Techniques: Contrast Paints.

Contrast Paints are a really useful and versatile paint and can yield some great results. In this video, Duncan demonstrates some great techniques from getting started with Contrast paints, fine-lining and some easy blending techniques.
Please note: Use a STAINLESS STEEL or GLASS ball-bearing to mix your paint. (Thanks for the tip everybody)
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#twothincoats
#duncanrhodes
#contrastpaints

[@ej.crusing6130]

GW: contrast can be done with one coat. Duncan: 2 THIN COATS!

[@RolfHartmann]

Two thin coats, two thin coats!!

[@andreag.4609]

That’s why he’s here! 😉👍🏻

[@MrSquark]

He said the thing!

[@Elka-qg5lt]

i wanted to write the same thing! :-) 2 Thin Coats!!! ^^

[@o7_AP]

Reminds me of that picture of him looking horrified under the “one thick coat” tag line

[@DuncanRhodesDRPA]

Hey guys, many of you have rightly pointed out that you should use a STAINLESS STEEL ball-bearing or even a GLASS bead. This is correct and good practice. A Mild Steel ball-bearing will eventually corrode and potentially ruin your pot of paint. Thank you all for the feedback and the continued support. On top of that, stay safe everyone 😊 - Dunc and Rog

[@davidwasilewski]

Or just use air rifle bullets. They’re lead and you can buy a tin of 300 for less than the price of a pack of 20 ball bearings.

[@novakayne9373]

Army Painter or greenstuff world Mixing Balls confirmed work in GW and Vallejo paints... ebay stainless steel doesnt... dont cheap out bought mine from Mightyape (au/nz)

[@davidwasilewski]

Andrew McGuire why? What does it do to the paint? The amount of lead that would ‘leak’ into the paint would be infintesimally small,and besides, if you varnish your figures, you’re not touching it? Just don’t suck your wet paint brush lol

[@davidwasilewski]

Andrew McGuire Fair enough dude. I have used air rifle pellets for years and have never had an issue.

[@Darkbirdy]

Lead absolutely does corrode. There isn't enough in play here to hurt you, but it isn't good for your paints.

[@rebeccaschulz6985]

Gw: turns off comments to they're videos. Duncan: Gets literally hundreds of positive comments and helpful suggestions from his fans and tries to reply where he can. Thank you for being you and helping us all perfect our two thin coat philosophy over the years.

[@DuncanRhodesDRPA]

Thank you for the kind word Rebecca we truly appreciate them.😊

[@vojtasjedyny]

Now this almost sounds like WarhammerTV. The only difference is usage of AP brush. Oh, and comment section isn't closed!

[@fabiosordo5313]

He also isn't using lahmian medium on the glaze but instead uses water.

[@kurtl8425]

And Duncan gets to keep the $ (or £ I guess) from KZbin.

[@boddie.n_0339]

Duncan, thank you so much for showing the people how to actually use contrast!

[@DuncanRhodesDRPA]

Our pleasure :-)

[@garethburmeister4681]

@@DuncanRhodesDRPA Phenomenal video. Really opens up my painting potential. Thank you so so much👊

[@MGC-XIII]

People are using it as an ink for their airbrushes, works really well.

[@ketxyz]

I was not conviced by those paints thinking this is going to make painting way too easy and less challenging. Never been so wrong. I decided to go for the screamy blue, goblin green like and dark angeels green paints for my GW -LoTR phantom figs. the effect is just phenomenal ibb.co/bs9SK4N the link is a legit picture of my figs, not scam :c btw if anybody is interested in the exact lalette of colors feel free to ask :).

[@dapainu6967]

@@ketxyz Looks great dude !

[@LordBloodpool]

"Say the line, Duncan!" "...Two Thin Coats." "Yaaaaaaaaay!"

[@Scaggler]

do the roar

[@RokuroCarisu]

WHAT? DUNCAN! COATS!

[@Scaggler]

WHAT? GENESEEDS? DUNCAN?

[@TheJudokus]

"THIN YOUR PAINTS OR I SHALL THIN YOUR RANKS!"

[@KokNoker]

When I finally get to leave the house, Duncan will be responsible for more of my GW purchases as his own entity than he was as a GW employee.

[@lordvermintide4441]

And the Lord spake, saying, "First shalt thou thin out thy Holy Paints. Then, shalt thou count to two. No more. No less. Two shalt be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be two. Three shalt thou not count, nor either count thou one, excepting that thou then proceed to two. Four is right out. Once the number two, being the second number, be reached, then, lobbest thou thy Holy Paints of Duncan towards thy model, who, being not in My sight, shall have a nice even coverage."

