Micro Mechs and Contrast Paints

[Mr. Average]

I decided to pick up the “speed paint” set from Army Painter while it was on sale, and as I’ve recently gotten a hold of the new mech game “Battlesuit Alpha” from Wiley Games, and I have a stock of 3D printed mechs from an abortive attempt to get strategic scale BattleTech introduced to the club, I decided to try them out and paint up a 3mm scale force at the same time. The first handful of mechs came out better than I would have thought – a little highlighting and detailing and they suit the part very well. You have to treat these “contrast paints” rather like watercolors, build up from light to dark, and plan your overlaying colors pretty well, but the result seems pretty fast and slick for the scale. A nice way to paint an army quickly! I like the technique much better than I had thought I would. Although I think I’m going to stick to my traditional show paint style for my 6mm scale fantasy army.

[The Red Hobbit]

Nice paintjobs!  Have you used Citadel’s contrast paints before?  If so how does the army painter speed paints compare?

[Mr. Average]

I haven’t tried Citadel, but I’ll say this – it’s very liquid stuff, more like a stain or shellac than a paint. It does have relatively decent control but only on a very dry, matte surface. It’s rather like old oil based enamels used to feel, when you thinned them down with white spirit. And the colors are not hugely subtle – very bright, so you have to pick and choose and do a lot of testing.

[Logain]

I actually did a very similar project last winter, painted up 32 3mm scale battle mechs that were a mix of 3D prints and a few of Ironwind’s battleforce mechs using citadel contrast paints. They came out pretty nice. I’d totally use them again on more 3mm or 6mm armor.
Mr Average what are your impressions on Battlesuit Alpha?

[The Red Hobbit]

Thanks for the inputs!  I’ve enjoyed contrasts working with plastics but haven’t tried it on any 3d printed options yet.  I’ve also heard Vallejo is going to make their own contrast / speed paint rather soon called XPress Color.

[Darkest Star Games]

Man those mechs look good!

I’ve tried a little bit of both the AP Speeds and the GW Contrast.  I like the “feel” and coverage of the Army Painter stuff better, but GW (for me) has the better color selection.  I found best results when priming a mid to dark grey, then drybrushing light grey or a light bone color on highlit areas then applying the paints.  Really make the highlights pop and gives great shadows, especially on 6mm vehicles and mechs and I didn’t really have to go back and do any edging or 2nd/3rd highlights.  Also want to note that these sort of paints are not good for doing large flatish areas, like on larger scale vehicles (especially aircraft) as they do not give an even finish, sometimes getting overlap darkening/layering that can’t be fixed , much like can happen with watercolors.

"I saw this in a cartoon once, but I'm pretty sure I can do it..."

[Steven Francis]

One of the things I like about the Speed Paints is you can bend into them after they have dried – so you can highlight and edge really well. I tend to use a combination of normal and speed paints to get the better range of colours

[Mr. Average]

Steven Francis wrote:

One of the things I like about the Speed Paints is you can bend into them after they have dried – so you can highlight and edge really well. I tend to use a combination of normal and speed paints to get the better range of colours

This seems to be the most successful approach. They aren’t for everything, I don’t think, and as DS mentions the color range is a little limited with Army Painter. They would NOT be good for large scale vehicles – large flat surfaces cause the paint to pool in odd ways and create weird surface effects. For this they are working well for me but the limits are pretty clear to me already. I tried a strip of 15mm undead I was working on and the result was much more slapdash, not my preferred method at all. The shaded base coat idea is one I’ve seen elsewhere and I intend to try it. All this really seems aimed at 28mm scale minis with a lot of figuring to them but for my micro mechs it’s a decent niche so far.

By the way, I have yet to play Battlesuit Alpha but it feels like a very fun game. The rules read nicely and there’s enough meat to it to satisfy me. There are, alas, a few typos and some areas where they clearly meant to put rules they later neglected. But overall it’s very appealing and seems like it’ll work well at 3mm scale. I’ll let you know how it plays once I get my Coalition and Alliance forces ready and run a scenario (the above is the Coalition, the Alliance is going to get a yellow and green scheme).

[Mr. Average]

Incidentally this technique may also work for some of the MAATAC minis I have as well. They have a ton of greeblies that would take contrast paint well.

[Mr. Average]

Had a go at a second mech force, plus some tanks and light transport.

[Darkest Star Games]

They look good too!  Great contrast between the 2 greens.

"I saw this in a cartoon once, but I'm pretty sure I can do it..."

[Mr. Average]

They work great with Microworld 3mm tanks! I’m going to prep some infantry bases next. And I have a third force, the Federated Territories, already on the block. I’m iffy on that one, the blue I chose came out very dark. We’ll see.

[Deleted User]

This is interesting. I did a little more looking into and these paint looks perfect for the way I’ve been painting recently. I’ve going to invest in a set.

[Paint it Pink]

They look great.

One is good, more is better
http://panther6actual.blogspot.co.uk/
http://ashleyrpollard.blogspot.co.uk/

[Mr. Average]

Blasting ahead at the pace of one figure every couple of months or so, I have completed (largely) my first force. Still need a little highlighting and insignia but the meat of it is there. I like them on the old disc bases but need to find magnets that will work to keep them properly attached to the carrier box.

[Darkest Star Games]

Slow pace or not they look excellent.

"I saw this in a cartoon once, but I'm pretty sure I can do it..."

[The Red Hobbit]

Agreed, they look very good!

[Mr. Average]

Thanks! This is my “Get them table ready as soon as possible” style and they still took me months. Stupid reality, what a pain to have to deal with when I have hobbies to do!

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