Contrast Paint

[Mickc1440]

I've been collecting single star wars miniatures to add to my fill ins between builds. A recent purchase was a battle droid (28mm) figure. I saw a vid on You Tube where a guy was painting an army of these up and was using a quick method to get them done as they have a very simple paint scheme. he was using Citadel Contrast paint to do them with and it looked so quick and easy that I got hold of a few bottles to give them a try. I simply base coated the figure in white and when dry applied a coat of Skeleton Horde over the armour. This paint works like a base coat and shade in one go and they come in a variety of colours. The battle droids have a bone coloured armour so this paint colours the armour and flows into the recesses etc to give the shading effect. This one was so quick so I can see why he used it. When dry and I'm not working I will give the model a light dry brushing to bring up the flatter parts of the armour. This is where I'm currently up to.

 

[Andy T]

Nice one Mick.

My lad was completely against these paints at first but he's since tried a couple and was impressed. Great for those speed painting a full army as it's pretty much table ready in one shot, but he likes them for producing an initial, varied foundation to build upon.

 

[Mickc1440]

Nice one Mick.

My lad was completely against these paints at first but he's since tried a couple and was impressed. Great for those speed painting a full army as it's pretty much table ready in one shot, but he likes them for producing an initial, varied foundation to build upon.

They certainly have there uses Andy, skeleton troops would be a breeze but I've seen them used on all sorts of figures both GW and Perry etc with some really great results

 

[Mickc1440]

End of first experiment with contrast paint and very impressed. I’ve quite a few more to try now but this battle droid is done and to a reasonable tabletop standard. I can certainly see the advantages of using it if you have a lot of troops to do leaving more time for character figures, not that the battle droid characters have much more to do other than colours on officers. On to the next victim at some point.

 

[Tim Marlow]

Interesting….I’ve tried the yellow and was very unimpressed. Poor coverage and coffee staining resulted. Had to completely overpaint with conventional paint to cover it. Quite expensive as well.

I must have done something wrong….but I don’t know what. I‘m glad you got good results though. For info, I’ve had far better results from Vallejo game washes. Apparently the technique using these is called slapchop……

I must admit it seemed like a gel based version of Daler Rowney FW ink, only without the pigment. Those inks are very pigment heavy and give vibrant colours. May be worth your son having a try with them Andy.
Always worth looking at new stuff, though there are so many paint manufacturers out there it’s hard to keep up these days. Must try the Pro Acrylic range myself one day though, it has great reviews.

 

[Mickc1440]

Interesting….I’ve tried the yellow and was very unimpressed. Poor coverage and coffee staining resulted. Had to completely overpaint with conventional paint to cover it. Quite expensive as well.

I must have done something wrong….but I don’t know what. I‘m glad you got good results though. For info, I’ve had far better results from Vallejo game washes. Apparently the technique using these is called slapchop……

I must admit it seemed like a gel based version of Daler Rowney FW ink, only without the pigment. Those inks are very pigment heavy and give vibrant colours. May be worth your son having a try with them Andy.
Always worth looking at new stuff, though there are so many paint manufacturers out there it’s hard to keep up these days. Must try the Pro Acrylic range myself one day though, it has great reviews.

Always worth a little experimenting Tim, that’s one of the things I do love about our forum, always something new to look at and try. £4.25 a pot isn’t cheap but this one definitely worked over the white base coat, let’s see what the others produce

 

[Tim Marlow]

Yep, worth a go. To be fair, yellow is probably the worst colour out there for coverage…..