Do Contrast paints REALLY work?

Let's see how Contrast paints fare against classic 90s hex pots using the ultimate test model: the 2nd edition box set Space Ork GOFF!
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00:00 Intro
01:29 Prep
02:32 90s paints
07:37 New prints
08:17 Contrast paints
10:48 Comparison
12:27 Competition announcement

[@TheThewhatnow]

The reason you do a Black wash and drybrush before the contrast paint, is to specifically get the grim dark and more realistic style, and not the old vibrant paint schemes. In the early days of contrast paint, when you would do them over a pure white primer, they were dunked on all the time for being too vibrant. If you want them vibrant don’t mute it down with a monotone greyscale, it’s like complaining your yellow paint has bad coverage when you primed the model black.

[@raul-aurelianserban8295]

Or that your rust paint isn't showing well, when it's over orange painted armor

[@lctaylor6]

It’s also like he hasn’t seen his own video on painting Gretchen in this style.

[@jeffhreid]

Spot on comment. If he primed pure whit it would be way brighter, in fact he’d have to use shades to darken the shadows.

[@Hudston]

My thoughts exactly. Contrast paints are transparent so they essentially mix with whatever you paint them over and will only show their full vibrancy when painted over bright white. Painting them over a zenithal is basically the same as adding some black into the mix so I'm hardly surprised that they weren't as bright as the old paints!

[@ThomasWinslove]

It just goes to show that a large following doesn’t correlate to knowing what you’re doing

[@DragonsHoardOfPlastic]

I think the Nuln Oil preshade before the Contrast might've been overdoing it and darkened down the final result too much. Adding some warmth to the base coat could push it further into the brighter 90's territory as well.

[@ollep9142]

I totally agree! For the Contrast paints no part of the undercoat can be a darker shade than the pigments used for the top coat, since the paint is supposed to do its own shading. I'd use a warm and fairly light grey (instead of black) if I want a neutral shading in the undercoat.

[@dickkickem4238]

Great vid, couple things: 1. If you're trying to get vibrant colors out of contrast paint, don't do any fancy washes or anything. Literally just prime the model white. Let the natural pooling of the contrast paint be your shadows. If you don't you loose the vibrancy of the paints. 2. You're going to think I'm absolutely crazy, but trust me, I painted a few guardsman squads in the old style. Tesseract Glow. It's a phenomenal goblin green esque contrast paint. Even if it's technically a technical. Even leaves nice yellowish highlights on the sand grass.

[@peterheinzo515]

maybe you should have painted the contrast over a brighter basecoat

[@MidwinterMinis]

Maybe!

[@Dank_POG]

You should probably just prime white and then put the contrast paints.

[@lctaylor6]

He seems to be aware.

[@theycallmepiccolo9985]

That’s exactly what im saying. For a better comparison should have based the models in the same way and not use the contrast paints with slap chop base instead

[@carlstanford7607]

@@MidwinterMinisseems like a good idea for a follow up video

[@jackofn0trades29]

A couple of tips that I have personally found. 1. You can use a thumbtack or safety pin to center your hole for gun barrels. 2. Instead of directly painting, on white for the checkerboard, start with a medium gray, then use a mechanical pencil, to sketch the squares before you paint! 3. If you want to keep the vibrancy of your colors when you highlight mix them in with an adjacent hue on the color wheel, mix your base green with Yellow, or your red with Orange. It works to really give a sense of life to the model! (Thanks for that one Louise)

[@MakutaDreadscythe]

I think it’s been brought up in other comments, but I feel that darkening the basecoats before applying the contrast paints contributed a fair bit to the muted finish of the model. Granted, it looks fantastic and contemporary, but for comparing to the older paints it seemed a bit uphill from the first step. That said, I do agree that there are some aspects that contrast isn’t suited for (base rims for example) and I am a firm believer in that a combination of acrylic and contrast tends to give the best results: you get the speed of the contrast paints for areas that matter while maintaining the smoothness and control of the acrylics for highlights or layering.

