Contrast and Chill - Episode 2

[jollyork]

More Adventures in Contrast Paints 

I've been rustling through the dusty figure cases for the random army cast-offs that never got finished. This gives me the opportunity to kill (paint) two birds with one stone: finish those old models, and compare Contrast to old (sometimes very old) paint colors. 

First up, some laggards from my Beasts of Chaos army, which is so old it was called a Beastmen army back then, or is it the other way around now? At some point 15 years ago I decided to stop playing Orcs & Goblins, but coincidentally the new incarnation of the Beastmen book had new Tuskgor chariots, so I was able to yoink the Orc crew and replace them with Gors. Trouble was, I never got around to painting the new crew. So I fished them out of the case and sprayed them with Wraithbone primer.

I spent about a couple hours painting up all six crew, with the first chunk of time experimenting with Contrast color combinations to match the reddish-brown tone of the rest of the army. I ended up doing a basecoat of Gore-Grunta Fur followed by a layer of Volopous Pink over the top. It's not a perfect match, but I'm really happy when the the result. More importantly, the crew fit in perfectly with the chariots painted over a decade ago. Check out how closely the horns on the Gors match the horns on the Tuskgors. The Tuskgor ones took multiple layers and ages; the Gors took one coat of Skeleton Horde and about 10 seconds! 

[jollyork]

Next up, a Minotaur hiding in the bitz box. The Beasts of Chaos army mentioned above was actually a Minotaur army, that's why I didn't originally have the chariots. I only had blocks of Minos, some Trolls, Dragon Ogres, and a Shaggoth. It was one of the few Big Stompy armies available back then. Anyway, the army won a Best Painted at the Warhammer Grand Tournament and was featured in the Citadel Catalog 2006-7 edition. In the photo below, one of the Minos is from that army, the other is the new one I added using Contrast Paints in - and I'm not exaggerating - less than 30 minutes. Can you guess which is which? 

Well, the cheaty way to know is that the Mino on the round base is, of course, the new one, since WFB used to be all square bases. I hope I don't regret trying out a round base when the new version of Fantasy comes out in a couple years. Hopefully they will cleverly bring back formations and ranks without needing squares. 

 

[jollyork]

A bit of a palate cleanser from the stench of Beasts. I've got another warband update project in the works, so this is a quickie before posting those. It's an Endless Spell from the Gloomspite Gitz. I just wanted to paint a giant mushroom, but also wanted to see how Contrast looks on large, smooth surfaces - which it is not recommended for. But what the heck, it's so fast to paint up a model, there's no reason not to try. The only non-Contrast I did on this was drybrushing the magic steam to lighten it up after Aethermatic Blue. Overall, I'm very pleased with the results: big, bright colors with almost no effort, as in no second coats of anything. I applied the Blood Angels Red in a deliberately swirly pattern to get some visual design. It didn't turn out very distinctive (even in meatspace), but the red is a pleasing rich tone.