How I Paint Things - WW2 US Infantry with Contrast

[@dariostabletopminatures]

1:18 Love the Wraithbone Primer! Thats what I used for my Perry Minis British 8th Army!

[@seangavenloch6170]

I've said it before and I'll say it again, the way you illustrate the beauty & simplicity of painting miniatures encapsulates what makes this hobby so enticing, addicting and therapeutic. Thank you so much brother!

[@SonicSledgehammerStudio]

Thank you very much! I know that we sometimes set ourselves deadlines or targets to accomplish with our painting, but sometimes it pays to remember that this is ultimately meant to be a hobby - something relaxing!

[@niclaspalmqvist6199]

Would it be possible to paint the long winter coat with contrast and what colour would be suitable for that winter long coat.

[@KageKS]

"am I allowed to ____" As you said, obviously you are. Ignore the ramblings of rivet counters and play with your plastic soldiers.

[@ethanevenson3855]

I’ve never once seen any historical wargamer in person get upset about a paint scheme so long as it looks good and is close to what it should be. If you show up to a table with Americans that look like this video, you shouldn’t have a problem, especially if you acknowledge that you played with the scheme just a little. They’re clearly still US infantrymen. If you painted them neon purple and converted them to be holding lasguns, then you’d get some volatile reactions.

[@KageKS]

K well, I have. A number of times. And even if someone shows up IG, its plastic soldiers who cares unless its a game specific event.

[@SonicSledgehammerStudio]

Unfortunately, I've seen the same - only once in person, at the very least. Particularly in Facebook groups and the like, you'll get the rivet counters out with their library of forty year old uniform books to browbeat someone 'getting it wrong' on occasion. Something about the relative safety of being able to sneer at someone on the internet, I suppose! :/

[@KageKS]

Keyboard commandos ruin everything. Saw a guy on FB today write a dissertation on how a space marines sculpt was tactically wrong because of how he was holding his weapon. Hobby needs more people like you m8, paint it to play it but also paint somethings to be accurate. Not everything needs to be color matched to a specific historical photo.

[@SonicSledgehammerStudio]

I just wanna play toy soldiers and go pew pew. 😜

[@johnmascardo7047]

You're always there to save my sanity... I literally just put together my BA figures and I didn't kbow how to start painting. THANK YOU! ♥ Please do the Germans so I can start my campaign 😂 Have you any Victrix Early Roman Legionnaires? Please help 😣.

[@SonicSledgehammerStudio]

Already done the Germans! ;D As far as early Romans they'd probably be fairly similar in most respects to the Late Republican Roman I've done, but I haven't any specifically Imperial stuff, unfortunately.

[@andraslibal]

Any chance you could do one with Vallejo non-contrast paints for US infantry? I have a US Army starter box it would be very useful :)

[@SonicSledgehammerStudio]

Might find this useful! kzbin.info/www/bejne/e5CZdYl-r92IkJY

[@andraslibal]

@@SonicSledgehammerStudio thank you very much :)

[@cedriccampbell1679]

Have you tried doing contrast with Germans?

[@SonicSledgehammerStudio]

Yup! It looks a little something like this: kzbin.info/www/bejne/h37ZqoBrZ6l2ntk

[@michaelrossel7339]

I like that look very much... far better than that what's coming out of my workshop. Is there a rule of thumb when to shade right after the drybrush or when you're down putting down your paints?

[@SonicSledgehammerStudio]

Generally if you want deeper shading but want to keep closer to the original colours of the Contrast, do the pre-shade. If you're wanting to use them a little more similarly to regular paints and then dull down some of the brightness of them, shade as a last step!

[@LeeHobbies]

Anyone done Japanese with contrast? Would appreciate some advice on which contrasts to pick up. I have a lot of them, all of the greens and the dark browns etc, but nothing that I think is right for the Japanese army. More focussed on the lighter beige, rather than the darker uniforms of the Navy guys. Many thanks...

[@jpmangen]

Do not get caught in the color trap with military miniatures. I was in the US Army for 21 years and had varying degrees of fading on my uniforms. As long as they were serviceable and you did not mix a faded top or bottom with a newer top or bottom you were good to go. This was of course day to day. If you had an inspection or parade the crisp and non faded uniforms were then put on. Don’t get me started on the variances of colors and fading on our field uniforms. This being said colors for uniforms are good to go as long as your in the ball park.

[@Woff1dGM]

ohh just what i was looking for yesterday and today i saw the notification ! i havent watched the video yet but would you be willing to do a tutorial for the pacific us marines with contrast ? maybe with a camo pattern for the yellowish uniform they had for tarawa

[@paulspaintshed3511]

Great video. I may have missed it but could you do a video painting 15mm minis with contrast? Ta.

