New contrast paints from GW

[Acrocanth]

Well, if you compare it to my horde technique now it might actually not be worth it if it is expensive.
Right now I do:
- prime with base color (Army Painter color primer)
- slap wash on it
- do a quick, lazy drybrush
- details

...which is probably the same amount of work, roughly speaking. So for me it will really depend on the price and how well the "highlight" effect looks.

See I feel like you're going a step or two of detail more then I am considering given the videos we've seen like that pox walker. I'm assuming you prime it you slap colour where you need it being just neat enough around the borders and your done. But I think we're on the same ish page. Whether this paint is worth it or not will depend on your budget, your time and the level of results you want.

 

[Just A Skink]

I assume it will cost a bit more than GW's standard paints. 1. I think the pots are a bit bigger. 2. They are potentially selling you fewer products. Instead of base/layer/shade/highlight (with each one a different paint), they're just selling you base spray and contrast paint.

 

[Acrocanth]

I assume it will cost a bit more than GW's standard paints. 1. I think the pots are a bit bigger. 2. They are potentially selling you fewer products. Instead of base/layer/shade/highlight (with each one a different paint), they're just selling you base spray and contrast paint.

Depends, they could be counting on people with backlogs using it to paint a lot more, or people building bigger back logs cause they can paint faster, since you're using a think coat you might use more of it on a model then a normal paint, they might be marketing them to get people into the hobby more and making them a bit more affordable wouldn't hurt there? I could see them being similar to a shade or a textured paint? Have to wait and see... it will be another potential make or brake issue for them and I'm sure someone has spent a bunch of time market researching this.

 

[Just A Skink]

Depends, they could be counting on people with backlogs using it to paint a lot more, or people building bigger back logs cause they can paint faster, since you're using a think coat you might use more of it on a model then a normal paint, they might be marketing them to get people into the hobby more and making them a bit more affordable wouldn't hurt there? I could see them being similar to a shade or a textured paint? Have to wait and see... it will be another potential make or brake issue for them and I'm sure someone has spent a bunch of time market researching this.

That makes sense. They seem marketed to the beginning painter, or busy painter, or (ahem) lazy painter, and I could see the paints being reasonably priced.

 

[Ritual]

I don't know why price would be the inhibiting factor. It's not like you need to buy the entire range of them to make use. If you were knocking out 100 yellow skinks for example you could just buy two of them and save yourself a ridiculous amount of time.

They also have a lot of applications beyond just blast coverage too. They're going to make so many effects a lot easier to achieve.

 

[NIGHTBRINGER]

I don't know why price would be the inhibiting factor.

Because you never know what GW will charge for them. Hopefully they are reasonable. But with GW, anything is possible.

They're going to make so many effects a lot easier to achieve.

I am curious to see how people will be able to make use of them.

 

[Ritual]

I don't really see the point in having a conversation about the paints degenerating into yet another conversion about the pricing of something. If cost is an inhibiting factor then you're probably in the wrong hobby...

 

[Lord Agragax of Lunaxoatl]

I'm not bothered about the cost of paints myself, I'm just bothered about the increasing costs of what I want to paint...

 

[DeathBringer125]

So how do these work? Is it basically like a base coat with shading done already? For example painting flesh would you just use this and your done?

 

[Acrocanth]

So how do these work? Is it basically like a base coat with shading done already? For example painting flesh would you just use this and your done?

Yes that's the idea. They are really pigmented by flow into crevices so the colour is dark there and then thin and light on the edges. So if you use a light matt primer which they apparently need a smooth primer coat to really work you get sort of a base coat and shade effect all in one. I hear they are also very thin and will want a matt varnish or what ever at the end. You can't really thin them with water have to use a media to get keep the consistency.

 

[neveroddoreven]

I got to test some of these at Warhammer fest. Maybe I'm just dumb, but I couldn't tell the difference between these and a wash (or 'shade' as Citadel calls them). Maybe they are slightly different in pigment intensity or something, but I'm not sure. Similar to how I can't really tell the difference between their Base and Layer range.
It seems like GW is popularising wash painting and making a new bunch of paints to sell. Back in the day I did a big Tyranid army like this very quick.
But don't let me sound too cynical, I actually think this is a good thing; It lowers the bar to entry for beginners, and will hopefully get more painted armies out there. And if they are just washes then that's great, Citadel make excellent washes and now there'll be a much bigger range of colours.

 

[Aginor]

I got to test some of these at Warhammer fest. Maybe I'm just dumb, but I couldn't tell the difference between these and a wash (or 'shade' as Citadel calls them). Maybe they are slightly different in pigment intensity or something, but I'm not sure. Similar to how I can't really tell the difference between their Base and Layer range.
It seems like GW is popularising wash painting and making a new bunch of paints to sell. Back in the day I did a big Tyranid army like this very quick.
But don't let me sound too cynical, I actually think this is a good thing; It lowers the bar to entry for beginners, and will hopefully get more painted armies out there. And if they are just washes then that's great, Citadel make excellent washes and now there'll be a much bigger range of colours.

I am pretty sure that painters of your level are not really the targeted group for those paints. Some pro painters are shown in the marketing videos, but I'll go out on a limb and say they don't need them, and probably achieve better results the old fashioned way.

As you know (probably better than anyone else here) very good painters tend to use thin paints, very little paint on the brush, and place the paint precisely where it should go. In that case the contrast paints just act as washes.

Maybe that's why they are not very special to you. You probably would never go ahead and overload your brush and just glob the paint on there thickly and quickly. And that's exactly what the colors seem to be good at. It is the way they dry (the pools vs. the parts where the paint is thin) what sets them apart and really creates the effect it seems.

