I was fortunate enough to be able to go to the local GW in Calgary on thursday and have a demonstration of the new Citadel contrast range. This is a range with a lot of potential. Initially I thought they would appeal to new painters, but they can be a bit challenging to apply. The trick is to have the paint pool in the recesses, but not on the flat areas. You don't paint these on as much as smear them around with a brush. Some of the colours are more of a pastel finish, while others are quite pigmented. The manager at the store did mention that the new base paints Wraithbone and Grey Seer are essential for these paints, as the pigments are formulated differently. While you can use the old base range, the granulation might result in streaks and a grainy result. These paints are quite transparent, so the basecoat does make a difference on some colours. There were also some models based in metallic silver and gold. Painting a green over the silver produces a very interesting result, as the mini essentially becomes a metallic silver. This could be a fun effect for Sting!

While there were no LoTR minis to try the paints on, I could certainly see a number of factions benefiting from the new paint. The cloaks of the Rohirrim and rangers would be fun to try in the greens. Horses would benefit from the browns and greys. The beautiful teal blues would make short work of the Warriors of the Dead.

Don't forget some of the other new colours in the old ranges. The new metallic is a darker silver and would be a great base for Minas Tirith's armoured warriors. The magenta is similar to a colour from another manufacturer I've been using for ages. It goes great against emerald green and the golds released with the Stormcast Eternals.

While many of these are backordered and my FLGS only got a few shades on Saturday, I am planning to try a few of them when I do my Scouring of the Shire order.

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"Diplomacy is the art of saying 'nice doggie' until you can find a rock." -Will Rogers

Tried on a mordor troll - quick and dirty one paint job vs paint, wash, highlight.

Felt it was hard to paint over or use on top of another paint - paint didn't seem to stick to it as well. Not sure on that, just first impression.

Worth the cost? Jury is still out on that.

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"Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer."

I don't quite understand what the difference is between the new contrast paints and the old inks (or shades, or whatever they call them these days). Are they merely new ink colours?

Tale of Painters has done an excellent review of these paints where they thin them with different mediums and have pictures of the effects. I encourage you to check it out on their website.

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"Diplomacy is the art of saying 'nice doggie' until you can find a rock." -Will Rogers

I think contrast has it's place. If you're into getting your army out on the field quickly it's certainly a good investment - it makes a short work of things such as cloaks, skin etc...

But the result is of course not as impressive as a mini painted the traditional way by a decent painter. I will use contrast on my Rohan and Goblins at the moment, just so I can get it all out of the way and field my army the way I want it. And then, over time, I will try painting slowly for pleasure and / or repaint the minis slowly in the traditional way.

I'm fond of it, although in some cases it does feel like cheating

Contrast seems pretty great, have tried it on skin for a Warcry cultist and it looks better than my normal layer painting

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