PAINTS for MINIATURES and the variety and styles of paints

I will have seen some contrast paint jobs that looked really wishy washy, then others that looked great.
Think browns look great but some greens, reds, purples, blues and greens looked a bit odd.

I did however get some Bad Moon Yellow contrast paint and it is blooming awesome, one coat over white and my epic ork HoTT force just needed a bit of tarting

I've start painting figurines quite long time ago (25 years since my first one). I've made it quite mechanically, but i'm now trying to understand better how things works in order to improve the render of my work. What i will explain after is my point of view, of couse after some researches and tests, but it remain a personnal experience, so i may have missed something or understood something wrong. If you think i have, feel free to complete this, i'm always happy to learn new things.

But now get ready for a big reading in my poor english !

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION

The first thing i'd like to say (in fact the second because i've already started talking some line above ^^) is that the name of the paints i've used and their well done marketing have led me to think that the best use i should have of these paints is to buy (then use) one paint for each job and or color. For exemple use the "blue 1" for first layer, "blue 2" for highlight, "blue wash" to mix them better together and then "blue ink" to shade the result. Even if it's very usefull to have such pre made combination, it tends to lead to a pre made way of thinking, which doesn't help much in understanding and doing a personnal approach. I should try to excuse the them because they did something usefull in some ways (especially for fast painting), but i think it is mainly the way for them to sell more product. I'm still (sadly ?) buying too much paints, but i start thinking "out of the bottle".

So let's really talk about paints. For what i know, they are made of three main ingredients:
- a "color": small dusts of differents colors (or sometime only one when needing a pure color) mixed to obtain the desired result. I'll call them "pigments" (Exemple of pigments: cadmium blue, cadmium red, calcinated sienna, ...)
- a "glue": i haven't food a better image (i'm open to suggestion), but as pigments can't be applied alone, they need to be mixed in something that will be able to "dry" in some ways (not always really dry, but can also polymerize). I'll call it "medium" (Exemple of medium: linen oil, acrylic resin, ...)
- a "texture": as we usually want to put the paint on the figurine with the brush, the constency of the pigment and medium mix must be adapted, in order to have the fluidity we are looking for, and this product must be able to dry after the application. I'll call this "solvant" (Exemple of sovants: white spirit, water, ...)
- some "other stuff": well, quite all is said, some paints contain other things to modify the mechanical, physical, chemical behavior of the paint. We won't talk a lot of it. I'll call this "additives", but i will most of the time in the next post consider the additives to be part of the medium.

"Ok, thanks Ainkatsiss, that's nice, but i'm not sure this is usefull for those who want you to talk about paints, not about paint !
-Sure, but you know me. When things look simple to me, i feel i'm simple, so i prefer to have a more complete overview. I feel more complete then ^^"

But we haven't finished yet with what we could call the theoric introduction. Each differents component of the paints have differents properties. And these properties will "fuse" in the final product. Here are some exemples:
- Pigments could have better or worse light reflexion, opacity, ...
- Medium could have better or worse opacity, gloss, drying time. It could also be re activable or not. It could lead to more (or less) consistency of the pigments.
- Solvants could be more or less aggressives with tools, have more or less drying time
So if we use a paint with a lot of good light reflexion pigment, an opaque and glossy medium, and not too much solvant, we will have a shiny opaque and glossy finish on the figurine. If we use less pigment with a matt transparent medium with more solvant, we will have a product able to work as a less colouring transparent paint, allowing to do some thin filtering layer.

"Humm. So you're done now ? I still don't find all this stuff usefull.
-Maybe you never will. You're the part of me that like answers. I prefer questions
-I'm a part of you ? I'm talking with myself
-I'm afraid we are..."
I probably should avoid this kind of things which could let you think (or know...) that i'm (a bit ?) crazy.

Last step of the introduction. We've (i've to be honnest) talked about the paint components and properties. But while using paints, we focus more on those things:
-Transparency. We need both transparency and opacity. Opacity is really important to apply a colour as a base layer, while transparency is the way to apply filter layer, to smooth transitions.
-Consistency. I'm not sure of the word. But sometime we want the paint to be equally layered on all the surface. Sometime we want more of the pigmentation to move around this surface (with gravity for exemple), allowing easy effect without many layers.
-Fluidity. I'm not sure i need to explain this. Some application will need more fluidity (washing), some less (brushing).
-Gloss (i would have found a word with -y, bu i haven't ^^). Same here, quite easy to understand i think. Sometime we want matt or gloss finish.