[@memevarg2530]

Love to watch every video where the 90s or old school parts of the hobby are in the spotlight!

[@dontpushme]

My favourite use for Contrast paints is to paint metal areas, I start with a base coat of Leadbelcher, then a nuln oil wash then a dry brush of a lighter silver colour. Once this is done you can apply thinned contrasts over some or all of the metallic areas to look like other metallic colours, iyanden yellow makes a great gold, skeleton horde looks more brass/bronze like. The lighter highlights from the dry brush show through so no extra highlighting needed afterwards.

[@jaffarito2557]

I watched this video w while back and I was shocked to find out you had the same color blindness that I do yet it doesn’t seem to hold you back. After that i decided to go back and learn and practice color theory which gave me a lot of theoretical understanding of how color and light work. Seems I’ve been living in a hole for almost 40 years 😂 All of this is to thank you and show you the appreciation you deserve. This little piece of knowledge has transformed my painting and now I do it with a lot more understanding and confidence.

[@cetx]

I'm almost 100% Contrast now. Undercoat it with white and you can get pretty vibrant colours, with the right selection of paint. I can't imagine painting with "normal" paint any more.

[@frogjog8822]

I think the contrast Goff will be some hipster ahead of his time in the army. =)

[@anotherzingbo]

That Skeleton Army box was the basis of my first Warhammer army, I got it for Christmas in 1989 and it was a thing of wonder back then. 🙂

[@MidwinterMinis]

Still is! :)

[@Mrjohnsluke920]

Love the channel. Would love to see some more tau painting

[@MidwinterMinis]

Noted!

[@Mrjohnsluke920]

@@MidwinterMinis the fact you saw my comment is sick enough !!! Maybe a cool idea would be easy ways to paint different schemes Or a custom kit bash of your own tau auxiliary

[@ms-jw3oy]

Forget the painting! That 2nd edition set, with the mono-pose miniatures and the hexagon paints was a serious nostalgia trip for me. Incredible.

[@halfcrafted]

Awesome comparison and competition! Can't wait for SPORKTOBER!

[@Cerderius]

"Haven't found a cheaper painting handle yet." And here I am using pill bottles from my dogs very expensive allergy medication.

[@PugMast3r]

Got to check out one of your streams recently. Was such a great time love seeing you and Hatty’s natural dynamic and will definitely coming back for more!

[@MidwinterMinis]

Cheers matey! Yeah, feels like everyone's had a great time so far :)

[@crazyfrogwales]

Hero quest and space crusade introduced me to the hobby of miniature war gaming I’m really looking forward to that video 👍🏻

[@dr.fistus94]

the outro music somehow makes me to be in peace with whatever negative vibes go on in my day to day existence. I made it a habbit to listen to it before i leave my little garden i care for. it sets such a nice, chill tone. love it.

[@alexm8226]

Will surely buy the Warlord Titan art, can't wait to get it signed by you at the next Warhammer Fest. I still hold my 9th Ed Custodes Codex you signed to heart

[@DrSpoon1991]

Ive got a retro shokk attack gun and a ealry edition metal ork dreadnaught that may be candidates for this comp.

[@MidwinterMinis]

Nice!

[@simoncaulfield33]

I can't believe you still have soluble paints from back then! I had them on a rogue trader timeframe and they went solid a month later. Would love them now. Bloody me as a bloody teenager! Grrrr

[@ShintaroMugura]

Spork! My favorite eating utensil has a month named after it. This is beyond cool!

[@rupertjones5197]

I’ve started up the hobby again after a couple year break and loving the contrast paints for painting my fantasy empire army. Very effective with all the puffy sleeves and 2 tone colour scheme of averland

[@phoenixproductions2846]

I love the mix of 90s and current day looks. I think thats what im gonna do with my minis

[@WarhammerWings]

Again, another awesome video,Guy! For me, painting armour trim and basing armies are my roundtrip ticket on the Pain Train. XD

[@MidwinterMinis]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@WarhammerWings]

​@MidwinterMinis I enjoy EVERYTHING you put out,Guy. Aside from Duncan Rhodes, who taught me how to paint Thousand Sons, your videos taught me to pick up a brush and have fun!