[@SonicSledgehammerStudio]

I haven't yet, but in all honesty the method wouldn't be any different. It's really just a case of picking a set of colours and going for it! With 15mm stuff I might use a pure white primer so that there's a bit more contrast - no pun intended - but otherwise it'd look much the same as how I'd paint their bigger cousins.

[@paulspaintshed3511]

@@SonicSledgehammerStudio cheers. Stay well.

[@memorarenz]

USA USA. Hey Lippy

[@Samanar]

Amazing trick with our friend Agrax at the end ;) Thanks for great tutorial! Any chance for more medieval type minis or Viking related stuff maybe in the future?

[@SonicSledgehammerStudio]

Eventually! I'm trying to cycle around through old requests and a few specifics I feel are useful for folks getting started with these things at the moment. :)

[@TrentRosenbaum]

Really great to see that pre dry brush to aid the contrast. I think I saw you do that in another video and in this one it really looked nice with the applied colour. I normally only watch the 40k videos, but I am thinking about an imperial guard army and wondered if this mini and colour scheme might provider some ideas. Thanks :)

[@chrisreames7803]

Love all of your videos, but this really struck me. I've always wanted to try out Bolt Action but have been somewhat intimidated by the painting. Great work! Any tips for the starter set minis? US paras and the Germans?

[@SonicSledgehammerStudio]

With the Airborne the 'late war' sculpts that come in the Band of Brothers boxed set would be in the all-over green uniform. Just use Militarum Green to do the whole uniform, but this time you'll need to be a little careful when you come to the webbing and pack since those wouldn't be dark green.

[@catosicarius6395]

Its verry good men, i copy that on my minitures after this Video and i love it🇺🇲

[@joehendrson3815]

CAN THE TROSUER BE PAITINED IN BROWN ?

[@SonicSledgehammerStudio]

Sure, Garaghak's Sewer is probably the easiest to use. While *technically* these are the later trousers which should be green, the differences are relatively minor and remarkably fussy so painting them brown will look fine on the table.

[@MrBizteck]

Ive been avoiding contrast paints for a while. Picked up my first bottle a week ago. Im impressed tbh. Your video is perfect for helping me decide which pots to pick up next.

[@SonicSledgehammerStudio]

Glad it was helpful! I think a large part of how well they work definitely depends on the miniatures, and most historical stuff actually fits the bill pretty well.

[@ethanevenson3855]

The techniques have come a long way since the weird neon marines. Skeleton horde is actually pretty sick, and I’m considering buying some pots to basically use as high-pigment washes.

[@Fluffykeith]

@@ethanevenson3855 Skeleton Horde is one of the best paints in the Contrast Range, imho. The results you get from it are pretty darn impressive.

[@anthonysirio4984]

Best tuto

[@LeeHobbies]

Thank you so much. Literally just glued up my very first BA mini and I'm looking to speed paint the whole army, this has helped massively to give me a good starting point.

[@loupiscanis9449]

Thank you

[@stephendavinson4441]

Yes those contrast paints make it look quick and easy to paint and whole army.very nice work and keep these videos rolling out .......

[@bobdole8830]

Well many miniature companies, especially GW just spam so much detail on any random model, even if they are just standard infantry, that painting them is a nightmare. I have been playing GW stuff for the better part of 20 years and only have a handfull of modells painted, when I picked up Bolt action I painted my entire army in a week. Now I picked up US Airborne as a second army when playing

[@CallofOdin580]

Looking good there my friend. While I don’t use the contrast paints i will be picking some up for my young lad to start out painting some age of sigmar bits it got sat doing nothing. On a side note I think you should check out lukes Aps ready to base basing kits. Picked some up lately and using them for my lord of the rings,, fantastic all I do is paint the base a brown colour dab on some think pva and dip the base in the pot . Job done. Would suit people using your nice and quick techniques I think.

[@davekachel]

i wish this video existed in 2015. My soldiers look funny :D

[@Groundpenguin]

I love these videos, helped me get through all of my bolt action backlog.

[@ethanevenson3855]

This is really great. As Contrast has been out for a while, I think that some of the work done with it, and even with imitation ink washes, looks a lot better. Some of the Cadians that I’ve seen done recently with contrast and your GI here are great, and a far cry from the weird neon stormcast eternals we were seeing at release.

[@SonicSledgehammerStudio]

Couldn't agree more! As people are finding more ways to use them we're seeing the wider hobby circle share some really great ideas. :D

[@simonbreckon7975]

Nice brush work. a timely video as im looking to purchase the US Starter army. love quick and easy paint jobs :)

[@SonicSledgehammerStudio]

Yes! It's an excellent box to get started with, too. :D

[@simonbreckon7975]

@@SonicSledgehammerStudio Favourite box of all is the SS box for value for money. DAK army box also. But the US infantry is looking very good. the models look fantastic. just finished a batch of Airbourne :) they were brilliant modells :) its nice to paint something else other than 50 shades of German uniform

[@greggregson9687]

Nice video. I have tried these paints, and they knock so much time off painting it is ridiculous. Just a question; Have you written down any successful Contrast mixed for WW2 uniforms and so on? I saw your nice Feldgrau from the other video, and have stolen that one ;) any more mixes you have thought up? Japanese uniform? French? Soviet?