[@mityakiselev]

CoolStoryBob

[@darkassasion]

Nice monty python holly grail

[@notkonradcurze1347]

Yes.

[@nuggetswafflesandcurlyfrie4839]

Amen

[@KhadaKuraki]

Ave Imperator

[@AZRAEL9091]

duncan : what you can do is apply two thin coat me: HE SAY ITTT !!!! HE SAY ITTT !!!

[@andrewdowns9047]

Duncan's power to use two thin coats is stronger than GW's marketing

[@HistoritorJimaldus]

Yessssss! :D

[@CountCoxy101]

Duncan used to work in a GW in Derby before he went on to do all this, even then like 10 years ago you could tell he really loved what he was doing and always helped you out when you needed it. Nice to see him doing so well this far on. Keep it up mate!

[@antroz321703]

I like how he’s showing that this paint is significantly more useful than it was marketed.

[@minishaw280]

This is how our local gw store manager showed us how to use it

[@SuperDuperHappyTime]

Something I noticed about the Warhammer Tutorials. We have tutorials for: Bloodthirster Lord of Change Great Unclean One And I think that’s it for the Chaos Greater Daemons. It’s not like we are keeping one a secret.

[@cyberdiver7076]

@@cloud4an You ruined it!!!!

[@fornalli]

Where?

[@pwrlol]

What a great guide, quick someone from GW should hire this guy! 😉

[@Jeannot2073]

He unironically worked there before and left to do his own thing xD

[@internetman1213]

Jeannot2073 really?! I wouldn’t have guessed! 😉😉😉

[@Endero]

@@Jeannot2073 Give this man a medal

[@CyberDagger003]

@@Jeannot2073 -> The joke -> You

[@DazsdWTP]

@@Jeannot2073 whoosh

[@jjtalas]

As a beginner, this is extremely useful. Thank you!

[@DuncanRhodesDRPA]

Glad it was helpful Jose 😊

[@robertcrowe8261]

God have missed this voice! You taught me so much in the early days- thank you

[@DuncanRhodesDRPA]

Hi Robert. Thank you so much for the support 😊

[@robertcrowe8261]

@@DuncanRhodesDRPA You're welcome and likewise!

[@daemonofdecay]

I love your work. It’s also nice to see Contrast paints moving away from being presented as a way of being able to do all the work on their own to becoming a useful tool when combined with other products and techniques

[@benbaker5415]

Just in case you didn’t know. Fantastic painter Juan Hidalgo has a series called “ ‘Eavy contrast marines” where he blends contrast and regular paints with amazing effect

[@awesomejosh94]

@@benbaker5415 he's doing Alpha legion next and I'm so excited!

[@mausolus8466]

As a bit clumsy person, I was looking to Contrast Paints as something to give me an edge over my clumsiness. Thank you for helping me to understand how to work with them properly, especially that even with Contrast Paints, rule of "Two thin coats" still stays.

[@DuncanRhodesDRPA]

Glad we could help!

[@SkeletonBill]

This convinced me to try contrast more so than any ad from GW themselves

[@TheBeakertube]

Yeah of course, it's much easier to trust a third party than the company selling the stuff.

[@michaelrossel7339]

Drybrushing the Miniatures with white before using Contrasts gives a nice result. You get even get something that looks like edge Highlights. Not as controlled as real edge highlighting, but still a great result for about 10-15 mins per toy soldier.

[@bettsdn]

Shading gold with the gulliaman flesh is a mega tip. Thanks!

[@MrLegrooveth]

I'd love to see a comparison against Reikland flesh shade, they seem like they'd be very similar

[@akaisamurai]

I love the current GW but it is nice to see how Duncan can actually say to use water instead of medium now or like how a product is good or bad in certain ways rather than when in GW, it is usually how good the product is. I hope GW picks up on that as we all will probably love them even more for being to the point and sticking to the reality of their products. That being said, thumbs up to this video.

[@NikumbaUK]

He would say to use water when doing GW tutorials

[@akaisamurai]

@@NikumbaUK I meant for contrast paints, not the normal ones. Apologies for not clarifying.

[@PaintPlastic]

Water and medium aren't interchangeable - it depends on the purpose. Of course, you don't need to buy lahmium medium - any generic acrylic medium will do.

