Contrast Paint? Make Your Own Custom Washes Instead!

Contrast Paint? Make your own heavy washes for use on minis, using the games workshop contrast paints for Inspiration. I share my thoughts on the contrast paint release. I also talk about the value of experimentation when painting minis.

I gathered up my Dark Eldar test models, primed them white, and went to work! I compared dozens of my own homebrew washes with the shiny new contrast paints, and I had a lot of fun! I found a few great recipes, and I know there are more yet to be discovered. In this video I encourage you all to spend some time just playing with your hobby supplies. Get the feel for them and learn how to modify them. As the artist, YOU control your paints, not the other way around :-)

More Goobertown!

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Products I Frequently Use!

[egodreas]

After almost 30 years in the hobby, I might very well have a bigger selection of paints than anyone else, and it probably didn't cost me much more than 100 bucks.

I did use Citadel paints back in the 90's, when I first got into the hobby and didn't know any better, but have long since given them up for cheaper and better alternatives. Just like you, I like mixing my own paints, either from thickening inks, or by thinning down professional soft body acrylics.

With all the attention these new Citadel contrast paints have been given, my old frustration with the GW price point have returned. The way they take advantage of hobbyists in general, and beginners in particular, is appalling. I have even been thinking about making a video similar to yours, explaining how easy they are to make.

The main point I would wish to get across though is not how easy it is to make contrast paints or washes specifically, but rather how silly it is buying large selections of paint of any kind. In theory, you only need three good primary colors (plus black and white), and you can mix whatever you want from them.

When working with real pigments though, it's hard to find ones with perfect mixing properties, so I normally use 6 primaries in practice. But once you've learnt how to mix paint properly, that is truly all you need. No color in the world will require you to mix more than two of those primaries to get the right hue, and then you break it with black and white to find your desired shade, tone or tint.

This is how traditional painters have done it for centuries. They find the handful of pigments that best suit their taste, and then mix whatever else they need. And if you ever doubt the validity of this approach, remember that pretty much every single color image you have ever seen in print media (including GW box art, magazines and posters) have all been made using only cyan, magenta, yellow and black inks. Together with the white of the paper it's printed on, those 4 inks can recreate every colour you see.

So save yourself a lot of money. Buy a small selection of professional acrylics that are high in pigment, and complement them with some acrylic media and a couple of mixing agents. I would say that the most enjoyable part of any painting session is to sit down and premix the colors you plan on using for your figures. Just store the finished paints and washes in plastic dropper bottles (which you can buy in bulk from Amazon) and they will keep forever. You even get to name them yourself, which is a surprising amount of fun :-)

[homertipton]

"Goobertown Hobbies just isn't the place for rants." I love that. That's why I keep watching your videos. :)

[BlackMagicCraftOfficial]

"There's no substitute for experience" 👏👏👏

[thundercricket]

Goobertown is like.... the Bob Ross of mini war game painting.


Also, fun fact: That Liquitex brand of products you've used so often was one of, if not THE first company to take the recent invention of acrylic paints and market them specifically to artists. They've been doing it since at least the 1950s.

[FoEDekker]

I tried this last night, being able to mix any color I want in 15 seconds was amazing. 9 drops medium, 12 drops ink, 2 drops flow, and 2 drops water. Worked perfectly.

[SquidmarMiniatures]

Came to hear the voice of an angel, stayed for the content!

[GoobertownHobbies]

Happy Goobertown Tuesday! Have a great day everyone :-)

[emanuelcamuglia]

these work amazingly with black prime and a few layers of heavy drybrush gray and white

[shawncomrie]

After 30yrs of painting, now after a decade break, I come across, Inks and Contrasts which were not around before. All new to me

[MidwinterMinis]

Goobertown Hobbies isn't the place for rants, but Midwinter Minis is, haha. Awesome video matey, I knew you'd nail the Contrast blend, you chemical genius.

[joshuaevensen]

Lord in heaven. So glad I found this, was about to go spend a small fortune on the contrast paints tomorrow, but I'm way more interested in tinkering. Great video! Thanks man!

[customkitsmodels]

As a scientist, I always love and appreciate your explanations of molecules, pigments, etc. I may have to give this a go! Thanks for sharing!

[theandf]

Some years later, I finally bought a bunch of liquitex inks and some medium, and I'm ready to try these techniques. They look fun!

[soeffner]

I know this an older video. But you're absolutely right about being turned off. As a returning 'newbie' to mini painting I am appalled at the hobby costs. That's how i found your video.
So thank you.

[zwergentyp]

"I`m not done experimenting and I´m not done learning. I`ve only just begun" is a wonderful finish. It`s a cool slogan for your channel and the hobby in general

[benitoferroviere]

I just had a pretty bad day at work and came back to this video to check up on the receipt. And I have to say, you really calmed me down. Your videos are genuinely nice and easing. A quality thats underrated I guess. So thanks for making this. You substantially improved my mood today.

[raidenparren]

I'm go glad I found this video! I'm still quite new to the hobby and expensive paints is one of the reasons I haven't gotten into it as much as I'd like. Knowing there are other options and I CAN experiment with paints really reawakened my excitement!

[Abhothra]

Hi Brent, just popped in to say THANK for this video.

Just came back to 40K after a hiatus between late 7th and now 9th and had something of a shock whilst out looking for paint seeing how GW has split their range into Air, Base, Contrast, Layer and Technical from the top of my head.

Then you come along and show how to make paints and such which best of all turns my colours out actually like how I want them to and best of all, I don't have to go out for a new jar every box or so.
(Which perhaps might be a unintended side effect but you're helping me reduce waste and for me that's a big bonus)

Once again thank you and keep up the awesome!

[rchallguy]

Another great video, Brent. Your content has a certain 'Bob Ross' quality that is quite pleasant.

[boxmountain]

Thank you. I’ve been painting figs since the 80s and every time I asked someone about contrast paints they described them like they were magical. But their description sounded just like a wash. But they would swear up and down that they weren’t. Your in depth explanation is exactly the information I wanted.