When it comes to Contrast Paints, Vincent Knotley and Joshua Hill are true champions, prolific artists working at the top of their game. But Contrast isn’t just a tool for top-tier painters; it’s also a really powerful way for beginners to create incredible effects that would take much more skill and experience using regular Citadel paints. We canvassed the wider Warhammer Community team for their go-to tips for using Contrast paints.
First up, don’t use it for expansive flat panels such as those found on tanks! Contrast likes to dry darker in recesses and it works better on textured surfaces, whether that’s fur, the folds of a cloak, or the contours of a face. If you do want to take your vehicles that extra step, weather your rivets by applying a dot of Ratling Grime around each one and into the recesses when you’ve finished the main armour colour – you can even use it thinned to create oily streaks and weathering.
Creating simple winter furs that look great, on the other hand, is as easy as using Space Wolves Grey over a pale surface, then drybrushing with Celestra Grey.
For all those cuts and bruises on flesh, apply a sparing coat of Volupus Pink to bring out the pain.
There are plenty of expert-tier effects which can be replicated very simply with certain Contrast paints. For instance, you can paint the glow of power weapons either by glazing innumerable thin layers of regular blue paints – or you can lay down one coat of Pylar Glacier over the painted metal for a similar effect. This effect can be achieved more eerily with Warp Lightning over Leadbelcher or Runelord Brass, followed by a swift drybrush of Flash Gitz Yellow – perfect for the sickly glow of Skaven or Necrons.
And when you use a really strong white base in the recesses, you can then go over it with brighter Contrast paints for simple glow effects. This works well on eyes, plasma coils and mysterious orbs.
In fact, Contrast paints work wonders applied over standard metallic paints in many different combinations. Basilicanum Grey and Ratling Grime both provide fantastic alternatives to the old staple of Nuln Oil. The former is ideal (thinned a little with Contrast Medium) for producing clean, polished armour, while the latter is great for giving working metals (such as gun barrels and engine parts) the patina of age. Douse the whole inner frame of an Imperial or Chaos Knight with Ratling Grime and you’re 90% of the way done with the whole thing.
You can also use Contrast to make your metals more vibrant and colourful. For instance, Akhelian Green or Aethermatic Blue will work brilliantly over Runelord Brass or Retributor Armour to produce green-hued gold or verdigris. Equally, pretty much any of the less saturated Contrasts will give you a really nice metallic sheen over bog-standard Leadbelcher – producing a shiny red or green effect, perhaps.
Likewise Skeleton Horde or Aggaros Dunes applied over the same basecoats ends up with an antique gold that’ll suit Tomb Kings, Barrow Knights, or grubby Stormcast Eternals!
Snakebite Leather does exactly what it says on the bottle. It’s the perfect one-stop leather effect to finish off all those belts, straps, cords, pouches, holsters and more. You can vary it up across different materials by thinning or applying multiple coats, but you simply won’t need to shade it or highlight it to achieve a realistic effect.
Wood effects are just as easy with a simple coat of Wyldwood, perhaps with a lighter drybrush of Screaming Skull afterwards, just to pick up the raised areas. Two coats of Black Legion is perhaps the best matte black you can get, ideal for undersuits, gun casings, and as a base for textured metallics.
Army Painting Tips
Colleagues Graeme and Luke have been experimenting with Contrast Paints to speed up their army painting operations.
Graeme: My current hobby goal is to paint a bunch of Warhammer Age of Sigmar Spearheads, so I can tempt my friends into playing. Contrast paints are an invaluable tool for getting these forces ready quickly, and I utilise them in a variety of ways.
First, and most simply, you can paint an entire miniature with Contrast and metals. The Darkoath Marauder was done this way over a Wraithbone spray undercoat, and then shaded. This is as easy as it gets, and super quick.
The Brute Rager used a different technique to achieve a similar goal – I wanted dark metallic armour, so I used Base paints over a black undercoat then slapped on Contrast paints mixed with Contrast Medium to get this boy and his pals ready to smash some skulls.
The Crypt Guard’s skin was basecoated with Nighthaunt Gloom, shaded with Nuln Oil. This was perfectly acceptable, but I was enjoying painting the Flesh-eater Courts so much I kept going, and highlighted the skin with Fenrisian Grey, then Deepkin Flesh. This shows how you can use Contrast to paint a model quickly and easily, and still have room to take the paint job further as your confidence and skills increase.
Luke: I’ve gravitated to painting for display lately, but I still like to play big games so when it comes to painting for armies, I’m using Contrast to figure out quick and impactful schemes. My Sylvaneth wargrove from Ulgu is primed black, and the bark is painted Skavenblight Dinge, with the natural outgrowths and vines painted with Celestra Grey and Basilicanum Grey, and then drybrushed with Ulthuan Grey. I follow that with Aethermatic Blue for a cool teal tone on the bark, and then use Flesh Tearers Red for the leaves.
Blades and claws are Mephiston Red, which I then cover with Flesh Tearers Red for rich shading, before highlighting with pure white. The leaves just get a quick highlight of Evil Sunz Scarlet, and I pick out the faces and a few other details with Pallid Wych Flesh. It’s a fast and effective method that’s perfect for a tabletop force, letting me focus my attention on big characters like Alarielle and Belthanos.
There you have it, a dozen ways to use Contrast that will immediately kick your work up to the next level. On top of all these, we’ve got stacks of tips on the Warhammer YouTube channel courtesy of our painting team.