[@CrichtonNo5]

He literally uses contrast medium. Water and medium are not interchangeable - that's not a GW thing, that's a painter thing

[@Enballgroda1]

Using contrast I’ve found them to be quite different and a bit more difficult than GW’s initial marketing suggested. This video helped a lot, especially with in regards to medium strength/weaker contrast.

[@benrichardson5662]

I agree. I think Contrast paints are great, but not for the reason they're marketed. Personally, I prefer using them for glazing and shading.

[@dyansis]

contrast has some brilliant uses. Wyldwood is another fantastic one to be used in place of earthshade (like the way guillimans fleshtone works instead of reikland) But GW marketed it completely assways. They marketed them as this wonderous device that turns a novice into a pro with one slapdash approach. Even their new contrast videos arent that good as they dont explain the work you have to do to get contrast to be effective.

[@Antonh.]

A lot of these things have I learned by the hard way. I wish I knew that you shouldn't go back before something have dried when I started to use contrast paints. This is a good guide for everyone starting with contrast paints! Thanks for sharing Duncan!

[@DuncanRhodesDRPA]

Our pleasure Anton. Glad it helped 😊

[@crowdemon_archives]

Ebay Miniature Rescue noticed that contrast paints can strip off acrylic inks (specifically FW Ink).

[@jamesedwards8175]

I never thought of using Medium like that!

[@advocatusdiaboli9909]

Same here

[@nithzen1]

me too

[@Andreithelord]

It also works (with water too, but depends on the paint how well water does) with normal paints as well and it's something done on a bit of a more advanced level. It's called feathering. It is one of the ways one can fade a color, making the transition smooth

[@marcwittkowski5146]

An alternative (if you do not own contrast paints or medium and want to get the same effect) would be glazing.

[@janorgaWB]

Finally, comment section isn't closed and we can tell you how much we appreciate your invaluable help!

[@dyansis]

After watching him paint the ultramarine with care, precision and two thin coats, i went back and watched the Ultramarine contrast video and seeing Peachy just slap it on but come out with a smooth model. I knew when i first watched that video is was rubbish (not Peachy's fault he was just doing what the powers that be told him) Duncan, great video, Id love to see more work with contrast paints as they really are a great tool.

[@TheDeliciousMystery]

Something i've found super simple but effective is after you base a skeleton for example in skeleton horde then put plain contrast medium in all the shadowy areas like the ribcage or the lower legs, underarms and then a touch of snakebite leather feathered out from the dark points makes this really subtle definition that doesnt teastain like a wash and makes things like Tomb Kings look a lot more aged and sunbeaten if you follow this up with a drybrush/highlight only of the upper parts where sun would beat down on the bone.

[@Trzeszcz]

Wow, now I know why I had so many problems with Contrast Paints compared to the classic ones, despite Contrast being the supposedly beginner-friendly variant. That bit about not going back to areas you've already covered and applying a second coat instead of just going with one (as officially advertised) was very important. Great video, as always!

[@giantnerd14]

That last bit where Duncan mixed the paints on the model is the closest model painting has ever gotten to wet-on-wet painting, and I love an intersection of Duncan and Bob Ross.

[@cleansed_in_pestilence_3004]

When he said 2 thin coats, it was like a wonderful punch to the face. God, I love this channel.

[@brandonwestfall3241]

Excellent, was always disappointed that warhammer TV always used either all contrast or none.

[@kingxerocole4616]

This is.... not even remotely true.

[@RotneybotOfficial]

They tend to do half contrast, half traditional, or partly either-or. Annoys me because you have to get it in order to paint something their way.

[@fujoyoshi4368]

That was only in the contrast vs classic video series

[@AdnanCucak]

Duncan is a True war gamer, its great seeing the side of him thats all about the different aspects of the hobby. Different paints, games etc

[@OverlyCynicalPirate]

Wow, I sincerely never thought to cover contrast with a watered down coat of the shade you're going for. That's genuinely great information! I've stayed away from base-coating with it for so long, but might give it a try now.

[@DuncanRhodesDRPA]

Glad it was helpful!

[@GreatOldOne999]

Very good tutorial. I usually go with white base+some pre shading, using a bit of dark tone or strong tone from army painter. Makes the recesses stand out a lot

[@zandosdwarf-king]

My favorite use of contrasts is easily making colored metal - paint chosen color over leadbelcher.

