of the endless spell. I would also not use it on small details like belts, ropes, or weapon hafts, as it might be easier and cleaner to just use regular paint.

20190616_163356.jpg

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7 hours ago, JackStreicher said:

Another test.

agsin 2,5min per dryad but beware the red is no contrast color.

used colors:

2:1 skeleton horde:wyldwood - bark

green: wetblended into the Browns: warp lighting

red: some armypainter wash.

Softly drybrushed with pallid witch flesh

Oh this tone is lovely. Very much sold me on moving to contrast to my woods, for certain. I think I'm going use a similar recipe to push the browns into a more greyish tone, give it good contrast with some pink leaves.

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