[@tyrxa]

the first bit is pure nostalgia. thanks

[@zamoutague199]

Per the holiday special between Dana Howl and Billion Dollar Clown Farm, Orktober is the commercial holiday. The pagan roots are, of course, in Orkvember

[@elfmastercool4734]

I've been loving this heroquest series so far, and painting mine up at the same time. Thanks for the vids!

[@lctaylor6]

Having used Army Painter Speed Paints ALOT, you can get nice, bright ‘90s style results by *checks notes* painting on a white primer as every bottle says on the back.

[@lctaylor6]

Hexwraith Flame can make Ork skin like the ‘90s paints. On a white primer.

[@stevenmcgrath5114]

1:50 I learned to use a push pin to create the pilot hole for drilling. Works perfectly and centered ! ! !

[@ThomasMurch]

14:21 - I realised what was coming JUST in time, but it still blew me away ... sheer genius!

[@tamzinnapierala9084]

I loved this video especially with it being Orks! 😁 I have some old Orks what Jacob brought me

[@Deathkorpsofkrieg417]

Love the video, you did some great work. Kinda related but I’ve seen new minis get painted in the 90s paint style I’d love to see old minis get painted in the new grimdark paint style. I’d think you would do a fantastic job at that.

[@genghisgahan9623]

I love them both. These days i use a combination of both types of paint. I tend to use my acrylics to highlight or refine the speed paint start. Love them.

[@mortisangelica]

The contrast paints version ended up looking exactly like my buddy's orks he painted in 98. He was using testors brand paint. I really don't remember many army's being as bright and poping like the box art then.

[@bigweld6792]

makes me wonder if in 20 or so years from now people will be painting "retro" armies based on today's 'eavy metal style even though in reality no one really paints their army like that

[@terrain4print]

I use contrast paints for quickly finishing a lot of infantry models, with slap chop. They go on so easily.

[@Captainyyeet]

An interesting concept! Can’t wait to watch this!

[@Captainyyeet]

Currently watching it now and this is very good so far!

[@irrationalgaz]

I remember that Skeleton Horde box. The horror, the horror. I was too young and the skill level required was way too high and in the end the contents of that box just became basing materials for every subsequent army I built all throughout the lifespan of 2nd and 3rd edition edition, 40K and N95 'munda.

[@sos_legio_primus9177]

I had that Plastic skeleton regiment box; back in the day. I used the weapons from the Imperial Guard regiment box and made Space Skeletons for 40k.

[@minime9990]

Thanks for this guys! I have so many questions about contrast paints. I quite like them to be honest, I really enjoy that with 50/50 water, multiple coats can make amazing fades, definitely not the same colour pop as older paints, but a useful tool for sure

[@jasonarce5169]

The contrast method Ork boy looks like a animated film. The classic paints boy looks like a 90's Saturday morning cartoon.

[@Jamgeoso]

Cool video. I think to get the a vibrant finish out of contrast you need to go pretty bright with the underpainting. I use a similar underpainting technique but go a bit heavier on the white drybrush. It depends on the feel you want. I think the more grey there is the drabber(?) it tends to be. My favourite way to use contrast is very thinned down. Some directional colours underneath with an airbrush and then set some light tones with thinned contrast. A little highlighting and it gives a very cool effect. Cheers

[@steppeone]

I also love the 90s style. I only started playing Warhammer a couple years ago, but the old minis really spoke to me. I think your Dark Angels video was one of the videos that convinced me to go that route. I’ve been really lucky to snag a bunch of old plastic and metal for less than new models cost, and have a few thousand points staring at me, unpainted. Plus a bunch of orks, including Ghaz. I even have the original HeroQuest game. I think I’m going to go all in: Space Marine September and Orktober. Going to try get them all done, or burn out trying.