[@iapetusmccool]

I've been painting tyranid carapaces using blue, green or purple contrast over Retributor Gold. Gives a nie "shiny metalic beetle" effect.

[@VAQUING1991]

This is a better advertisement for contrast than anything GW has put out. Great video!

[@darrendempsey3190]

Quick explanation, quick demonstration and repetitive instructional phrases to keep us all on track...👌🏻

[@jingles009]

This is the first real explanation on what these are and how to use them. Well done Duncan.

[@DuncanRhodesDRPA]

Thanks jingles009 and thank you for the support.

[@troopergio]

Me: *Sees that Duncan is leaving Warhammer TV* "This is an end of an era" Also me: *Sees that Duncan has created his own painting channel* "I see this as an absolute win!"

[@madnessbydesign1415]

I really like the Contrast Paints on metallics. It's possible to get some really nice effects (as Duncan often demonstrates)... :)

[@IamRidiculous89]

Great video Duncan, would love to see a video of your opinions on paint brushes from all different brands.

[@Gwlyddyn]

That ball bearing trick was simple and yet so so awesome!

[@JoltikChanel]

Thank you for a great video! Today you've talked a lot about "strong and weak" colors, so maybe you can make a comparison of all of Citadel Contrasts, defining which one is the strongest and which is the weakest of them? I'm sure it will be really useful for everyone! Thank you again!

[@chuck-n-debtaylor7553]

Thank you for the instruction - I’ll use it today after work...hmmm, maybe at lunch - shoot, will try it during my morning break (advantages and disadvantages of working from home).

[@thevix9794]

Your tutorials are really well made and simple. Amazing as always.

[@guillermocordido5534]

This tutorial gives me a lot of things to think about to be made with contrast paints... sooo many posibilities... Thank you so much duncan

[@kcaudle52]

Wow! Very good new uses for contrast paints. Thank you!

[@prideandplague9940]

Duncan! Didn’t think I’d see you back on KZbin. Good to see you again, keep painting man you rock.

[@hadrielkain4077]

So happy I found this! I loved Duncan's videos when he was at GW. Thank you Duncan!

[@yannleroux1005]

This is the best Contrast Paints use I've seen so far. Duncan, you rock my good sir.

[@toms8216]

Duncan you are the hero we need right now 🙌 This range has been in need of a video like this since launch... Much appreciated!! 😁

[@johnkelley9877]

This was a great tutorial on how to use the Contrast Paints! I learned a lot about how to use them and when they are correctly applied they do look very nice. Thank you for making this.

[@nodrogkram]

This is fantastic, thanks Duncan!

[@LegionaireSiggi]

Thank you so much for showing the use on gold! I've been hoarding the old GW Chestnut wash for one of my armies and now I have a modern replacement.

[@donalds1083]

Of ALL the videos I’ve seen from Duncan, this is one far and away the best and most helpful as I am about to start painting my minis. I plan to have this on repeat as I paint!!!!

[@darthbretticus6698]

I just love the way Duncan splains things 👍

[@shadowkynn]

Was instantly inspired to sit and paint using contrast after this video, I haven't tried the mixing like that and it works so well!

[@iim2155]

Wet blending with Contrast like this is great! One thing to be aware of though is that the stronger ones (Blood Angels Red is the one that gave me some headaches) will have enough time to skin at the edges even if you're diligent about swapping colors quickly. In that case I found it useful to have that layer of Contrast Medium where you intend the two colors to meet so that it's the medium that'll form an invisible edge during the seven or eight seconds it takes you to get the next color applied. Basically mixing the two techniques here.

[@gambol511]

Just when I thought I was getting good, Duncan breaks me down and lifts me back up again. Love the channel, bro.

[@TheFuel89]

That trick with glazing over two thin coats of contrast paint is golden, and just what I've been looking for. Thanks Duncan!

[@gezzem5711]

This is the exact video I was looking for on contrast paints

[@benn1181]

Duncan you make me so excited to paint!

[@jamesclarke5331]

You're definitely the best KZbin tutor for painting minis right now! Keep it Duncan!

[@sirdanthechipwright821]

Excellent tutorial. Thanks, Duncan!

[@jessedugan2545]

Great work as usual Duncan! Best tutorial on contrast yet!

[@Dracobyte]

Thank you for another amazing turorial!!

[@adamjackson260]

Thanks for sharing these different techniques using contrast paints but also sharing some of the different properties of some of the paints. Keep up the great work👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

[@rick9663]

I would never have thought to use a watered down contrast over gold or silver. Thanks for sharing!

