Citadel Contrast Paints - Afrika Korps 28mm

I've seen on line that a few painters have been experimenting with using Contrast Paints for Twentieth Century Historical subjects and I thought I'd give it a go too.

I chose to try and paint up a 28mm Warlord Games plastic Afrika Korps figure from the free sprue that came with Wargames Illustrated some time last year.

I also have a spare box of Blitzkrieg era German Infantry and it occurred to me that with a bit of careful painting and mixing and matching between the sprues I could put together an Afrika Korps force to face my Perry 8th Army Figures that I'd painted some time ago!(http://timstanks.blogspot.com/2013/05/28mm-perry-8th-army.html)

Most important of all I felt that Contrast Paints presented an opportunity to get these figures finished to a good wargame's standard very rapidly.

Step one, after assembling the figure, I mounted it on a 25mm Steel washer using super-glue. This gives the figure a similar weight to a metal equivalent and means they can be stored on magnetised sheet in a Really Useful Box. I cover the underside of the hole with a little bit of tape before texturing the base with Vallejo Grey Pumice. The tape is removed once the pumice has set. Then the figure is ready to spray with Wilko's Matt White Primer. Don't worry about using GW's recommended primers, there is no need, this one works just as well.

The Snakebite Leather was in short supply when the paints were first released hence the hand-written label from GW!

Here are the Contrast Paints I used on this project. As contrast paints are closer in make-up to a dark wash than a paint, you will find that if you over-paint areas you cannot simply cover this up with the next colour as it will show through. Therefore take care to stick to the areas! I use an Army Painter Insane Detail brush and this seems to give me the control I need. However, if you do miss or drip paint where it's not needed all is not lost! Just paint it over with Vallejo Matt White, leave this to dry and then carry on....

The skin areas are painted in using Darkoath Flesh and the trousers, helmet, magazine pouches, water-bottle and poncho were all painted in Skeleton Horde.

The boots, weapon sling, and wooden handles on the grenades were painted Snakebite Leather.

Next the metal parts of the grenades, the mess-tin, water-bottle cup and weapon were all painted using Black Templar.

The tunic was painted in Militarum Green and the belt buckle and bread-bag were painted in Basilicanum Grey.

 Finally, the 'Y' straps, magazine, water-bottle, mess-tin and poncho straps were picked out in Cygor Brown (one of the few Contrast paints with actual covering power so can be applied over the base colour!). Then the neck scarf painted Creed Camo.

A coat of Skeleton Horde gives a good impression of a sand finish to the base. and there you have it....finished.

And what's more it took me less than 5 minutes to get to that point! To finish them off I will probably pick out the buckles and buttons with some light grey before I give the figure a coat of varnish and add a little static grass to the base.

I strongly urge those of you who have yet to try these paints to give them a go and experiment. To my mind they are one of the big hobby innovations of recent times and deserve wider use in the hobby.