[@LinkiePup]

Glazes. Contrast is amazing for glazes!

[@MidwinterMinis]

Yeah, thinned down is definitely how I've used them best so far

[@seymourbutz5353]

My favourite use for contrast paints at the moment is using gryph charger grey as a shade for my votann undersuits and space wolves armour

[@Bluecho4]

"Is October 'Orktober' or 'Spooktober'? Why not both?" I'm certainly doing both this year. I've got some Kruleboyz I need to repaint, as I hadn't figured out my paint scheme when I painted the whole Ork half of the Dominion box last year. But I'm also planning on painting a bunch of skeletons from Wargames Atlantic (the box just came in the mail today), and some zombies from my pile of shame.

[@ericduchossois8387]

Contrast is fantastic through an airbrush!

[@JackSpadeXI]

The contrast painted ork looks like he stood beking the exhaust pipe of the cardboard Deff Dread

[@suntitan4429]

These look great just like some box art from the 90’s

[@BB-pn2qv]

It looks quite good I think!

[@yesmilord2350]

Is it weird that my favorite part about this video is the sound design?

[@aqua7734]

I agree that the all-acrylic model is better, but I think the contrast ork isn't half bad! Honestly though, I think contrast paints are best used as a complement to traditional methods rather than a replacement, as you demonstrated with your Mozrog model! It would have been really interesting if you did a third ork where you tried to use both types of paint, perhaps?

[@TheMrFishnDucks]

Never was a fan of grim dark. I love the bright fun colours of the 90s. Nice video. Keep up the good work. Sporktober forever.

[@AzraelThanatos]

One of the things that I've found is that some of the black contrast does work great for black cloth that's less worn and weathered, but heavy enough for folds.

[@Bubbowie]

I like to use contrast paints trough the air brush, over a zenital basecoat. You can get a quite nice and vibrant result. It works like a charm for my salamanders space marines.

[@Nigelius]

I’ve started using contrast paints a lot more, specifically in two key areas and one lesser used area. Firstly, I’ve been using them as a base coat/wash combo as fully intended and then following up with traditional layering. Secondly, I’ve been thinning them down as a wash/glaze over some areas of layering. Lastly, I have been using them through the airbrush for stuff like OSL or other effects, I don’t do this as much but it’s great to implement once in a while. Contrasts are a great tool but they’re more something to include in your existing workflow rather than entirely replace it.

[@benthompson5254]

A serious trip down memory lane watching this vid. Loved seeing the prizes for Sporktober, I remember building the Space Ork sprue back in the day and I ordered the Skeleton army box from the back of a White Dwarf back in the day. Really looking forward to the Heroquest video next week, will this become the new speed paint box set series.... I hope so :-)

[@martinfamily2013]

Wow nostalgia. I miss the 90's.

[@jandukanocraft6897]

Oh yeah! HeroQuest in the channel? Looking forward to see it!!!

[@JBMINIATURES]

YES!! Orks are my boyz!!

[@PixelHarman]

Guy, I love painting contrast over slapchop priming, but if you wanted vibrant you should’ve painted over a white prime! Enjoyable video nonetheless ❤

[@noops9220]

0:41 that GW guy looks like he’s related to Guy… guess that’s how he got the pin 😝

[@ElSpartan667]

Love the 90s videos

[@brianeno608]

I like the 90's marine challenge alot. If i can grab one (or print one lol) ill enter. Honestly GW should just re-release a pack of them, 1-5 and make em... $5-$10 (aus) for 1 or like $30-$50 for 5. They are iconic. I absolutely love how orktober challenge is just use any one, just make the scheme retro. Thanks guy, really appreciate that. I saw a spike in prices for 2nd edition marines and i was like oh no, they are going to go up even more lol.

[@angus24.7]

I like contrast paints through an airbrush - and for doing some rough grimy trim on my iron warriors! But also - yes, very specific uses for it rather than a great all painting use

[@MidwinterMinis]

Nice tip! I'll give it a go

[@breezierchip8355]

My favourite use for contrast/speed/xpress/etc. paints is generally to basecoat a pure white primed mini. They just apply so damn fast.

