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Miniatures Adventure => Post-Apocalyptic Tales => Topic started by: Bowiefan on August 14, 2019, 07:46:02 PM

Title: Mantic's TWD Zombies/Survivors + Citadel Contrast Paints
Post by: Bowiefan on August 14, 2019, 07:46:02 PM
Picked up a copy of Mantic's The Walking Dead: All Out War a little while ago, and the minis offered a fresh project with which to try out citadel contrast paints for the first time. I'd started to become frustrated being a slow painter, or at least always painting with the standard base/wash/highlight technique. It's a time sink I've struggled to justify, and thus needed to try and address. To give me more options, I also decided I should continue trying to learn the apparently speedy painting with washes technique. Between various washes and 13 different contrast paints, I got the core set walkers finished and it was a decent learning experience.
Title: Re: Mantic's TWD Zombies + Citadel Contrast Paints
Post by: MagpieJono on August 14, 2019, 09:05:29 PM
They look bob on.
Title: Re: Mantic's TWD Zombies + Citadel Contrast Paints
Post by: Lau on August 15, 2019, 12:22:23 PM
I've been sceptical on contrast, but these look great, I must say!
Title: Re: Mantic's TWD Zombies + Citadel Contrast Paints
Post by: Ultravanillasmurf on August 15, 2019, 05:14:26 PM
Nice work.
Title: Re: Mantic's TWD Zombies + Citadel Contrast Paints
Post by: Calimero on August 16, 2019, 08:05:48 PM

Very nice work but could you tell us more about the "contrast paints"... for those who don't know what that is...  ;)
Title: Re: Mantic's TWD Zombies + Citadel Contrast Paints
Post by: Baconfat on August 17, 2019, 12:56:41 AM
Calimero,

They're some kind of new thin paint that somehow condenses into seams, cracks and cervices giving you a free highlight.   If you want quick table ready paint jobs it's easy.   You don't need to highlight as the color is lighter on broad top surfaces than the folds in clothing, between fingers, wrinkles, etc...

Use zenithal priming to make it look a lot better.

They aren't equal in any means skilled painting.  They're a lot like the Minwax trick, Army Painter Dip, Future floor polish trick, or Citadel's Agrax Earthshade/Nuln Oil.  They aren't oily urethane furniture polish like Minwax or Army Painter.

Make sure your prime coat is smooth.   Don't hold your rattle can too far away and get that powdery effect.

YOU MUST VARNISH OR CLEAR COAT Spray coat afterwards.  They don't have the tensile strength or sticking power of normal paint.  It's easy to scrape off or chip, so put a clear protective layer over the top.

I've only experimented with a few colors, but numerous YouTube videos will show you which colors are better than others.   I don't like the flesh contrast paints; they collect too easily in larger flesh folds.

Contrast paints are great if you don't enjoy painting all that much and want to get an army or horde on the table quickly.  No blacklining, no shading, no highlighting, just spread it on.

I will be buying more contrast paints to paint more zombies like we've been shown above.  Genius paint choice for zombies.
Title: Re: Mantic's TWD Zombies + Citadel Contrast Paints
Post by: Calimero on August 17, 2019, 11:45:58 AM

Thanks for the info, Baconfat  8)
Title: Re: Mantic's TWD Zombies + Citadel Contrast Paints
Post by: Dr Mathias on August 17, 2019, 06:29:18 PM
Nice work, I think Contrast will be great for horde batch painting, that's what I'm planning to use it for anyway :)
Title: Re: Mantic's TWD Zombies/Survivors + Citadel Contrast Paints
Post by: Bowiefan on August 17, 2019, 10:03:52 PM
Thanks folks (and for baconfat for covering the contrast question). My experiment continued with the Survivor miniatures. Getting those finished means I've painted the core set (18 minis} in just over a week. Speedy by my own standards.
Title: Re: Mantic's TWD Zombies/Survivors + Citadel Contrast Paints
Post by: Skullhamma on August 18, 2019, 10:57:26 AM
Those colours seem too work well. Very convincing results!
Title: Re: Mantic's TWD Zombies/Survivors + Citadel Contrast Paints
Post by: Baconfat on August 19, 2019, 12:30:03 AM
Bowiefan,

They all look amazing.

What contrast colors are you using for:

1. Walkers?
2. African American guy?
3. Caucasians?
Title: Re: Mantic's TWD Zombies/Survivors + Citadel Contrast Paints
Post by: Bowiefan on August 19, 2019, 03:00:43 PM
Bowiefan,

They all look amazing.

What contrast colors are you using for:

1. Walkers?
2. African American guy?
3. Caucasians?

Thanks. I assume you mean the flesh in particular?  I'll answer under that assumption. Also note that I was experimenting,  so was a little inconsistent. This is what I used in general:

Single layer of Guilliman Flesh OR Ogryn Flesh (old wash) OR Army Painter Flesh Wash.
Walkers would get thinned washes which included Leviathan Purple and Army Painter Zombie/Plague/Toxic shader.
Survivors got simple highlights with white, then a repeat of the flesh choice.
Darker skin was done with Wyldwood.