"Ahh i think i understand where you want to go !
-Shut up, remember, we are not alone. People are lokking here."

CHAPTER TWO: PRODUCTS WE ARE USING

Now we could start to talk about the paints we usually use. And we should also understand better how they work. And we could start also to classify a bit the different range of products. For the following i'll talk only about acrylic paints. But the more i progress, the more i think i shouldn't keep this only acrylic approach.

Normal paint: A product trying to be an opaque, consitant and mat paint, with a correct fluidity (even if the paint shouldn't be ready to use out of the bottle). Their colour range is huge (ofter with no indication on the miw of pigments), allowing easy and repeatable application.

Washes: A product trying to be transparent, unconsitant and very fluid. Most of them are matt.

Inks: Two really differents products are called "ink" in the miniature world. The Game Workshop like tend to be an heavy pigmented but not opaque paint, very fluid and unconsistent (but more than a wash), with a gloss finish. The more paint oriented is an extremely pigmented, more opaque and consistent product, also fluid, made to tint heavily something without a lot of product.

Contrast paint: The new product, trying to find the in between. A semi opaque semi consistant product, with a good fluidity to fill small gap while also tinting the larger zone. Reactivation was an issue on some, but not all. Matt or gloss finish also depend on the products, brands or colour.

We should also talk about some other (and not mainstreamly used) product. Often called "medium" by our current paint brands.

The thinner. A mix of solvant (water) and medium (resin) allowing the paint to be more fluid. As it contains resin, it will keep some consistency (more than only using water) but will have also an effect on the gloss and opacity (put a drop of this somewhere and let it dry, you'll see what i mean).

The glaze medium. A medium to give more fluidity and transparency while keeping the maximum of consistency. The goal here is to be able to apply a thin layer of equally pigmented transparent paint.

The varnish. This one is used, but not often while painting. A matt varnish will have a matt finish, but will also help the consistency of the next layer (due to it's structure). Conversely, a gloss varnish will help the unconsistency of the new layer. It's not often the best way to work with consisency, but it's an usefull thing to know and to have in the toolbox.

Contrast medium. The medium of contrast paint. I've not test it properly for now, but what i can say with th Vallejo one is that it add consistency and gloss, but not much fluidity.

CHAPTER THREE: PAINTING

Here we are. Now we know. Let's jump into what i'm not the best at: doing things ^^

One of the main misunderstand with our product names is that they mix products and technics. Glazing and washing are technics. But by buying glazes or washes, we (at least i had) could think that the best way to do the technic is to have the product. It's most of the time totally wrong. As we have seen before, the paints are just a bunch of product mixed together. To fit a technic, our paint need properties. And as we know more about products and properties, it should be easier to work with what we have, and to eventually buy some more stuff. I won't be complete here in the technique because i'm not a pro painter. I would be happy to develop them more if some more experimented painter want to help.

Priming: The first layer need to be consistent and opaque. Fluid enough to be thin, but "unfluid" enough to not totally fill small gaps. It also need to be the more matt possible, in order to help the next layer to grip (a matt finish is basically made a tiny little hole that catch light, all these will help the consistency of the future product; conversely a gloss finish is straight plane, reflecting the light, but loosing the grip). To adapt our paint for priming, we could need thinner (better here than just watter in my humble oppinion). The colour of the prime could help the overall tone off the finished product. A white prime give more easily a luminous result, while a black one give a darker. We should always think about which colour to chose while priming, as it could have an important effect.

Basing: Applying a base colour on a part (or all) the figurine. The goal is to set up the main tone colour for the part. Here also we want a consistent and opaque paint, gloss depend on the situation, fluidity should be as a normal layer (i've heard "like milk" most of the time, but has i've never painted with milk nor put my brush inside, i'm not sure of what it really means). Thinner or just solvant (water for us) should be enough, but feel free to also experiment with glaze or contrast medium.

Layering: Applaying thinlayer one after each others in order to make a fluid contrast between the base colour and the final one. Here we need fluidity, transparency but consistency. If we have less transparency, the brush strokes will be too visible. If we have less consistency, the pigment will flee anywhere but where we want. Here the thinner and the water are your friend.