That being said:
I feel the same as you concerning base paints and layer paints. They are basically the same, the layer paints are just a tad thinner. But if you thin the base paints a bit you can layer with base paints just as well. Same for the dry paints. I drybrush with regular paints. I just don't put them into the wet palette so the thinner ones can dry a little bit. But both the Citadel colors and the Army Painter colors I use can all be used for basecoating, layering, and drybrushing. And making washes.
At least at my level of painting.

 

[Acrocanth]

I think the most impressive thing about the warhammer community seraphon was actually the bastiladon's skin. I remember picking out all my scales when I did mine and their results look great.

I'm still not super interested in contrast but I could see myself playing around with it when someone finds a cool glaze technique with them. The new layer and base paints are more interesting. Catachan flesh might actually be that nice brown skin tone I was looking for in citadel before giving up and moving to foundry. There's also more burgundy and sea greens and I love me my tertiary colours.

I also see the edges are under the layer banner now which makes sense.

 

[Acrocanth]

And on the Canadian store they're already 1/3 of them that are temporarily out of stock . Guess the price isn't a big deal for some people

 

[Just A Skink]

Today, I had a chance to mess around with some of the contrast paints at my local GW store. They were fun to use. As many others have said, it takes a little bit of getting used to just brushing on lots of shade-like paint. Obviously, it will pool and/or run if too heavy.

The colors were nice overall. Most were bright and vibrant, and others were darker than I expected. From the few I tried, my preferred choice of blue for Seraphon (if you prefer the standard color) is Aethermatic Blue in two coats. Many of the other blues or blue-greens are a bit too dark for me, even the Terradon Turquoise. Diluting with contrast medium could help. Or maybe that contrast blue over Baharroth or Temple Guard.

The flesh tones were quite nice over the wraithbone base.

Wet blending is possible, but results vary based on skill and patience. Layering various colors is also possible and fun to test.

One of the more interesting things was to see some of the store manager's own tests with contrast over various "base" colors. The coolest I saw was the contrast black over a red base. It was sort of a dark burgundy with subtle red highlights.

Anyway, I could see myself using these depending on my project/needs.

 

[The Red Devil]

And on the Canadian store they're already 1/3 of them that are temporarily out of stock . Guess the price isn't a big deal for some people

This is hard to say since we don't know what the initial stock for Canada was. For all we know, they received 10 pots of each color Well yea, they most probably got more, but I doubt GW initially create large quantities of the paint, as they want to see the demand first before going into full production.

 

[TrevBot]

Got to test some contrast paint over the weekend at my local GW store.

I'm a beginner painter, and I paint ungodly slow. Like, one model a day slow or one single step if I'm doing line painting. I managed to get 2 models completed in about 2 hours using public store brushes that honestly suck.

Here are some pictures:



I'm super happy with how these came out!

Used the following colors:

Talassar Blue on majority
Ultramarine Blue on back scales.
Snakebite Leather on blowpipes.
Flesh Tearers Red on shields.
Blood Angels Red on fins.
Iyanden Yellow on eyes.
Volupus Pink in the mouth.
Wraithbone Base over jewelry, bracers, claws, teeth.
Skeleton Horde over bracer, claws.
Good ol' Retributor Gold on tips of blowpipe, shields and jewelry.

I think I definitely used more colors than you're really meant to with this painting system, but I still love the effect and doubt I could replicate it well with normal paints and my shaky hands. I'm sold, I have a preorder for all the above colors and expect to start churning through my 72 skinks next Saturday.

By no means are they perfect or even great, but maaaan it saves so much time!

 

[Just A Skink]

Here is a VERY simple contrast test on a skink.
Base: Baharroth Blue
Skin: Aethermatic Blue contrast (it possibly could handle two coats). Light dry brush of Baharroth Blue
Scales: Akhelian Green contrast (painted on when the Aethermatic was still rather wet... otherwise too dark)

I will say, I LOVE the blue-green color of the Aethermatic over Baharroth. It's very "Caribbean" blue-green.



For comparison, here is a photo of a plain Baharroth based skink, the contrast painted skink, and a plain Temple Guard based saurus. Usual comments about it being a bad photo in fluorescent light. I think the top photo of the single skink is more accurate to the color.



EDIT: Here are two new photos that I think show the colors a bit better. The paint job would probably look better with Baharroth layered over, instead of dry brushed. But, I'm not that great at layering yet, and I just wanted to show a quick paint job.

 

[TrevBot]

I love how the scales pop like hell on these @Just A Skink!

I wonder if I can get that effect on mine with just a bit of dry brushing.

Not sure what color to use tho.

 

[Just A Skink]

I love how the scales pop like hell on these @Just A Skink!

I wonder if I can get that effect on mine with just a bit of dry brushing.

Not sure what color to use tho.

Thanks @TrevBot. I was hesitant to do a dry brush, just because I typically don't like how "chalky" it turns out. Fortunately, the colors were pretty close, and I tried to do a light and soft dry brush. So, I'm sure you can bring up some of your detail with it. I checked my Citadel Paint App, and saw that Lothern Blue might work well over Talassar Blue contrast.

Did you paint more than one layer of the contrast paints onto your mini? I try to keep the contrast colors to just one coat if I can. They're a bit more luminous that way. And, I kind of got lucky with my colors. I painted the dark teal color onto the mini while the lighter aqua color was still wet. That seemed to tone down the dark teal, because it's a bit too dark & opaque for my taste otherwise. It did just the right amount of running into the recesses and ran off the edges of the scales, almost like I painted a highlight.

That said, the contrast paints have their pluses and minuses. They can be a bit difficult for me to control, and I kind of messed up my saurus test by not painting the dark teal on soon enough. Ha ha. Oh well.