Cursed City | 3+2 Contrast Paint Method

[@cthulhulvl35illithid]

Hey man this was a fantastic tutorial, the edge highlights, matte varnish, amd oil wash really help make the contrast paints more dynamic

[@ph3lansminiatures]

Thanks dude, happy to hear that you found it useful. For me, doing this 'method' bridges the gap between a typical contrast paint job and what I would get if I used normal paints and did it 'properly'. You can do much better with the latter if you know what you are doing, but this still looks quite good and it doesnt take dozens of hours to finish.

[@ltjamescoopermason8685]

Excellent darkness abounds in the streets where theres death wailing drawing your character in !lol I really like your styles explanations!

[@jojothepirate87]

Great work! We have very similar methods for getting good results fast.

[@Eric-jt8yx]

Great tips. Especially making the oil wash and using only one color for majority of highlights. Very clever! Thanks for the video

[@ph3lansminiatures]

Thanks, glad you liked it 😊!

[@no.6minis]

I really like the oil paint tip. That’s incredible.

[@ph3lansminiatures]

Glad you found it useful:)

[@pattyjohnston6781]

I love the results! Can't wait to paint up my own cursed city set👍

[@ph3lansminiatures]

Thanks dude! These minies are fantastic and a joy to paint. Have fun with yours!

[@Nortic111]

Excellent work, I’m glad I found your channel!

[@ph3lansminiatures]

Thanks! Glad to have you here :)

[@terryramsey5979]

Well done! Great looking results from a relatively simple workflow. Subbed. 👌👍

[@ph3lansminiatures]

Thanks! And welcome to the channel :)

[@KimHarderFog]

Great result - love the bases

[@ph3lansminiatures]

Thanks :) Glad you liked it!

[@Iamthenoodle]

I've only just got back into mini painting after a 5 year break, been trying relearn the skills and techniques from before my break and it's been a long process! I've not tried contrast paints yet but it looks like they are pretty good for obtaining a good table top standard and would be great for bulk painting minis. Great video dude, you have a new subscriber!

[@ph3lansminiatures]

Hey! Welcome back to the hobby and to the channel :) Contrast is great for painting things fast, but it is even better for some more advanced techniques as well. Definitely worth having in the arsenal for any painter! I can really recommend picking some up.

[@1IronMutt]

Great video! I'm just starting so this is very helpful information.

[@ph3lansminiatures]

Hey! Glad you found it useful, welcome to the hobby! :)

[@adamsnellgrove7522]

Such a simple way of doing bases and they look so good! 🤩 Will have to try that out 😁 Maybe a basing video would be interesting 😇

[@MrValleyteacher]

That was amazing...you have just earned a new subscriber.

[@ph3lansminiatures]

😊 welcome to the channel!

[@colinlightfoot1516]

Great tutorial all around - from the bases to the matte varnish unifying everything. Thank you!

[@ph3lansminiatures]

Glad you enjoyed it :)

[@Skenderax]

Great video, thanks.

[@griffglowen5555]

Great vid. I wonder how these oil washes compare to using the Army Painter dip cans. I remember Sorastro making good use of them to churn out loads of Zombicide zombies quickly. Obv that stuff also applies a varnish coat. It’s probably a blunter tool as you can’t change the colour and kinda have to apply it to the whole mini rather than just parts of it, but end result might be similar to the all-over black/brown oil wash here

[@ph3lansminiatures]

Thanks :) Washes in general are worse in the sense that they stain the surface more than oils. You can't really fully remove them like you can with the oils. But if you are OK with a more grim dark look, they can work.quite well though.

[@echtervogel]

Funnily enough I just discovered the same method for the exact same models. I only use oil colors for the highlights (ice blue for a pale moon effect) and sometimes reinforce the oil wash selectively on skin with magenta after highlighting.

[@ph3lansminiatures]

Great minds think alike 😉

[@southpaw5483]

Thank you for sharing. May we need to apply a Gloss Varnish (or some type of Varnish) before the "Oil Wash"? Your thoughts are welcomed.

