Hello, fellow wargamers and tabletop enthusiasts and I hope
you are reading this under good fortunes.
It’s a little early for my bimonthly post, but as the title suggests
there have been some big changes to our hobbying world with the introduction of
the new Contrast paints from GW. I
managed to grab some for myself and like many others, I’ll give my opinion on
them and show some stuff that I managed to get painted in a pretty rapid pace
(compared to my usual that is). So without
further ado, here’s yet ANOTHER Contrast paint opinion piece!
I won’t lie, I have been hyped with these paints since I
heard about them from the beginning. I
like I imagine some other collector’s out there, have a stupid amount of
unpainted models. Like an embarrassing number
of them. The kind of number where you
might say I have an addiction problem.
So an advertised method was with less effort I can get tabletop
quality standard pretty quick, and that certainly has my attention. Then I started seeing what pro painters had
been able to do, then the pictures of random folks online and their results,
and so on and so on. I had not only
bought a hype train ticket but I upgraded to first class and have been counting
the days, but despite the hype, I also have some aged wisdom and wanted to
secure some of them so I can see what I can work with.
After I painted the first model here is my emotional
reaction:
With the test model completed, I then started on a Malifaux
crew I had that was lightly primed. I
usually prime my models black and leave it at that, but for a brief period, I
did some models in grey with a zenithal white.
I have to admit, I did not like how the priming turned out because I
felt that the grey had a gloss kind of texture to it while being flat in color,
and the white was a satin finish. So
bear that in mind with these pictures, but I have to say that the paints did
wonderfully! In the time it would have
taken me to finish the set of Witchling Stalkers I was able to knock them out,
some Freikorp Specialists, the Purifying Flame, and a model from Heroforge for
Pathfinder! They did their job well and
I was able to apply a single coat down and get a pretty good overall effect. I did some minor blending with the paints on
the Purifying Flame to get the flame effect and while yes it’s not a perfect
transition it did get the job done in a matter of minutes.
Now I am not naïve enough to think that these paints will do
everything and anything I want them to do, but damn if they didn’t perform up
to par with what I had hoped they would do.
Most of the models shown, except for the Heroforge model, had some extra
work done to them to finalize the appearance.
A couple of edge highlights here, some weathering pigment here, and some
additional shade washes there made the models go from basic TTQ to maybe a
slightly better TTQ (I’m not sure, you be the judge). I think these paints will shine with the more
organic textures than they might with armor plating, which appears to be the general consensus amongst the community, however, I’ve seen some seriously good
with on armored models like Space Marines and Stormcast. Cloth, fur, leather, skin, and so on will
probably be the textures that don’t require any special attention, whereas
armor might require some attention to things like excessive pooling. Another thing of note is that they didn’t
seem to be forgiving in that if you paint over where you intended to then you’ll
need to either slap on some covering paint similar to your primer or touch it
up with a layer paint similar to the Contrast.
I’m sure veterans and new painters alike will be able to
take advantage of these paints, but I can’t help but to also think about the
people in our community who don’t have the time to paint or just aren’t able to paint well. I’ve got some friends who are colorblind or
struggle with hands that shake to a degree that the prospect of
basecoating>shading>highlighting>blending>etc with traditional
acrylics can be somewhat daunting or challenging and in some cases off-putting. What about the veteran with arthritis in
their hands so that they can only paint for so long before it becomes
excruciating? So a paint that can help
some people overcome those challenges and help those who struggle with the
mechanics of fine detail painting achieve some level of TTQ that they can be
proud of to bring to the table is definitely a good thing in my book. I also think some tournament players who want
to use the new or updated armies and want to use them solely for the game
purpose but have to paint for the tournament will enjoy these paints as well
and ideally will cut down the time to be ready for the next event. Folks like me with a ton of models who just
want them painted will probably also like these paints if it presents with an opportunity to clear the paint queue some.
Now in the span of 2 days, I am almost done with my Malifaux crew and I have to say it's been great to paint with. Now one thing is for certain in that the undercoat does have a HUGE impact on the quality of the paint. Like I said before these models had zenithal priming with some areas obviously not primed. In those areas, I had to go back with acrylic layer paint and do some touch-ups and/or paint over the Contrast. Regardless I think the overall effect has been positive and in 2 hours I knocked out 4 models that I might have taken a couple days to work on (a day is about 3 hours on average during the workweek). So I stand by my original statement that these paints, for me, are a big time saver and will help me go through that model queue real quick.
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| On this last one, you can see near the bottom of the lab coat the primer spatter not covering the entirety of the coat. Will it matter from 3 feet away? Nah. However, it's something to take note. |
That’s all today folks, I hope you are making progress in
your projects and enjoying yourselves.
If you also picked up some of these paints feel free to share a link
down below and share what you’ve been able to get done with them. If you didn’t pick up any of the paints, feel free to share
a link down below and share what you’ve been working on. My next trial with these paints will be to see how many Crucible Guard models I can knock out before a Steamroller event on Saturday. I’ll be back at the end of the month with my
overall update on what I’ve been painting and how it ties in with NoVA. Until then happy wargaming and happy
hobbying!