Texturing: Tiny brush strokes to give some plane part an texturised look. We need not too much fluidity, enough consistency, but transparency and gloss depend on what we are looking for.

Highlighting: Just tiny brush stroke or point of light to figure the extreme light reflection on a surface. Not too much fluidity, good consistency, low transparency make them easyer to do.

Glazing: Here we want to keep the effect of the previous layers, but we want to apply a colour filter. Consistency is very important, transparency also. The others depends on the situation. Glaze medium, thinner, water are the options here. The main problem is often to adapt the mix with the colour we use and its own properties. Starting with pure glaze medium is often a good start.

Washing and shading: These terms cover two different but similar techniques, depending if you want to only shade or to also glaze And there are often misunderstood or "mis-used" or "mis-named". What i call shading is when you want some paint to tint the darker parts of something. You will apply it in the recesses with a fluid, opaque, quite consistent (not too much though) product. Commercial Games Workshop like inks are good for this even if theit gloss could be a problem. What i call washing is more applying a liquid, transparent, unconsistant on all the part (or all the figurine) to apply an overall filter to the model. For exemple, when speed painting Napoleonic figurines i often use a flesh wash everywhere after basing but before highlighting. This give a dust color, especially in the recesses, but not only. If the effect is too present (more often on my blue french uniform), i then glaze in blue the coat but with a blue wash (and here we can clearly see the problem between the name of paint and technique), to put more pigment. Here you can without problem make your own wash with water, thinner, glaze medium and paint. The starting point should be water and paint.

Dry brushing: Fastly putting some dry paint over the part or all the figurine. No fluidity is quite mandatory (but sometime strange effect with fluidity could make interesting things). Opacity and consistency is important, but not a must have, as multiple brush strokes could easily gives a more consistant and opaque job.

CHAPTER FOUR CONCLUSION
Sometime, it's time to finish ^^ I'm quite pround i haven't still answered the question of the specific new contrast like products. But here i will.

You've understood probably that i feel we can easily more painting job with less than the complete colour range of our usual paint brands. And i also feel that that the less product you use, the better you could try and experiment mixing them, allowing a better understanding of their specificities. However, some product give you way more options tha some others. When you already have some differents colour for exemple, an new medium will offer more possibilities than one more colour.

The great benefit of the contrast paint is that they allow for multiple use in one layer. They can quite base, layer and shade the part you want to paint. I think they are a great addition to every paint set. You should start with the colour you don't like to paint (flesh and yellow for me), so they will be a usefull addition. If you like to paint the red and are happy with what you do know, don't start with it, because or it will be useless, or it will make your previous reds useless.

I've only painted with Vallejo Xpress colors. I've bought quite all the range, and they are a very usefull add to my set up. They seem to tint less than the contrast paint i've seen, wich is for me a great advantage. I struggle a lot more with too much color than too less. Removing a colour is really painfull... They are not reactivable once dry, but dry slowly (which can be use for wet on wet merge of colour). They are more matt than the contrast and speed paint i've seen, even if their medium (Vallejo one) is. so sometimes, depending on the layers you apply, their time of dry, you could end with a gloss finish. I don't master it for now (meaning for now it's a problem for me). But i think it will be a plus when i'll understand more how it works. Best way to avoid it is either thin layer and wait unitll completely dry, or mix with normal paint. Which is also another advantage of the range. They have quite all a very similar behavior (not as some other brands), so finding solutions is easier.

But as all our product, i think the best use we can do with them is to learn how they behave, to mix them (a blue contrast plus metallic medium plus some glaze and xpress medium gave me a nice an smooth blue shade version for my steel parts) and to paint over them (the differents yellow in the xpress range are very nice, but adding a light flesh like wash in the recesses make the yellow perfect for me).

I think their main advantage is their transparency. Because they could learn to some painter (like i was some weeks ago) to use this transparency. we could texturize or highlight the figurine (or part of it) befor the application, and or after with different results, leading to more complexe and complete approach of our hobby. I'm definitely a fan, not because of the speed painting possibilities (even if they are really great, allowing to spend more time one other things or more figurines), but because of the options they offer to painters.

Well, i should stop now. I've spent quite two hours to write this ! Is someone from Vallejo managed to read everithing, and think I heve been a good advertising for their product, i would be happy to receive the colour i miss ! ;-)