[@ph3lansminiatures]

Hello! In my experience, it is not needed, but it won't hurt either. It will produce a slightly different effect, though. A coat of gloss warnish will make the paint flow more into the crevices but will stain the raised parts a bit less.

[@southpaw5483]

@@ph3lansminiatures Thank you. I am actually trying to do exactly that, Crevices Shading and Not Staining the Raised parts.

[@southpaw5483]

I am just worried about Acrylic Painiting on top of the Gloss Varnish. The paint may not adhere as well.

[@ShipWreck68]

Stunning mate. What areas are you apply the beige to for highlights?

[@ph3lansminiatures]

😊 Thank you. I used the beige for the large majority of the models but especially for the brownish colors ( there is a lot of those :) ) other than the beige I remember using a light blue ( for the blacks for example) and some light red/orange for the reds. But honestly I could have got away with using beige even more if I wanted to.

[@MiNDmaZing]

Nice, subscribed

[@ph3lansminiatures]

Welcome to the channel :)

[@ronkhoo]

Your Cursed City minis have a more grimdark feel than the official GW painting guide on YT, love them! I have a question, could we replace the oil paint step with a wash like Army Painter Quickshade Softtone?

[@ph3lansminiatures]

Technically, you could use a wash, but the end result would look quite different. It would darken the recesses just like the oils, but it would also stain and darken everything else, which is the biggest downside of acrylic washes. Since I made this video, I have started to use water mixable oils from winsor and Newton. Those are easier to use than the normal oils if you are looking for an alternative :)

[@ronkhoo]

@@ph3lansminiatures thanks for the tip!

[@ronkhoo]

@@ph3lansminiatures thanks for the tip! can the W&N paints be removed with a sponge as well?

[@andrewbeeching1240]

Enjoyed this video - thanks! So for oils, I've never used them before, but I just saw that Ammo by MIG make these "Oilbrusher" pens which they claim are no-mess, no clean-up, and come in a range of colours. Have you ever used them? Do you think that they look like a better (or just adequate, but easier) option for oil-newbies like me, or do you think they wouldn't really work for the method that you show in this video? Thanks!

[@ph3lansminiatures]

I haven't seen these Oilbrusher pens before, so I checked out the MIG video about them. I don't think that they would work for this method since for this we need the paint in a wash consistency and the paint in the pens are way thicker than that. To be honest I don't fully understand what problems they are trying to solve with this since using oils is super easy as it is. I guess the only advantage is that it is pre-thinned and you don't have to bother with the thinner. But then in the video, they show that once you apply it you can use a brush to move the paint around, and you need thinner on the brush for that :D Personally, I think that it is better to stick with normal oils and a brush, but your mileage might obviously vary.

[@andrewbeeching1240]

@@ph3lansminiatures thanks! Having never used oils before, I think I was attracted by the marketing of them being no mess, self-contained, etc. But those points you raised show that they wouldn't be as good for this method as standard oils and thinners, and this method is the only reason I'd want to try oils, so thanks for the analysis! I'm mainly doing Infinity miniatures tho, so would you still recommend the oil wash if I'm wanting to have fairly bright minis on the tabletop? Not clean-looking minis necessarily, but maintaining the bright colours. Seems like this method would be great, especially for power armour and weapons

[@ph3lansminiatures]

It would definitely work for infinity minies as long as you use bright saturated colors and remove most of the oil from the surfaces and leave it only in the crevices. Infinity minies have very sharp edges and deep details, so oils would work quite well there, I think. However, the end result would look very different from the style you see on the infinity box art. As long as you are fine with that, it is worth a shot. If you aim for the very colorful non metallic style you see on the box art, I have a couple of yu jing and pan o videos on my channel where I try to get a similar result. 😉

[@benj7312]

Great vid and excellent results. Approximately, how long did each mini take to paint? And did you use Citadel contrast paints or did you use any Army Painter Speed Paints?

