Good morning/afternoon/evening everyone!
It's taken me a while, but I've finally had the chance to sit down and get some work done with the Contrast Paints from GW, have a play with them and see what I think. There's been a lot of discussion about these new paints over the last few weeks. Some love them, some hate them*, some see them as a gimmick, some as an essential new way of doing things, some as an overhyped bit of money for old rope. I see them as a useful tool, with many applications, some less obvious than others.
Whatever your opinion of them, it's undeniable that these new paints have caused a stir and, as there is so much to be said about them, I didn't want to just rush off a quick overview and be done with it so, over the next few weeks, I'll be looking closely at them and, hopefully, providing some useful insights as to what they can be used for.
With that in mind, I thought I'd start at the very basic level. GW have marketed these new paints as a way of banishing the grey hordes and getting your miniatures painted quickly and effectively, a way for even the world's least proficient painters, or those who really don't enjoy the process, to get armies ready for the tabletop. So I thought I'd put that idea to the test. I grabbed a random selection of miniatures from the deepest, darkest recesses of my Cupboard of Unpainted Wonders and tried to put myself in the position of a complete novice who's bought his first box of miniatures, paints and gubbinz and is launching himself into "The Hobby" for the first time. My goal with these miniatures was to paint them as fast as possible. I wasn't going to worry about tidying up mistakes, worry too much about getting things "within the lines" or care about creating any sort of masterpiece. The goal was to get some figures on the table as fast as possible. I should note, I had an ulterior motive for this. At my FLGS I've been running a few taster sessions to show off these new paints and I knew that some people who would be coming along would never have picked up a paintbrush in their lives before. The models I was going to show them had to be exactly the sort of things people like that could produce and be happy with. Here's the results of my efforts. All these models were painted with a single coat of each colour, over either the Wraithbone or Grey Seer spray primer.
I think you can all agree they look pretty rough and ready and, by my standards, fairly bloody awful. But that's not the point. For a ten-year old, painting their first figures, they're going to look great. On the battlefield, they're going to do just fine. The real point is, though, each one took me less than ten minutes to do. Some of them closer to five. That means that I could bash out a whole unit in an evening. "So what?" I hear you cry, "I can do that with traditional paints." Well, yes, of course you can but I can guarantee you aren't going to get results that look as good as this in the same time using traditional methods. You'd need at least to do a flat basecoat then a wash to get miniatures that look like these and that's going to take you longer. Even just doing a flat basecoat will take longer than these as the way the paint flows goes a long way towards speeding up that process.
There are a couple of issues. Some colours, the really dark ones especially (Black Templar, Cygor Brown) may need thinning slightly with the Contrast Medium to stop them being too opaque. You have to bee quite liberal with the paints and allow them to flow. This can mean getting paint on areas where you don't want it and makes doing small details difficult. Also, you need to use them quite fast and plan out your route across the model, so as to avoid tidemarks forming. Pooling is an issue, too. Obviously, some pooling is required for them to do their job, but care needs to be taken to avoid too much pooling, as this can result in a patchy finish. You also need to look out for tiny air bubbles between details, as these can dry as unpainted patches. Knowing how much to use, and how to use it, comes, like with anything, with practice but even the most inexperienced or cack-handed painter is going to find themselves producing serviceable results in no time.
So, for the beginner, those with more miniatures than time, those who find painting a chore, or those who may not be skilled with a brush, these paints are going to do exactly what their makers have said they will- banish the grey and get those collections painted. But this is just the barest hint of what these paints can be used for. As with any tool, Contrast has many uses and, over the next few weeks, I'll be demonstrating that there's more to ways to make use of these new colours than just slapping them on.
I'd love to have your feedback on this so please feel free to comment. Also, if there's any aspect of painting (with Contrast or without) that you'd like me to cover, please let me know.
Thanks for reading!
-Stu
PS: I'm doing one of the demos of these paints Saturday 6th July from 10am-3pm at That Little Craft Shop in Minehead, where you'll be able to see these figures and try out the paints for yourselves. If you're in the area (unlikely, I know, but you never know) then pop along and see what you think.
*some even managed to hate them before even trying them...fancy that?!!
