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

[CommodoreCass]

Its a win/win Strategy for GW and their customers. People will paint faster and better and will buy more miniatures. Some players who dont have lots of time for Hordes Army or big army, will now consider them under a new sight.

I personally cant wait to grab some and try it!

[dekay]

1 hour ago, RuneBrush said:

A Solid Review

Thanks for the write-up!

Don't get me wrong, while I don't think those are as revolutionary as hype builds them to be (it's clearly not a 'just slap a blob of paint on a model and it paints itself' solution), they do look like a very useful tool for many projects. I will be testing them, that's for sure. Especially for any upcoming horde comissions where speed and quantity are the most important, but using those as a first stage of more detailed painting will also speed things up sometimes.

[lare2]

Best pics I've seen. Thanks for this. Painting really isn't my thing (a necesary evil between my love of building and playing) and I'd happily use these. To be honest, I'd happily just leave certain things like that as well. The boots on that pox, for example, are good enough for me! 

[Zadolix]

So what I'm really wondering is whether this will work on my existing grey primed models. I've got my eyes on using the black contrast paint to do all my Moonclan grots robes but I'm not sure how it will look over grey primer. Typically I do it with 2-3 washes of nuln oil to get a nice effect, if I can get the same effect with one coat of this that would be amazing and much more cost efficient than burning through my nuln oil.

[Absolution black]

As a very lapsed painter (probably haven't painted in 10+ years) these paints are very good news for me.  It will enable me to quickly put coats on the piles of grey models I have in the limited time I get for any hobby stuff.

I'm not too concerned with the fine detail on my models but do feel some shame that they are all grey!  These paints will hopefully go some to alleviate this shame!

 

[SwampHeart]

I'm going to take a leap of faith on this one and trust GW. I have a big tournament coming up at the end of July and I'm taking Slaanesh (with a lot of Beasts of Chaos) and I'm going to use contrast at the start of June to get the army table ready (the only standard I paint to anyway) - that'll be roughly 2 months from start to finish. Maybe it'll look terrible (probably not that far from my current paint skills), maybe it'll look better than what I normally do, we'll find out!

[Battlefury]

So, to be very honest, I think those contrast paint are pure ?>?>?.

They are glazes. That's it. Painting those thinned paints onto that "new" primer ( you could also take pure white primers for the same reason, really ) it will let the colour run into the recessed areas, leaving the high edges thinner, so the primner can shine through.

For those, who are like "WOOOOOOOOOOW those paints change everything", please think again. It is basically glazes. And you can do them yourself, with every single colour.

Receipe:

1. Take colour you want
2. mix in Glaze Median / L. Medium ( whatever glaze medium you use
3. Paint the model
4. Done

You really don't have to paint another 6€ ( guess they gonna cost that ) on paints, that are already existing.

MOD EDIT:  This is a family friendly forum here

Edited May 14, 2019 by RuneBrush
edited for profanity

[SwampHeart]

3 minutes ago, Battlefury said:

*Snip*

So you had a chance to use them this weekend at WarhammerFest? Your overview seems quite a bit different from what I've seen from others who had the same opportunity. 

[MitGas]

I'm pretty impressed by the lobster-y color on RuneBrush's test model. Great pic indeed. I'm sure now that these could have their uses in more than just the simplest of paintjobs as well (think zenithal highlight with white over a white-grey and some slight blue grey for shadows and then some felsh color over it - instant skin that is likely better than what most can do with lots of layers). Arguably you could also just glaze good inks for a similar effect but they do have some nice colors.

[Euphanism]

80% of my games at our local store are played against hordes of grey plastic, or at best, some base-coated models and one or two finished ones.

If these paints drop that number by even a third, I'll consider them an awesome success.

[Sleboda]

7 hours ago, RuneBrush said:

 A new varnish has been developed that should replicate the satin finish of the range and be more reliable than the current varnish (very much a case of each version of the varnish being better than the last).

This is the biggest thing making me hesitate. I've not varnished a model in the last 25 years it so. I just don't like the look, the risk, or the time taken to do it.

If these paints are going to require a varnish to prevent them coming off from normal handling, then that's a large knock against them.

[ChaosLord]

If they put these in a box set with a reasonable cost, I will definitely be buying it. 

[SwampHeart]

39 minutes ago, Sleboda said:

If these paints are going to require a varnish to prevent them coming off from normal handling, then that's a large knock against them.

Different strokes I guess. I live in a high humidity area and I've never had and issue with the current GW varnish and honestly given that it takes all of about half an hour to Varnish my whole army I can't see this being a huge draw back. If you don't like the GW finish there are a ton of other great options out there. 

[gjnoronh]

The pics I've seen on Twitter from people who have actually tried it out during the weekend were really amazing.  Most of it was middle of the pack at the GT level shading and highlighting.     

Ben our host here at TGA shared on twitter a mini he did in 5 minutes that was better (in terms of shading and highlighting) then most table top work at the store level.  Still needed details and some cleaning up but could be with batch painting efficiencies something like 5-10 minutes a mini (his was a sequitor so not a tiny little thing either.)   That would be amazing.   Units done in an evening, maybe an army painted in a week or two?