[@samslavin9659]

Great video, thanks Duncan!

[@Rikksmith]

when I got new models going to try your methods duncan, holy crap they look so good

[@BooshMighty]

really enjoyed this. very informative and great to see plenty of techniques, especially for those of us not so confident in painting or just starting out. thankyou

[@jetswift]

Thank you for this one, Duncan. I've recently started experimenting with Contrast paints and your tips will prove extremely useful. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

[@christopherpeery7436]

Cool, now we can get duncans REAL opinion and advice on using contrast paints

[@corbinpearce7686]

The lord of two thin coats. I love it. Thank you for this.

[@nightlordAL]

Love that glaze technique. I really messed up with contrast on a squad of space marines and now know how to fix them. Never new why my paint finish was blotchy until now

[@CyberDagger003]

I discovered that Contrast paints are great for wet blending soon after I tried them out. I got a box of easy to build termagants and one of poxwalkers to be my test subjects and a few of the paints. I was pretty vanilla with the termagants, one color for the skin, one for the chitin plates, the works. For the poxwalkers, I decided to get creative.I was painting their skin with a normal skin tone and was getting to the mutated tentacles and I went "well, those tentacles are usually a pinkish color, what if I tried to make a smooth transition?" It worked perfectly. I laid down the two paints, then started smudging the edge between them with the brush. I was amazed. Wet blending was something i never quite managed to do with traditional acrylics, but Contrast paints make it almost insultingly easy. I also used the same technique to darken those bone protrusions they have on the tip. I'm definitely taking them out again when it's time to paint some more Nurgly goodness. I'm also thinking of painting an Alpha Legion kill team by layering a Contrast teal over a silver basecoat. Or maybe I'll get one of those fancy-pants color-shifting paints. There's still a lot of time to think about that. My main army is T'au, though, so for that I haven't found much use for Contrast paints. A lot of smooth, flat panels, not the kind of surface Contrast paints excel on.

[@bitzbox]

There's something oddly satisfying about the sound of a ball bearing being shaken around a paint pot

[@egiljo72]

Thanks for a great tutorial Duncan 👍

[@kingslayya6876]

thank you for making actually helpful and informative videos.

[@edmondcardona1089]

Great video! Thank you for all the advise!

[@shaneflickinger]

Wow, nice Mr. Duncan. I feel like this is the Contrast video I've actually been waiting for. Thanks a lot!

[@Johansen1000]

Love listening to this guy talking about paints.

[@benwhite8863]

Gotta say, I love looking at that super crisp focus on those shoulders.

[@kieranbradley2105]

Brilliant instructions from a talented artist. You have earned my subscription!

[@brianfrost924]

Duncan, this is easily the best Contrast Paint instructional video I have seen. I instantly shared it with my hobby club - thanks!

[@janbiela8596]

This is the most insightful video about contrast paints on YT, and there are a lot of those! Thanks Duncan, learned something new again :)

[@ciaranspalding3993]

We love you Duncan. Clan Duncan forever!!

[@rightfool6436]

this is exactly the kind of video I want, more please

[@GideonTalbain]

Would love it if Duncan were to make a video listing which contrasts were stronger/weaker!

[@dancingrook8553]

Absolutely fantastic video, extremely helpful! Thank you!!!

[@j453]

You succeeded in making contrast paints look both fun and skillful

[@big4m20]

Thanks for the video. You're way of quickly and clearly explaining techniques is marvelous.

[@kendo5862]

Really helpful informative video with a wide variety of techniques never thought of for contrast paints

[@Skalf86]

Until Duncan keeps doing painting videos, the world is safe

[@kristianholm7537]

i could watch you paint all day :D great job as always.

[@genola]

This was incredibly helpful and informative. Thanks!

[@Kaiyanwang82]

Thank you Duncan. You have shown that this set of paints it's just another tool that can give great results in the hands of people that know what they are doing. .. or that follow good tutorial channels on youtube!

[@jtdgaming7042]

Thank you for this, it will really help me with my Idoneth Deepkin army. Only just started but wanted to make an army with almost nothing but contrasts. Now I have more knowledge to make them look even better!

[@mywalterego9248]

Absolutely fantastic approach to the grading effect with the paint medium. Great knowledge, thanks for sharing!

[@guleri]

Thank you for some really useful tips on how to blend contrast paints for some really nice results. I will try this when I paint up my Nurgle space marines. .