"WW2 Uniform Painting with GW Contrast Paints" Topic

I thought this might be of interest:

link

I'd say if you fall in love with them like that, just make your own for 1/3 the price!

I do have a lot of artists inks and flow aid and matte medium.

I've just found it doesn't work AS nice. But I've only dabbled and with colours GW doesn't make. The idea is to experiment more and see what can be done.

It's an interesting article and the author clearly put the paints to good extended use.

I bought several to experiment with.

One pot is perfect as a basecoat for 6mm Soviet infantry, so I'm getting my $8 USD worth there.

I've experimented with a couple greens as washes over varying base coats to do troll flesh. Tried a green on micro-armor (fail – too many smooth surfaces).

Nice article – thanks.

I'd like to like them more than I do. So far, I really like them for large numbers of horses. I've tried them on a few infantry units, and could not bring myself to love the results.

I found his mixing to get a field grey interesting. That's something I have not tried.

@Lucius

How do you use them on horses? I tried them on oxen and was not pleased.

All I did was prime white and slosh on a good coat. But oxen are mostly smooth.

I did find that using an off white base like wraithbone with Wyldwood/Cygor Brown(couldn't tell the difference) was a good self shading bay. ReGrunta is a good chestnut. Apothecary white was ok, but Basilicum Gray was a bust. And nothing was a good palomino. Contrast black was too dull.

I found the Contrast Paints to work amazingly well on horses.

There's a few things I found:

1) Apply the paint to the lower inside/underneath of the horse first. The reason for this is the paint runs so much if you do the outside/top of the horse first, it does not shade properly.

2) Use a very smooth primer. The paint really does flow better over a very smooth base coat. Wraithbone IS very smooth. The beige colour really does affect the colour tone and gives it a much warmer colour tone than white or grey.

I've also tried Krylon Fusion satin white and gloss Dover White and gloss Ivory. The paint flows good over them and there's enough pigment to paint them even on the highest sharpest point.

I tried grey automotive primer and the colours are way too dark.

3) On horses I do a zenithal primer coat with black under the horses' body with the light base coat over. With lighter horse colours (white, grey, palomino, etc) a grey underneath coat would be best.

I find the zenithal really adds a huge dimension to the overall effect.

Skeleton Horde and Aggross Dunes were good for a light beige.

You can thin them with matte medium or the Contrast medium to get lighter shade variations.

Cygor Brown thinned with medium (about 1:1) gave a colour almost exactly the same as Gorgrunta Fur, by the way.

I should add!

The Krylon paint goes on a lot thicker and heavier than the GW Wraithbone.

So, light, quick coats, that are not too close to the miniatures with the Krylon. Coats is plural on purpose. Take your time, just like an airbrush; not only does the glossier paint take longer to dry you will want to put on several light coats – NOT one.

I have found the Dover White seems to go on easier than the Ivory. The Ivory is closer to Wraithbone in colour whereas the Dover White is a shade inbetween white and Wraithbone – so it is still a bit warmer than white, but very light in tone so the Contrast colours are bright.

If one is not used to using a spray can for fine detail work, just stick to the GW undercoats.

Instar paints has a new range , Alpha, I think it is called. with the same properties as contrast paints. I only have a brown and green from them as a trial . Liked them a lot and ordered more . will do a product report when they arrive.

I'd never heard of Instar before.

The site states:

INSTAR Alpha is a revolutionary new paint formulation that exists nowhere else in the world.

As thin as a wash with an ultra high opacity and with all the control of a normal thinned paint means that not only can your miniatures look amazing on the table, but also game ready fast!

Because they are already thin means that you no longer have to worry about manual thinning ratios, we've already covered that step for you so you can spend more time painting and less time wondering if your paint is thin enough. Just dip your brush into our Water+ (Or other thinner) and mix it into the paint to give you the perfect consistency every time. It's also airbrush ready as well so you can just add the paint and pull the trigger, nothing else required*

But Alpha is not just designed to be the ultimate paint, by thinning down further you can transition them to a layer paint, a contrast style paint, a glaze or even a wash.

Looks like you have to thin them to make a layer paint and obviously further for a "contrast style" paint.

It may not be as easy as GW's open the lid after vigorous shaking and use.

Excellent article, thank you for sharing it with all of us.

You are welcome!

I was pretty impressed all those different troop types were painted with Contrast, and a very limited palette too.

Here is a "recipe" for making your own:

I tried this last night, being able to mix any color I want in 15 seconds was amazing. 9 drops medium, 12 drops ink, 2 drops flow, and 2 drops water. Worked perfectly.

From the comments from this Goobertown Hobbies video on making your own Contrast Paints:

YouTube link

I have some interesting ink colours I'm going to try with this formula (terracotta, yellow ochre, sienna).