[@SonicSledgehammerStudio]

For the most part with other uniforms it's ordinarily not much use in mixing up something as specific as German feldgrau. I've seen a few guys on the Bolt Action Facebook group using Contrast for their Soviet armies, so I figure by swapping between white, grey or bone primers, you'll get workable results for each of the armies involved.

[@davidcashin1894]

Really loved this. Mini came out great.

[@MikePhumanaut]

I'm curious if you have done a zenithal highlight with spray instead of the dry brush technique. I can assume the two are different as you want to highlight raised areas everywhere, but have you tried zenithal with contrast and notice a difference?

[@SonicSledgehammerStudio]

Not yet! I haven't really given it much thought. I know some really like the darkened recesses of a zenithal prime but to me it can sometimes just look like the colour's gone bonk underneath. Different (brush)strokes for different folks, I guess!

[@MikePhumanaut]

@@SonicSledgehammerStudio I was thinking about mechanicus base and then grey seer or white zenithal. Curious to see if the light areas would show through. Might give it a shot

[@Oever117]

@@MikePhumanaut Sounds like a great idea to be honest. Might result in a really easy nice gradient. Think with contrasts you do want to use the grey seer + white combination rather then a more stark contrast like you usually would with a zenithal prime.

[@tylerdurden108]

make a astra militarum video with contrast please👍👍👍

[@SonicSledgehammerStudio]

It'd not look terribly different to this one, honestly! Wraithbone, much the same colours; Castellan Green for the armour and then shade.

[@cunneyes]

i'm building a US infantry army atm, and coincidentally I just bought GW Contrasts, so this came along at the perfect time, thanks Oh could you have used aggaros dunes for the jackets?

[@SonicSledgehammerStudio]

Aggaros Dunes will give you a similar effect, though a little darker and a bit more yellow. I'd suggest if you're going to use Aggaros Dunes on the jackets, just use Skeleton Horde on the webbing and don't bother with the Plaguebearer Flesh.

[@OrrgunUK]

This is pretty much exactly how I do mine :) Although I preshade the model before contrast paints...which I got from one of your other vids haha

[@SonicSledgehammerStudio]

I'd say it's the correct method, but I might be showing my bias there. ;)

[@angrypantz87]

Contrast Russians next me thinks.

[@SonicSledgehammerStudio]

Aggaros Dunes? Aggaros Dunes.

[@angrypantz87]

Sonic Sledgehammer Studio can’t picture it. You’d have to show me at some point.

[@garybullock5917]

That s what a lot of games need fast paint job and looking good you do both great work keep it up thanks

[@johnkelley9877]

I am surprised that the Contrast Paints can also be used for U.S. figures. Thanks for sharing this and the model looks great! I always learn something new from you.

[@SonicSledgehammerStudio]

I find that the Contrast paints usually seem to be quite bold, stark colours. Great if you're painting Space Marines and Orks and such, but when it comes to real things they can be a bit much! I've seen people getting really great results by tweaking their primers - beige or light tan, for example - and using the Contrast more like a really deep pigment to highlight themselves later. The longer they're out in the hands of hobbyists worldwide, the more uses we keep seeing pop up for them! :D

[@huwtindall7096]

Great use of Contrast paints here mate. I feel the models are ideal too with lots of folds in the clothing and details on the webbing etc for the contrast to flow into. Flatter surfaces are problematic but this is ideal.

[@SonicSledgehammerStudio]

Totally agree - especially the latest run of infantry from Warlord are absolutely perfect for how Contrast works. The Americans, British Airborne and the Waffen SS kits are pretty much ideal. If only they'd get around to updating those original British infantry kits!

[@huwtindall7096]

@@SonicSledgehammerStudio I've only dipped my toe into historical minis recently and I've got to say it's a change from 40k/fantasy. Need to experiment more with techniques and mixes I think and your videos are great inspiration. May just have to click that affiliate link and get me some more plastic.

[@SonicSledgehammerStudio]

One of the things I've really enjoyed about getting deeper into historical gaming is connecting with all the stories of the people involved, reading personal accounts and hearing stories directly from those that were there. If I want to know, say, what tank a New Zealand force would have in 1943, I'm suddenly eighteen tabs deep into the history of the Divisional Cavalry... 😂

[@huwtindall7096]

@@SonicSledgehammerStudio Slippery slope isn't it! First model I did in lockdown was a 1/48 scale Matilda II from Tamiya. Now it's on a diorama base and I've got Afrika Korps models en route and I'm wondering about what scout cars would have been operating in North Africa at the time and so on. Like a history lesson bonus on top of the hobby!