[@Spongemonkey26]

Just FYI, Pro Acryl Blue is perfect for 90's styled Ultramarines. I use it on mine and it's great.

[@Wolfineer_]

Heroquest!! **grabby hands** Hrmm I think I have a few of those wraiths somewhere in a box of unpainted metals

[@YanniCooper]

If you're looking for bright with contrast, I strongly recommend priming with a colored zenithal. For these orks you could do black from below but instead of a white prime, hit it with yellow from above. Use thinner blue contrast on the skin to shade it to green (and you can easily go heavier in the shadows for shadows, or thinner where you want highlights), and then a strong red (thinner where you want highlights again) over the red parts. I'd end with Baal red in the shadows, though as it's a single pigment and so fairly opaque. For the checkers and metallics good old acrylics can't be beat though. I feel like learning how the CMYK color wheel works can be fantastic with contrast (at least the transparent ones). At least for me it's allowed for priming in color (possibly after a tactical drybrush/highlight in white) and can make painting so much faster while still keeping it vibrant, especially helpful when painting some of the newer sculpts (like say my current Hedonites project) which have amazingly many more details then older models. You can get a lot of traction from doing 2 thin coats of different colored contrast paint to arrive at vibrant end result from a white zenithal prime if that's more your jam, you just have to give a little time for the first coat to dry. Or don't, it's fairly easy to get a wet blend gradient with contrast if you work quickly (might be hard on a larger model), I'm not the boss of you.

[@ericdelgado1001]

My fav ork contrast recipee is 3/4 of plaguebearer's flesh and 1/4 of ork flesh, on slapchop or directly white works LIKE A CHARM xD Been watching you on stream, it's quite nice, I love your content!

[@kirbymerby]

👏Goblin Green bases 👏 Goblin Green bases👏

[@InterrogatorchaplainAsmodai]

The guy who came after the guy who came after the guy who came after the guy who was first

[@MidwinterMinis]

Was I technically the first Guy?

[@InterrogatorchaplainAsmodai]

​@@MidwinterMinis True, my mistake, I loved the salamanders painting tutorial, I hope the son of sanguinius will be next! Edit:I also hope to see the warlord titan vs ork gargant at some point in the future

[@grimmriffer]

OMG, I had that skeleton army and had completely forgotten! 😄 Talk about fragile - but it was nice of GW to provide them already in a bone colour!

[@connorsells805]

I typically use contrast in the creases of capes and cloth and thin it down to make glazes.

[@warbossbenny6877]

Slapchop + contrast paints are all I use now. It's hard when you want to paint but have a job and a kid and really need finish a project with some pretty decent results

[@AceOfQuades]

I've been experimenting with getting contrast paints not to have that gross desaturation in the highlights and my protip would be paint in a thin layer of a tinted highlight before any contrast, so peach under red, sky blue under deeper blues, lemon yellow under lime greens etc. 1 thin coat is enough tbh so long as your thinning the contrast with medium. Even the older range of contrast can really pump up the vibrancy with just a slight push of an undercoat

[@SwordofAlabastor]

Looking forward to Sporktober

[@FreshCoatKustoms]

Light to medium grey with a white drybrush or, if you want it smoother and warmer, a light beige / bone white and then off white drybrush as an undercoat and using different colours (Ork Skin Xpress Paint by Vallejo is amazing, so is Blood Red Speedpaint by AP) will do the trick. I have painted a few of these Orks in no time and they look 90s AF.

[@NagashUnbroken]

Poot poot. All aboard the pain train. 😂

[@turnipslop3822]

Would love to see you do a 2e battle report when these guys are finished with Olden Demon. Think the combination of you two would be hilarious :]

[@crowythebutcher6127]

Iv been using a magenta shadow and ice yellow as a zenith prime iv found it really makes the ork skin pop

[@mikleman996]

WOOO MWM upload!