 

 

 

[Battlefury]

1 minute ago, gjnoronh said:

Ben our host here at TGA shared on twitter a mini he did in 5 minutes that was better (in terms of shading and highlighting) then most table top work at the store level. 

Could you share that picture?

[gjnoronh]

1 minute ago, Battlefury said:

Could you share that picture?

 

Also see this 

 

 

[Forrix]

I've had good results with AK Interactive Ulta Matt varnish and Army painter matt varnish. You can apply them via brush or airbrush. I'm not their target audience though I'm used to varnishing minis because Airbrush layers rub off easily if you don't.

If this stuff works though I've got a couple hundred clan rats and plague monks I know will never be finished via my regular painting methods.

Edited May 13, 2019 by Forrix

[AGPO]

10 hours ago, syph0n said:

*snip*

Speeding up elements of the paint job doesn't mean that you can't produce outstanding results by using these things wisely. Hexwraith, for example, is brilliant for using for Warp fire, green glow etc because of its properties - thin, high pigment etc. Using regular paints, washes etc then supplements them. I've heard a few people say they look fantastic over metalics too.

I've had the joy of seeing people like Darren Latham's Silver Skulls in the flesh. They're literally sprayed silver, washed (carefully) and then all the hard work goes on the eyes, shoulder pads and other details to help it stand out. They're beautiful, but clean and simple paint jobs.  Then when you add in the characters and the whole army looks phenomenal. Or, Tyler Mengel's awesome Nighthaunt. Use of Nihilakh Oxide. These could be used similarly - get the big areas done quick, but devote time to details. I'm keen to see how these could be applied to flesh personally. 

These are great. Use as intended for very quick army jobs. Use in your arsenal however you wish if you stick to more traditional methods. 

 

This is spot on as far as I'm concerned. Anyone who painted a red or yellow army before the original foundation (aka base) paints came out can tell you that shaving time off the basic stages of an army makes you more, not less likely to invest in adding more detail. If you have a limited amount of hobby time then you achieve what you can in that time. People who go beyond basecoating their minis were already investing more time than strictly necessary, but now they can skip the wash and initial highlights and instead focus on the finer details.

As a personal example, I have had two imperial fists armies, one pre-base paints, when a flat yellow took four or more coats of paint, and one painted with the release of the modern paint range. I spent the same amount of time per mini on each army, but the newer ones have glowing eye lenses, a couple of layers of edge highlights and some freehand. I can invest in those extra details because all my hobby time isn't being chewed through just to get the basics in place.

[Kyriakin]

53 minutes ago, gjnoronh said:

Also see this 

Jesus, I am so glad I never bothered to take the time to learn to paint properly now.

Edited May 13, 2019 by Kyriakin

[The World Tree]

42 minutes ago, Kyriakin said:

Jesus, I am so glad I never bothered to take the time to learn to paint properly now.

Those aren't just the contrast paints. But the contrast paints plus usual highlighting techniques. Apparently not the Plague Marine.

Edited May 13, 2019 by The World Tree

[Tommy]

I think the choice of shades and tones to use together will be very  important for these given their somewhat  pastel palette in general. For example the Nurgle guy in that Twitter link above looks great whereas other pink/blue/yellow combos I saw in other pics from the weekend are less striking.

Another thing I’ve been wondering  is whether using a thin line of Nuln Oil or maybe Agrax to separate different  colours would work well, make them bolder. The boundaries between the different shades used aren’t all that well-defined in some pics.

Edited May 13, 2019 by Tommy

[jaebird]

Honestly the more I consider these paints, the more I like the sounds of them. I have two armies that are nearly all organic materials (Sylvaneth and now Gloomspite Gitz), and it's hard for me not to want to using these as my main base coats. Being able to quickly get my models based and coloured let's me spend way more time working on the little details I need to learn and get better at. My first set of models were a unit a of Dryads, and while I'm satisfied with them, I know I could have better results if I didn't cut corners as I got impatient and bored with the models. If most of the time is at the detail stage, well, I bet I'm going to have more fun.

[Zanzou]

4 hours ago, The World Tree said:

Those aren't just the contrast paints. But the contrast paints plus usual highlighting techniques. Apparently not the Plague Marine.

Wouldn't that massively defeat the purpose of demonstrating what contrast paints can do, if you are highlighting them anyway?  This whole thing is strange...

Edited May 14, 2019 by Zanzou

[Inquisitorsz]

@Battlefury
Yes they are essentially glazes. But they are high pigment glazes that you can't easily replicate with regular glazing.
It's probably the same as doing 4-5 glazes.... which takes ages. 
 

Especially for the darker colours. You can get away with a single flesh wash or glaze over white (I've done it before) and it looks great. But you can't do the same for red or dark blue or dark green. At least not in 1 coat. 

People who already glaze a lot are well beyond the target audience of these new paints. 

[Sleboda]

8 hours ago, SwampHeart said:

Different strokes I guess. I live in a high humidity area and I've never had and issue with the current GW varnish and honestly given that it takes all of about half an hour to Varnish my whole army I can't see this being a huge draw back. If you don't like the GW finish there are a ton of other great options out there. 

It's not the GW version I am averse to. I just don't like varnish on models at all.