[@SonicSledgehammerStudio]

Can't go wrong with a Daimler Dingo! They're a brilliant little scout vehicle, saw service just about everywhere. Don't take my word for it, either! If you've got a few minutes, Mr David Fletcher MBE has you covered: kzbin.info/www/bejne/p5Ouc6l9ap2Ur80

[@Eric_Shaun]

Can you make one with contrast paints for soviets? love your content and being a silent watcher for quite a time :)

[@SonicSledgehammerStudio]

We'll see! I've seen some pretty cool Soviet stuff painted up with Contrast, but I'll need to take a look in my box of spares and see if I've actually got any to paint up!

[@josealvarollopeznavarro1403]

me encanta tus máquetas guapas

[@lencampey5685]

Very good tutorial

[@HeadHunterSix]

Whenever someone says Contrast paints are unsuitable for painting military miniatures, I direct them to your videos. This one and the Grenadier are great. I'd happily play with a whole army of minis painted like these.

[@SonicSledgehammerStudio]

They're still really an acquired taste, but I'd definitely prefer playing against an army given a quick job in Contrast than not painted at all! ;D

[@bobdole8830]

Really not bad. I usually use less colours, usually 6-8 just to save time and money. With my Wehrmacht I have gotten pretty effective. I could easily batch paint 20-30 men in half a day. Painted my entire army in about a week in preparation for my first game

[@crescentfresh6823]

Would love to see a How I Paint Things - Black Legion, Warhammer 40k. I am struggling to make mine look any good. Saw your video about black armour, maybe it can be applied to Chaos Space Marines as well?

[@Mogsey1972]

Really loved this, would Love to see the contrast method on British Infantry.....hint hint.

[@SonicSledgehammerStudio]

Whenever Warlord get around to updating those gnarly old plastic miniatures, sure. ;)

[@Aelfgaard]

My British Infantry is on order, so i'm looking around for a painting scheme, and found this... www.wargaming3d.com/2019/08/06/speed-painting-wwii-infantry-with-citadel-contrast-paints/

[@Mogsey1972]

@@SonicSledgehammerStudio hahahaha ok mate :D

[@Mogsey1972]

@@Aelfgaard Cheers buddy!!

[@davidsimons4143]

As always brilliant video and just at the right time to give me a break from my Blackseas ships to concentrate on my American WWII army for Bolt Action. And you’ll get me in to trouble as I’ve been meaning to have a go with contrast paints and have just been out and bought all the ones listed. 😀Three questions though: Firstly you’ve used wraithbone primer. I have an air brush that I use for priming so would Vallejo white primer work with the Wrack white dry brushing? Secondly could you do a demo of American airborne using contrast or would I be correct in thinking that they would be even easier with both the jacket and trousers being in Militarum green And lastly could you show a direct comparison of this figure and the same type of uniform painted with normal paint. As a separate request, could you do a Blackseas ship, preferably with a strip down the side using contrast paints I would like to see how you tackle this. Thanks very much for sharing your techniques and making these videos, they are some of the best around👍

[@ulgulu7433]

This came out really good. I like the look. What do you think could be used for Japanese Infantry/SLNF ?

[@jjc292]

Love the videos. Uber helpful for someone that’s getting back into modelling and painting after 30 years. Could you do a video on add ins to painting like model holders magnifying lenses (if you use them) and brush sizes and there used. Once again cracking videos thanks

[@simdoyle]

Top work Troy - as ever!

[@cjanquart]

Those Redgrass brushes are good, as is their wet palette.

[@SonicSledgehammerStudio]

I'm really looking forward to seeing them expand the line of brushes. The Size 2 is great for most things, but I'd love a Size 1 for faces and such!

[@jbinc]

Thanks

[@NathanielBroombiz]

Thanks!

[@93broome]

Awesome video. Can you do one on US Marines at all? Cheers.

[@SonicSledgehammerStudio]

Marines are one I'd probably need to tweak a little to get a decent result. The slightly faded finish of those uniforms could work over a grey primer? Hmm...

[@93broome]

@@SonicSledgehammerStudio Any luck on doing one yet for marines? ;)

[@tylerdurden108]

why do you dont need varnish to protect the mini?

[@btdw-mikecooper3961]

Looks amazing.

[@fharbord]

Finally the Counterpart to your Grenadiers! Good stuff :)

[@malcolmrose3361]

Sorry but I don't think this looks anywhere near as good as your normal output - I realise that this is intended for newcomers but I genuinely think that your previous "how-to" for US infantry produced a much better result for not a great deal more effort. I think Contrast paint has it's place - the flesh looks good for instance - but as a rule, it's not really much use, particularly for large areas.