It's taken me a while, but I've finally had the chance to sit down and get some work done with the Contrast Paints from GW, have a play with them and see what I think. There's been a lot of discussion about these new paints over the last few weeks. Some love them, some hate them*, some see them as a gimmick, some as an essential new way of doing things, some as an overhyped bit of money for old rope. I see them as a useful tool, with many applications, some less obvious than others.
Whatever your opinion of them, it's undeniable that these new paints have caused a stir and, as there is so much to be said about them, I didn't want to just rush off a quick overview and be done with it so, over the next few weeks, I'll be looking closely at them and, hopefully, providing some useful insights as to what they can be used for.
With that in mind, I thought I'd start at the very basic level. GW have marketed these new paints as a way of banishing the grey hordes and getting your miniatures painted quickly and effectively, a way for even the world's least proficient painters, or those who really don't enjoy the process, to get armies ready for the tabletop. So I thought I'd put that idea to the test. I grabbed a random selection of miniatures from the deepest, darkest recesses of my Cupboard of Unpainted Wonders and tried to put myself in the position of a complete novice who's bought his first box of miniatures, paints and gubbinz and is launching himself into "The Hobby" for the first time. My goal with these miniatures was to paint them as fast as possible. I wasn't going to worry about tidying up mistakes, worry too much about getting things "within the lines" or care about creating any sort of masterpiece. The goal was to get some figures on the table as fast as possible. I should note, I had an ulterior motive for this. At my FLGS I've been running a few taster sessions to show off these new paints and I knew that some people who would be coming along would never have picked up a paintbrush in their lives before. The models I was going to show them had to be exactly the sort of things people like that could produce and be happy with. Here's the results of my efforts. All these models were painted with a single coat of each colour, over either the Wraithbone or Grey Seer spray primer.
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I think you can all agree they look pretty rough and ready and, by my standards, fairly bloody awful. But that's not the point. For a ten-year old, painting their first figures, they're going to look great. On the battlefield, they're going to do just fine. The real point is, though, each one took me less than ten minutes to do. Some of them closer to five. That means that I could bash out a whole unit in an evening. "So what?" I hear you cry, "I can do that with traditional paints." Well, yes, of course you can but I can guarantee you aren't going to get results that look as good as this in the same time using traditional methods. You'd need at least to do a flat basecoat then a wash to get miniatures that look like these and that's going to take you longer. Even just doing a flat basecoat will take longer than these as the way the paint flows goes a long way towards speeding up that process.
There are a couple of issues. Some colours, the really dark ones especially (Black Templar, Cygor Brown) may need thinning slightly with the Contrast Medium to stop them being too opaque. You have to bee quite liberal with the paints and allow them to flow. This can mean getting paint on areas where you don't want it and makes doing small details difficult. Also, you need to use them quite fast and plan out your route across the model, so as to avoid tidemarks forming. Pooling is an issue, too. Obviously, some pooling is required for them to do their job, but care needs to be taken to avoid too much pooling, as this can result in a patchy finish. You also need to look out for tiny air bubbles between details, as these can dry as unpainted patches. Knowing how much to use, and how to use it, comes, like with anything, with practice but even the most inexperienced or cack-handed painter is going to find themselves producing serviceable results in no time.
So, for the beginner, those with more miniatures than time, those who find painting a chore, or those who may not be skilled with a brush, these paints are going to do exactly what their makers have said they will- banish the grey and get those collections painted. But this is just the barest hint of what these paints can be used for. As with any tool, Contrast has many uses and, over the next few weeks, I'll be demonstrating that there's more to ways to make use of these new colours than just slapping them on.
I'd love to have your feedback on this so please feel free to comment. Also, if there's any aspect of painting (with Contrast or without) that you'd like me to cover, please let me know.
Thanks for reading!
-Stu
PS: I'm doing one of the demos of these paints Saturday 6th July from 10am-3pm at That Little Craft Shop in Minehead, where you'll be able to see these figures and try out the paints for yourselves. If you're in the area (unlikely, I know, but you never know) then pop along and see what you think.
*some even managed to hate them before even trying them...fancy that?!!
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