"6mm infantry and contrast or speedpaints" Topic

Anyone here use contrast paints or speedpaints for their 6mm WW2 infantry?

I'd be interested to know what colors you use for all the major nations?

Thanks

Sounds interesting, I'd like to know too.

Agoras Dunes for Soviets

link

The above is for 20mm but maybe a start.

Some in my group have had great results using contrast/speed paints with 15mm rank and files figures. Don't know about 6mm or 10mm.

@korsun0

Thank you so much for that link

Pardon what may be an ignorant question, but …
What is meant by the terms "contrast paints" or "speedpaints" ?

I have reviewed the link as provided, and find an interesting recounting of paints used in several projects (all at larger scales than 6mm in the OP). But the only difference I see in what is posted is that the paints have the word "contrast" in the name.

So are these terms just a branding question?
ie: "Anyone here use THIS SPECIFIC SUB-BRAND or THAT SPECIFIC SUB-BRAND for their 6mm WW2 infantry?"

Or are the terms part of a technique for which paints are specifically formulated?
ie: "Anyone here use THIS TECHNIQUE FOR WHICH THERE ARE SPECIFIC FORMULATED PAINTS …. for their 6mm WW2 infantry?"

My original interpretation of the OP was the second case. But after reviewing the material in the link I did not see anything about techniques that looked different from any other "I used these paints to paint these figures" kind of blog posting.

Enquiring minds want to know…

-Mark
(aka: Mk 1)

Mark 1: "Contrast" paints were introduced by Games Workshop maybe five years ago as a new formula to introduce a combination of shading and glazing all-in-one so as to replace more complicated painting routines. It was one of the biggest developments in miniatures acrylic paints in the last decade or more. Army Painter came out with its equivalent "Speed Paints" several years ago, and just came out with "Speed Paints 2.0". Google on YouTube and you will find a few hundred or more videos on the subject, and hundreds of blog posts elsewhere.

I'll use a mix of regular paints and speedpaints. I've been painting 6mm Napoleonics, and I might paint the coat with regular paint and then do the pants with speedpaint. The speedpaint is great for a pre-shaded look, but can be hard to use for details. I used this guys YouTube video as an example and it worked well.

YouTube link

He gives you a good idea of how to mix speedpaints and regular paints on your miniatures.

He does a three step process of painting the figure, applying an over-all wash, and then highlighting the figure again. It's kind of fiddly, but it really gives a good result.

However, with that being said, WWII will be a lot quicker to paint due to limited uniform colors. I find the speedpaints go down a lot quicker on the miniature. You just have to find a color that is close enough. Remember, you want the colors to be a little brighter to stand out on the table.

Almost forgot. If you are using speedpaint/contrast paints, you want to make and prime in light gray, or white. Otherwise you won't get the full contrast out of the paint.

Wow. I thought I was doing well by painting on the hands and faces; nevermind shading.

Joe

Since Testors killed the MM line I have had to force myself to switch over to acrylics. Sure, I still have a lot of bottles left of MM, but I'd hate to run out during a project. I have a ton of minis I inherited from a friend who passed and lots of gaming figs from some boardgames my group really likes, so I grabbed the Army Painter Speed Paints and tried a bunch of those.

I like them a lot for what they are good at, which for 28mms means "things with lots of nooks & crannies". I have a long thread over on StarshipModeler if you're registered over there.

link

If not, the tl;dr is: For 28mm it pretty much eliminates the need for washing and drybrushing, just as it's designed to do, but it's not great for flat areas – tends to pool.

So that wizard's cloak, dragon's scaly wing, or space marine's armor? Fantastic. An airplane wing or rocket ship fuselage? Not so great. I haven't tested any WW2 stuff yet but my guess is that it probably isn't great for 28mms (too smooth maybe) but might be fine for smaller scales, but probably only for infantry. Vehicles have too much flat space probably.

That's a lot of "maybe" and "probably" but I just haven't gotten back to my WW2 stuff yet. I do highly recommend them for what I said above though.

-dale