[@MidwinterMinis]

Happy Ric Flair noises

[@Daealis]

If you're going for the really vibrant colors, a warm white basecoat is all you need. Don't preshade with the rattle cans! You will need to do two layers of contrast anyway to get the saturation up. At that point you can add some shadows to the undersides if you're looking for volumetric highlights, using blues and purples diluted way down. I've made it my mission to understand these paints better and what i've noticed is that the preshading step is more harmful than anything else if you're looking for vibrant, punch-you-in-the-eyes minis. For grimdark style and speeding through a whole crew in a single coat, a grisaille is a good idea. For vibrant colors, you'll need two coats and only white as the base. And since you'll go for second coats anyway, shading on that pass won't take much more time, as you can even premix the shades on your palette and keep the formula consistent. Slap that vibrant tone on the topside of things, pushing it slightly too far, then dip your brush into the shading mixture and do the underside of the part while the bright paint is still wet. Natural wet-blends where they meet, nice and vibrant results!

[@twellas4445]

Super stoked about the competition! I was just wondering, are there any particularly important guidelines to follow? Some "rules" might really help a novice like me!

[@OmegaLittleBob]

Okay so...what if, a giant collaboration, all the Hobby KZbinrs in the UK get together and they all each paint one of those little ork boys in the classic style, or maybe however they want.

[@fallouttoonlink]

I use contrast paint, specifically Warp Lightning, for my salamanders. I about love the consistency the paint has.

[@garethjohns8458]

I guess the "new" method isn't as bright as the 90's method, and so if you want to replicate it you'd need to use opaque paints. But seeing you compare them side-by-side. The contrast model just looks better... At least in my opinion. But that's the beauty of mini-painting, you get to decide what looks better to you.

[@RealLofiVibes]

Sporktober sounds really silly!

[@TheRunningLeopard]

Just realized that I am about to paint a skeleton off of a color scheme decided on by the dice it came with, maybe I'll submit it just for the hell of it too.

[@slow_runner]

I mean... compromise and call it SPORKtob... oh. I guess you just did as I was typing this out. Great minds think alike!

[@darbizzlebacon]

I’ve only been painting minis for 2 years, so I don’t have a huge collection of paints. I do use a lot of contrast paints though, but I almost always do highlights in Vallejo acrylics after basing in contrasts.

[@Mosaic117]

“Second edition was really nice and simple” -was it guy?? Was it really?!!

[@gavinboyer4634]

I do like the 90s style more, personally. So I'll probably use it for my AoS Ironjaws. (Think WH fantasy's black orcs, but turned up to 11)

[@foyble]

Well done for changing your stance on contrast type paints. They have their place in the hobby for sure

[@adammoore251]

I use contrasts as a base coat and highlight from there.

[@Nutter666]

My favourite (and main) use of contrast paints is just to get a quick base of flesh/skin tones down when batch painting, Slap it on a whole unit of models, come back with some Reikland Flesh shade and then layer up for some decent but fairly quick skin, I think Contrast is better suited for organic stuff where the imperfect coverage helps with the natural/organic feel... especially if you build up a couple of layers with washes and stuff afterwards.

[@hezzab3669]

i love them as a good base colour but i certainly work into them after the fact.

[@nightmarepenguin2370]

easy coloured metalics oml... clean metallic silver + deep black wash + bright silver highlight -> blood angels red or any other contrast (ba red is just my favourite). It does take some fiddling because 2 coats obscures the metallics a little too much, so you kinda have to do 1.5 coats or strip some away from the recesses with a wet brush, but it still looks good at 2 coats (through a brush, the coverage through an airbrush makes it too opaque, though it does give a cool effect, kinda crystally rather than metallic imo). it can feel a little off-tone for warhammer when your guys are shiny and stunning with crazy colours but there are definitely ways to make it work.

[@petertbbrett]

Contrast paints are just fantastic for recess shading and panel lining, even when you're painting in a 90s style. For example, I have found Black Templar contrast paint has been brilliant for shading armour panel joints on my Eldar army.