Hope that helps.
Title: Re: Mantic's TWD Zombies/Survivors + Citadel Contrast Paints
Post by: Treebeard on August 19, 2019, 03:43:59 PM
Bowiefan.

They do look very nice for  speed painting sessions.
From gaming table distance you would not probably be able to tell the difference between a carefull 3-4 hours painted mini and a 90 minutes contrast paint. :p
Clever choice for mass production
Title: Re: Mantic's TWD Zombies + Citadel Contrast Paints
Post by: Andrew_McGuire on August 19, 2019, 03:54:07 PM
Genius paint choice for zombies.

About time too.  Why shouldn't zombies get to enjoy painting like everyone else?
Title: Re: Mantic's TWD Zombies/Survivors + Citadel Contrast Paints
Post by: Bowiefan on September 12, 2019, 08:34:27 PM
No contrast paints used here, but got some of the 3D scenery painted. Played a couple of games using the flat card terrain that comes with the core box, but knew some proper scenery would be an improvement.
Title: Re: Mantic's TWD Zombies/Survivors + Citadel Contrast Paints
Post by: Bowiefan on September 15, 2019, 12:12:21 PM
Scenery booster complete. Did use contrast paints on a lot of these. Accepted wisdom seems to be that contrast paints aren't great for flat areas with little detail, and that held true. Main thing I wanted to test was how they worked for wood, so tried 3 shades via Wyldwood, Gore-Grunta Fur and Snakebite Leather.
Title: Re: Mantic's TWD Zombies/Survivors + Citadel Contrast Paints
Post by: Bowiefan on September 21, 2019, 05:02:05 PM
Brian Blake, from the Prelude to Woodbury set. All painted with contrast paints (base and metallics excluded). In my experience so far I've noticed Guilliman Flesh constantly gives me quite a dark caucasian skin, like it or not. Extra highlights would probably negate that, but also defeat the purpose of using the contrast paint in the first place.
Title: Re: Mantic's TWD Zombies/Survivors + Citadel Contrast Paints
Post by: Bowiefan on September 26, 2019, 09:11:42 PM
More painted zombies. The combination of contrast paints and washes makes easy work of them as it is very hard to go too far wrong. Added some dirt and grime to these that I didn't apply to the first batch. Think they came out well enough. Also painted one with a little nod to pop culture.
Title: Re: Mantic's TWD Zombies/Survivors + Citadel Contrast Paints
Post by: atommmm on September 27, 2019, 06:51:53 AM
hello, what contrast colors do you guys recommand for the walkers skins?

(i tired some but did not find it yet: too dark)

i can see on your pictures differents yellowish , brownish & dirty pink...

tx a lot for sharing those nice pics :)

Thomas
Title: Re: Mantic's TWD Zombies/Survivors + Citadel Contrast Paints
Post by: Bowiefan on September 28, 2019, 02:08:37 PM
hello, what contrast colors do you guys recommand for the walkers skins?

Referring back to one of my earlier replies:

Single layer of Guilliman Flesh OR Ogryn Flesh (old wash) OR Army Painter Flesh Wash.
Walkers would get thinned washes which included Leviathan Purple and Army Painter Zombie/Plague/Toxic shader.
Darker skin was done with Wyldwood.

The only thing that differered on my recent ones was I did a few with Plague Bearer Flesh. That's the ones that came out more yellow and green tinged.
Title: Re: Mantic's TWD Zombies/Survivors + Citadel Contrast Paints
Post by: atommmm on September 29, 2019, 11:51:09 AM
thanks a lot for the details, after the new test it looks really better, thanks it's very nice Bowiefan , I'll post the pictures with the description of the paintings used.
Title: Re: Mantic's TWD Zombies/Survivors + Citadel Contrast Paints
Post by: Bowiefan on October 17, 2019, 11:06:21 AM
Painted Michonne, motivated by playing games alongside my girlfriend. She gravitated towards picking Michonne for future games.
Title: Re: Mantic's TWD Zombies/Survivors + Citadel Contrast Paints
Post by: Bowiefan on October 18, 2019, 10:34:55 PM
Shane/Walker Shane. Had to repaint the living face multiple times. Really not warming to Guilliman Flesh as I don't seem to be able to get a handle on it. It being inconsistent was fine for the zombies, but a pain this time around. It's odd, as it seems one of the more popular contrast paints. Don't own contrast medium, so possibly that could be a solution.
Title: Re: Mantic's TWD Zombies/Survivors + Citadel Contrast Paints
Post by: Bowiefan on October 26, 2019, 06:30:24 PM
A few more characters, taking me to 50 painted TWD minis.
Title: Re: Mantic's TWD Zombies/Survivors + Citadel Contrast Paints
Post by: TXWargamer on September 04, 2021, 03:40:23 PM
I’m very late to the party. These comments are awesome!
Does it matter what color of primer you use with contrasts?