Contrast Paints
There’s been a lot said of Citadel’s relatively new contrast
paints. And rightly so. A good job has been done to produce a
set of paints that help get our troops on the table quicker. A
very obvious workload in the 10mm 1809 world is the masses
of white-coated Austrians that need painted. I gave contrast
paints a shot at helping out.
As regular readers of this journal will know, I am a fan of
using a khaki undercoat. However, contrast paints work best
with a lighter base-coat. I got hold of a pot of Vallejo grey
brush-on Surface Primer (B).
I should say from the off, though, that as much as I’m happy
to speed up my painting I’m not qualified to advise on speed
painting or, indeed, minimal effort. (That’s another way of
saying that I take my time.)
Citadel’s contrast paints have a wash-like flow, like a thick
ink. Using them is like painting with ink. At this small scale,
it can be quicker to let the contrast paint do its job over detail
but to then use regular acrylic paint to clean up edges. Saying
that, flow is not the issue with 10mm miniatures that it might
be with larger figures with pooling on flat surfaces.
I started by washing white contrast paint (C) over the base-coat. So
far, no different from using an ink wash, such as Vallejo Pale Grey
Wash (D). Citadel’s
contrast white is a
blue-grey wash that
produces a cold
look. Anyone
looking for a warm
look might prefer to
use Skeleton Horde
contrast paint, but
this might be a bit
too strong a colour.
Next, a quick brush
of ground colour
over the base saves
time later. This is something I usually forget to do!
We’re now ready to paint the black parts. There’s quite
a lot of black on an Austrian line infantryman and black
contrast paint does a fine job of picking out the detail of the gaiters, the cartridge pouch and the helmet.
It’s not so good at providing an on-the-spot base-coat for the metal of the bayonet, but then, that’s not
its job. The bayonet scabbard also needs to be painted black. It’s perhaps easier to paint with regular
paint. It has a very small bit of white strap showing at the top, but this can be covered over with black.
When painting 10mm 1809ers, I usually have a range of ‘neutrals’ - white, greys, and black - close at
hand. These are all very cheap tubes of studio acrylics (A). It’s easy to scoop the paint out and add the
odd dab. Very useful for a quick clean up.
A
B
C
D
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