[@ph3lansminiatures]

Thank you! 😊 Hard to say about the individual models since I kept going back and forth between them. It definitely took less than 1 hour per model I would say including the highlighting. I used Citadel contrast only. I haven't tried army painter yet.

[@SrLisco]

amazing job! What is the color of the skin?

[@ph3lansminiatures]

If I remember correctly I used Vallejo medium flesh as the midtone and then highlighted with Basic skin. I also added a bit of violet into the original skintone and used that to shade it a bit.

[@SrLisco]

@@ph3lansminiatures thank you! Again great work!

[@Thorlek]

Do you thin your contrast paints it doesnt really look like it during the video you look like you are just getting them right from the pot? I find some of them are too dark right from the pot particular Ahkelian Green and Kroxigore Scales they are super dark when i use them straight.

[@ph3lansminiatures]

Good question :) on a few occasions I did put some of them on my wet pallet and thinned them a bit, but only once or twice. But even when I am not doing that, I still thin them in a less obvious way by dipping my brush in my water almost every time before filling it with paint again. Then I wick most of the water off on the paper towel, but depending on the need I might leave more or less in the brush thereby thinning the paint a bit. I hope that helps :)

[@northenice]

Great tutorial. I´ve been using Contrast and Speed paints for a while and I really like the slapchop method for printing and painting. I learnt the Whitespirits from a WH4K painting channel but never tried it on minis outside that, so I´m sure I will give it a try. Suscribed and waiting for more videos of this quality. Good job. By the way, what are your thoughts on the new range of "contrasts" by Vallejo?

[@ph3lansminiatures]

Welcome to the channel! :) More videos are already in the works, including one that expands on this one with more details and tips and tricks. I haven't had the opportunity to test the Vallejo paints yet, but I'll definitely give them a go if I get my hands on them. Vallejo is one of my favorite brands to use so I have high hopes for them.

[@Grieva-SeeD-]

Good stuff.

[@Dscustomcolelctables]

Wow! Your non-metallic armour 🔥

[@Wallack]

With the oil wash, do you use something to clean it or just a sponge? do you clean it immediately after applying, after an hour or when its dried? I am always "afraid" of getting into oil paints myself but might be good to know this before trying! Thanks.

[@ph3lansminiatures]

Hey! Usually, I apply the wash to the whole unit, and by the time I finish, I can start removing it from the first dude. If you do it like this, you can simply use the sponge without any white spirit. You can wait significantly longer as well if you want a darker look. But in general, unless you wait until the next day, you can simply remove the oils with white spirit. I know it looks scary, but it is much easier than it might look :)

[@Wallack]

@@ph3lansminiatures Im in spain so product names may vary, the purpose of them is to clean but also thin? I mean you can use the white spirit to clean the brush/model/whatever but also thin it right? so I can ask for the proper product! Thanks.

[@ph3lansminiatures]

Exactly, you only need white spirit for everything, to thin oils, to add some on the sponge if you want to remove more of the wash, and to clean the brush in the end.

[@cesargimenez1288]

Sorry, what Oils did you use and what's the thinner? I would like to use the one you use in the video

[@ph3lansminiatures]

The paints I used were Pebeo ( a brand I got in France at some point) but any cheap oil paint will do, you don't need anything fancy. The thinner can be any white spirit as well.

[@kastlerock01]

Did you use a purple color as the “primer” or did you actually use a black primer then a purple base color prior to the zenithal? I’m just learning some of these techniques and really like this one, but am lacking in my knowledge a bit.

[@ph3lansminiatures]

Hey! In this case, I already had the models primed black, so I sprayed them purple from below and then added the zenithal. However, applying a purple primer straight up and then doing the zenithal will lead to basically the same result. So, if you have a purple primer handy, go for it :)

[@kastlerock01]

@@ph3lansminiatures thanks man! Appreciate the reply and really enjoy your work.

[@Dscustomcolelctables]

Wow! Your non-metallic armour 🔥