Contrast Day 1 - Chart and experimentations

[Minis by Night]

Gallery of all the paints on Savage Orruks and Scuttlings, plus some early tests:

https://imgur.com/gallery/fZMKNVS

 

What is contrast?

My guess is ink plus flow-air and some matte medium.

 

What is it good for?

Pretty much anything organic and natural like flesh, fur, hair, leather, wood, stone... Contrast it pretty good at reproducing the chaotic texture of these materials.

It's also a very good airbrush paint, better than the Citadel Air range in general.

I'm pretty sure they can be used as a precise wash, but I haven't tested that yet.

 

What is it NOT good for?

Metal and armors in general, any large flat surface. There's not metallic contrast paint, although I guess you could use it as a quick base for NMM. Armor usually need a pretty even coat of paint too look good, and Contrast will pool in the middle of large flat surface, not unlike Citadel Washes "coffee stain", although the pooling doesn't look as bad as the coffee stain.

 

Methodology:

All the models were primed with Vallejo Surface Primer White with an airbursh.

Contrast was applied with a Citadel medium wash brush, undiluted, with one thin-ish coat.

The top paint is on the right, the bottom paint is on the left. I know it feels backward.

I listed the closest color in the rest of the Citadel range under every image, but many of the Contrasts are more saturated than their base/layer counterpart.

 

Conclusions:

• Contrast stains. It stains your fingers (and your cloths) much more than normal paint. Don't drop a bottle.
• Contrast runs, A LOT. The "One Thick Coat" motto only works if you cover the whole model because it will run everywhere. If you just want to cover a specific area of the model, go Duncan (two thin coats). You can see in the second picture that I used a bit too much Magos Purple and it ran down the legs on it's own. I had a similar problem in the Contrast medium + ink test.
• Not all Contrast paints are "born" equal. Maybe half of the paints are rather light and will let the color underneath show through, the other half is pretty opaque and the color underneath will only dictate the lightness of the final result. The lighter paints could be combine with a non-white undercoat and act more as a filter(a color-shifting paint).
• Some paints, notably the light ones, would probably look better with the new Grey Seer and Wraithbone, notably the flesh tones. But I wantedd a neutral test first.
• Contrast work really well with an airbrush without any thinner. The thick ink consistency is just perfect. You CAN get the pooling in the recess effect if you overspray. With an airbrush you usually don't want any pooling, just a very light coat, but with Contrast the overspray will act a bit like a wash, although not as much as when it's applied with a brush. The ink will also tint the flat surface more than with a brush.  
• If you hate Citadel Pots, take your sprue cutter and cut the plastic hinge to free the lid. The lid floating above the pot is a large factor in the instability of the pot and the pooling of paint on its side.
  You can also get bottle holders for like 3$.
  For airbrush, get a bunch of plastic pipettes. 

Edited June 16, 2019 by Minis by Night

[MitGas]

lovely tests, thanks for sharing! 

[Carnelian]

When it comes to paint running into the wrong parts, it can be really affected by which way up you leave the model to dry - gravity is our friend so use it wisely! 

Lots of the paints look great over leadbelcher.