For those who don’t know, Corax White Sprayisn’t actually a true white spray, but a very light grey like Corax Whitebase paint.The new White Scar Spray, on the other hand, is a true white. In addition, like Wraithbone and Greyseer, it has been designed with Contrast paints in mind, which means it has a slightly smoother finish, which improves the flow properties of washes and Contrast paints, but also provides slightly less adhesion for regular acrylic paints. White Scar compared to Corax White & the other Contrast primers Yes indeed, I've successfully used many different primers with the Contrasts. I've been amazed at their versatility. Vallejo Desert Tan is interesting because I thought it would darken the Contrast colors more, but it actually didn't. Same goes for another Vallejo primer I didn't mention, Skeleton Bone. But any white, off-white, tan, light or medium gray primers will work. In the end all it really does is slightly to moderately affect the final shade of the Contrast color. Like for example, putting Guilliman Flesh over a tan primer might give you slightly darker flesh than using say Wraithbone. On the other hand using Guilliman Flesh over a pure white primer will create lighter flesh. However, the GW Mechanicus Standard Grey, the Testors Gray and the Rustoleum/Krylon gray primers are quite a bit darker. They are kind of rogues on this list. I wouldn't use them as first choices to use with the Contrasts. Put it this way. The Contrasts weren't TECHNICALLY designed to be put over a gray that dark, but to a certain point you can use gray and it will work. But there's a cutoff point. The three I have on the list are about as dark as you can go with a gray primer and still have the Contrasts actually still be able to be show up on them. Anything darker and it would probably cancel out many if not most of the Contrast colors in the range.

What dungeon would be complete without blood splatters? Using a little bit of Blood for the Blood God , I added some pools of blood on the floor part and a bit on the pillars where it would get splashed. Remember, less is more. Lastly, I finished the stone with a lighter drybrush of Pallid Wych Flesh to catch the corners and give it a final highlight. When I put Guilliman Flesh over Desert Tan I was surprised how close it actually was to putting it over Wraithbone. The flesh WAS somewhat darker, but not drastically, at least not to me.The pigments used for Contrast paints are really strong and vibrant. In comparison to Citadel Shades or other washes, Contrast Paints have a slightly higher viscosity, which means they are not as “runny”. I recommend washing your brushes a lot when using them, as the heavily pigmented paint easily creeps up into the ferrule of your brush, where it might dry and make short work of the bristles. You can easily paint over Contrast paints to tidy up pooled areas, deepen the shading, or add highlights by layering or drybrushing.

You could even experiment with painting the darker Contrast over “medium” base colours, for example, Wyldwood (dark brown) over Baneblade Brown (medium khaki/light brown) for a really deep dark brown. Or mix your Contrast paints with a lot of Contrast Medium or Lahmian Medium to use them as a wash or glaze.With that, your doorway is ready for the catacombs. This colour scheme can be applied to any of the other stone pieces from the set, like the Arms Stash. I’m even thinking of painting all of my Warcry ruins in the same way. Also do you have a tip for an easy to achieve (i.e. contrast level of lazyness) piggy/salmon pink? I've tried the lighter contrast pink, but even heavily thinned with contrast medium the tone is way to purple overall and in the recesses. With a wash of fuegan orange over that I've had moderate success. Maybe something over a fleshtone would be better. Not all Contrast paints are created equal. The lighter colours are thinner and feel more like washes, while the darker colours can be a little flat with less visible highlights. Some colours dry smoother, some tend to be more patchy. The idea of painting over white primer or a white zenithal highlight with glazes and washes isn’t new but an approach often used by competition level painters. But the real “genius” of Games Workshop was to turn this technique into an easy and satisfying product for the masses. Since the release of Contrast, other manufacturers have tried their hand at their own “one coat paints”. Read our review of Scale75’s Instant Colors here, and Warcolours’ Antithesis paints here.

Contrast paints have very vibrant pigments and create a lot of “tonal variety”: recesses are suitable dark, pronounced areas lighter. Therefore, with a single layer of Contrast, you can combine basecoating and shading in a single step and will often end up with some basic highlights as well. Contrast paints need to be thinned with Contrast Medium, as water will make them lose their unique properties. They can be mixed with each other, with washes (or even regular paint, but this will change their properties, too).

so the short answer to all of the Zenithal stuff is that you would probably have to heavily dilute the Contrasts to make them really work over Zenithal. You can do that of course, but at that point you're really just using the Contrasts as ordinary washes or inks. I would personally just get like Army Painter washes and inks instead. Let’s move on with our Citadel Contrast review. Along with the 34 shades of Contrast Games Workshop also sells two types of spray primers with a matching base paint: Grey Seer, which is a light grey (similar to Ulthuan Grey), and Wraithbone, a light bone colour (similar to Terminatus Stone). Advertised to have a special formula best suitable for Citadel Contrast paints, these primers have a slightly smoother, more satin finish. The smoother finish helps to reduce the surface tension of the paint, so the pigments will better run into the recesses and reduce the amount of pooling (slightly). This effect will also benefit washes like Citadel Shade paints by the way. I'm thinking about going fully experimental and also buy vallejo desert sand or something similar, for a zenithal sand -> skeleton bone -> bone white. Do you think this will be worth a try? Thanks for your detailed answer! Sounds like grey with a brighter tone might be interesting for zenithal primer.

I hope my recommendations help you to improve your hobby and take your painting skills to the next level. A lot comes down to personal preference, but the spray paints and primers above have served me excellently over the last few years. Because of their transparency, you can’t just apply another layer to cover any mistakes. You need to paint on the base colour first, then apply another layer of Contrast, but even then, the result often will be patchy. I recommend painting over with a matching regular acrylic paint to hide any imperfections. To start, I primed the doorway with Wraithbone spray and then touched it up with some more Wraithbone out of the pot. Second, the mattness. The more matte the primer, the better the paint will adhere on your Warhammer miniature. A matt surface is rough on a microscopic level, which gives acrylic paint more grip. If, on the other hand, the primer is too glossy, paint adheres less well and you need to apply more coats for an opaque result, and thin paints such as washes / Shade paints or Contrast paints can even drip off. The gloss is a disadvantage of many metallic spray paints, and the only thing you can do about it is to paint over with a thin layer of a matching metallic paint or a matt/satin varnish.

The Medium

I've had contrast colours work just fine on corax white and as far as I know the primers of other companies are already smoother that gw's cw, which is where that issue comes from. All in all, the results are very nice for the high tabletop standard I usually go for. It also saved me a lot of time by combining base colour and shading in one go, especially on the orange clothes – even over white primer, it takes several layers of achieving an even coat of orange. With Contrast, it’s just a single coat straight from the pot (or two, in my case, to make the colour even richer). Citadel Contrast review: value