Playing around with Contrast Paints

 So I had heard of these new "revolutionary" paints from Games Workshop (or are they now called Warhammer like the shops?)

Being of a certain age means I approach anything from GW with some trepidation, especially regarding the claims they make regarding their products, as they have something of a what can best be described as a "captive" audience who tend to buy whatever " official " release comes along.

After trawling the internet and seeing various positive and negative views, I was more swayed by actual pictures which suggested these were worth investigating, as I have been looking for speed painting methods which also give a good result for a reasonable return in effort.

I bought a range of colours, aiming for various hues that would work for C20th figures (I have since bought some greys and various colours to experiment with some large Great Rail Wars figures but that's another story.....)

So today I dug out some Platoon 20 Egyptians and Combat Syrians undercoated in white and intended for the Six Days War. They were in white as I had a vague idea of trying a brown ink wash over base colours (the Syrians were originally intended to used for Egyptians). 

Here's the result of less than 2 hours painting.

I confess I'm quite pleased with how they have turned out.

I've noticed some bits that the perfectionist in me needs to correct, but on the whole I'm impressed.

Are they "revolutionary" ? No not really; they are a highly pigmented stain or wash. You can get similar effects from most paints but it requires practice and results can vary unless you get the proportion right; these work out of the pot (although I put them onto an old tile as a palette).

You need figures with detailed undercuts and make sure you remove mould lines and clean them up properly as these will show up.

For the time and effort however, I don't think they are too bad. For C20th figures I think they work very well.