Airbrush contrast paints?

[dbecer01]

If I airbrush contrast paints, will I get similar results to if I brush them on? Or are they really meant to be painted on?

[Bryan Blaire]

According to some of the topics/videos elsewhere on the Internet and a thread where it was discussed here, airbrushing the Contrast paints doesn't give you much, if any, of the actual Contrast effect and instead seems to produce an almost tint/clear paint quality with them.

[Fajita Fan]

https://youtu.be/i1zSQdAnqoM

 

Skip to the end if you’re curious but it’s not a long video. This stuff sounds like matte acrylic ink.

[dbecer01]

Wow, that stuff has some interesting properties! Do they replace glazes completely?

Edited June 8, 2019 by dbecer01

[Bung]

Airbrushing that stuff isnt interesting. You can get same and better results with other colors.

Same goes fir glazing. You can glaze with any color with some acrylic binder and water.

Only thing those colors have is the availability in GW stores.

[dbecer01]

Acrylic binder as in airbrush/acrylic medium?

[Bung]

Its the part of the paint that binds the pigments to the surface. If you just thin your paints with water to make them a glaze you lose the bonding capacity for the paint too, so you could rub of the pigments while doing other glazing layers.

 

I mix 1 part paint with 3 parts acrylic binder and thin them down how i need it with water.

 

Bonus: you can use acrylic binder with pigments to mix your own paints.

[Tyberos the Red Wake]

Wow, that stuff has some interesting properties! Do they replace glazes completely?

 

Pretty much. They said they're discontinuing Glazes because Contrasts exist. They do seem slightly different from Glazes, but I bet you can make them work similarly enough if you need a true glaze, and they already do the job of "Glaze and Shade only" style paintjobs.

[Evil Eye]

I can see the inherent translucency of Contrast working quite well for airbrushing, particularly for getting very subtle tints and gradients, kinda like a clear paint with matte medium (except more convenient and in more colours). I'm sure you can get similar results with inks and medium but for convenience's sake it's worth trying at least.

 

I'd be interested to see it "wet-blended" by airbrushing some on and then doing the same with another colour whilst the former is still wet. I did that with a currently WIP Nurgle Rhino with regular paint and got some very unusual and rather cool mottling effects.

[Fajita Fan]

It looks like this stuff needs pool into recesses like a shade to give the contrast effect, the video I saw airbrushing the stuff made it look so flat it just looked like transparent paint.

[Arkhanist]

Yeah, airbrushing it will act just any other translucent paint. Potentially useful if you have it already and/or want that exact shade, but it's an expensive per-ml clear coat; warcolours transparent paint, createx candy, tamiya clears, badger ghost tints will all do the same effect for cheaper. I'm not sure wet blending after airbrushing will work that well, as having it stay fluid for any length of time means you'll also risk it spidering all over.

 

For a mottled effect I did see this video where the guy sponged it on, and that does look pretty cool if that's the effect you're after (he was trying to work around the visible brush stroke problem with Contrast on a tank)

 

 

And he also mixes the Contrast medium with nuln oil, and normal paint. Diluting nuln oil with normal medium or flow aid does *not* have this result in my experience (it might go on thin, but you run serious risk of tide marks), so I can definitely see myself nicking that idea.