A PILLAR OF THE COMMUNITY

Those who keep up with Games Workshop's Warhammer Community may have noticed that I've had a bit of a presence over there lately. It started with a feature on my Deathwatch team with glorious new photos of the whole gang by the talanted 'Eavy Metal photographers. Have a gander here:

Johan Egerkrans' Death Watch Kill Team

But that's not all. The biggest splash (pun very much intended) these last weeks is the reveal of GW's new Citadel Contrast paints. I was one of a lucky select few who, under much secrecy, was invited to a special preview weekend at GW HQ in Nottingham earlier this year. There I and the other painters (all vastly more talented) got to try out the new colours. Warhammer Community released a video where you can hear us talk about our experiences with the range.

Contrast: The Pro Perspective

(Apparently I'm so fetching they felt the need to include me twice in the promo picture)

In short - believe the hype. With the risk of overselling them, they really do what it says on the can: provide a vibrant base coat (over a white-isch primer), a shade in the recesses, plus rudimentary highlights on the edges, all with one wash. There's several different pigments in the paint that separate, so if you take Blood Angels Red, it turns darker with an almost blueish tint in the recesses, a vibrant deep red on most of the miniature and slightly yellowish near the egdes. They're also somewhat glossier than GWs usually very matte colours, which gives them a crisper finish. Contrast promises to be a powerful tool in the tool box - especially for the painters like me, who like to get stuff done quickly and efficiently so you can focus on the fun bits.

As you hear I'm completely sold. They're not magic - you still need a certain amount of skill to use them properly - but they are indeed magical.

(And if you're wondering - no, I'm in no way being paid to say this. We all got a trip to Notts and some free paints. That's it.)

Here's a skaven I painted on the secret testing day in February. It's done more or less only with contrast paints with some simple bone highlights on the armour. The robe is one coat - just one of the standard colours (the name of which currently eludes me) right out of the pot. The whole model took me about two hours all in all.

And here's two half-finished space marines where I've just tested out some lighter colour schemes, one using the new Wraithbone primer on the marine to the right, and Grey Seer primer on the guy to the left. They were both drybrushed with skull white, sponged with rhinox brown and then given a coat of contrast paints. The one on the right Apothecary White and the other Skeleton Horde (I think...). Some darker contrast paint was painted into some of the recesses for deeper shades.

 There's about about 30 minutes of work done on each. I think they look pretty good for a half an hour paint job?

You can clearly see what a sumptuously vibrant red Blood Angels red gives you on the shoulderpads of the marine to the right. That's one coat folks.

I'll be back with more on this once I get my grubby mitts on the sample paint set, said to plonk down at my door any day now.