Thursday, August 29, 2019

Undead Conquistadors With Contrast Paint


Truth be told I really don't like painting figures at all. And if I could commission out every figure I own I would in a heartbeat. But alas my financial situation won't ever allow that to happen lol!


And so enter Citadel's new line of contrast paints - designed to get your models on the table quickly and to an acceptable quality. If there is something out there that is going to help get my figures painted quickly, you can bet that I'm going to at the very least give it a try.


These figures were from Antediluvian's Kickstarter they ran last year and they represent zombie Spanish Conquistadors. When I saw them I thought they would be perfect for an Indiana Jones/pulp type of game set in the jungles of South America - I think it could have been neat to have seen de Orellana and all those other Conquistadors come back to life when Indy and Mutt were searching that tomb in the last movie 😃


I did the entire 12 figure lot with the new contrast paints, not using any of my Vallejo paints and I'll be completely honest, I'm pretty impressed with them. I did prime them with the Citadel special contrast primer Grey Seer too, which is "allegedly" designed to work specifically with the contrast line. Are these paints for everyone? No. Is it another tool in the box to help you paint? Yes. I think this is a perfect range of paints if you're doing more fantasy types of figures as I'm not quite sure if they will work very good for military/ historic figures, but it's something I do need to give a try.
Let me just go on one quick rant about Citadel paints - first and foremost, those pots they come in are just awful. Why after all these years can't they make a container that stays open?! Second, who the heck comes up with those names for the paints?! Aggaros Dunes, Gore-grunta Fur, Warp Lightning, Wyldwood, Plaguebearer Flesh… what's wrong with trying to make it possible to actually know what color the paint is by it's actual name on the bottle lol?


So pretty neat stuff though I do wish there was a bit more variety in each of the figures poses - there are only six unique poses so I have two of each in the horde.


And finally a bit of family news as we just got a new puppy after the loss of our dog three months ago. This is Lucy, but I'm calling her Miss Lou.


She is all of eight weeks old so it's like we have a baby in the house again. But dad already has her all set with a Liverpool collar 🤣


Until next time, as I'm still cleaning up several "draft" posts from months past and I'll have another report on a game of 7TV after meeting up with Beau and his crew - where my dice rolling was on a whole new level of absolute awfulness it was laughable! - thanks for looking!
Ivor

22 comments:

  1. Figures look great and have a lot of potential as you say.
    I've just had a similar conversation conceerning paints over the last weekend. I too would like to see standardised paint names and though Im not 100% sure, don;t rtists have this a;ready ?
    Titanium is always white !

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    1. Cheers Joe! You know, I believe you are correct 🙂

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  2. The contrast paint should work with historical minis as well, considering you can mix the paints if needed, its probably a question which scales the paint won't work to well with.

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    1. Yeah, I could see 15mm being pretty difficult to manage - a lot of control is definitely needed when using the contrast paint. I was really impressed with the red I used for the Conquistadors pants and I think it could make painting AWI and Zulu wars British easier, though I'm not sure about anything WWII involving camouflage. That could be pretty difficult.

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    2. It was mentioned that the paints could be used for blending, but I think using them for camo might demand some patience.

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    3. Agreed, and probably way outside my skill level lol!

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  3. Nice work on the undead. Cool idea for Indy to face off against them. Pup looks very sweet!

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    1. Thanks Simon! I've got a new Jonny Quest set of figures coming and I think the Conquistadors could find themselves up against the Quest gang as well 😀 The puppy has definitely brightened the home, much needed too.

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  4. I agree entirely with your thoughts on the Contrast paints, I only use four of the colours with my historical figures but they do work for me. Oh, and the undead are very nice.

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    1. Thanks George! I remember that post, your figures looked great - especially the red 🙂

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  5. What's this I hear Ivor, budget restrictions ? :) on the question of the names of GW's paints I can answer that one for you, copyright pure & simple.

    I love the new family member but I don't think red is her colour, maybe try something white with a touch of navy blue lol

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    1. Yeah, yeah lol! Even though the lead mountain isn't as big as it used to be, there is still a significant amount of unpainted ACW and AWI that would make commission work impossible without a bank loan 🤣
      I think she looks good in red lol! I do want to thank you for stealing a point from City a couple of weeks ago though, much appreciated!!

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  6. It may be you are too old to be their target audience;)

    I'll have to look at the contrast paints, but I'm not sure if I can bring myself to buy them with those names, although the results are looking good.

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    1. You're probably right John 🙂
      I think that they are worth a look, definitely grab one or two pots and see what you think - was really impressed with the red on these particular figures.

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  7. I dunno, I think the contrast paints really make the puppy miniature look very lifelike...maybe I should read the post again.

    I agree 100%, and would be very happy if I could never paint a miniature again but pay someone else to do it. I don’t enjoy painting for its own sake but only to have painted armies. I have found it enjoyable to make terrain though.

    And GW paint names remind me of Gatorade flavors like Artic Blast or Mountain Fresh that tell me nothing about how it actually tastes. 😀

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    1. They do indeed, and it only took 10 minutes total not including drying time 🤣
      Yeah I'm right there with you Stew, I'd much rather work on terrain and actual games/scenarios.
      That's a really good analogy - especially all these new zero sugar ones they are bringing out!

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  8. Nothing wrong with those figures at all - I've bought some contrast paints but been a bit scared to actually try them so far.
    Love Miss Lou - she is lovely!

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    1. Cheers Mike! I'm actually liking them the more I work with them, you should definitely give them a go 😀

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  9. Nice to see another positive write up on the Contrast Paints. Plan to try a couple out myself on my Genestealer Cult minis cos hobby time is far more limited now.

    Conquistadors look pretty nifty though. Hope they are fun to use ingame too!

    Miss Lou is so cute! Is she a Boston Terrier?

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    1. Thanks Dai! Yeah, I'm more impressed with them the more I use them - working on some Warg Riders and some cultists at the moment and the results are absolutely brilliant with zero effort.
      You are correct, Boston Terrier 🙂

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