Contrast / Speed Painting
Use self-shading Contrast paints over a light primer for a basecoat, shade, and highlight in one step.
Contrast paints (Citadel Contrast, Army Painter Speedpaints) do three jobs in one pass: applied over a light primer, this translucent paint slides off the raised surfaces and settles into the recesses as it dries, leaving a bright tint on top and deep colour in the shadows — basecoat, shade, and first highlight in a single coat. The trade we're making is control for speed, so we play to its strengths: it's phenomenal on organic texture like cloth, skin, and fur, and it struggles on large flat panels where it dries in uneven tide pools.
Best For
Recommended Paint Types
Step-by-Step
Make sure the undercoat is a light one — white, bone, or pale grey — or the effect has nothing to glow through.
Shake the pot hard, load your size 2 round with a good tip generously with your Contrast or Speedpaint colour at straight from the pot, and work on one area at a time.
Flow it over one zone at a time — a cloak, an arm, a shoulder pad with enough paint to coat but not flood, steering it into the recesses with the brush tip.
Where it puddles on a flat or raised surface, wick the excess away with a clean damp brush before it starts to dry.
Leave it completely alone for 15–20 minutes — touching half-dry Contrast is what makes blotches.
If It Goes Wrong
If it pooled and dried into a dark tide mark, re-tint the patch with one thin coat of the same Contrast to even it out; if a whole area went blotchy, paint back over it with your light undercoat colour, let it dry, and reapply in one confident pass.
Variations
Cutting Contrast 1:1 with Contrast Medium tames the effect — half the intensity per coat, so we can build the depth gradually where a straight coat would overshoot.
Pro Tips
Contrast paints work best over Wraithbone (warm tones) or Grey Seer (cool tones).
Don't go back over an area that's starting to dry — you'll get ugly tide marks.
You can mix Contrast paints with Contrast Medium to make them more subtle.
After the Contrast paint dries, you can edge highlight or drybrush for extra pop.
These paints are phenomenal on textured surfaces and terrible on flat panels.
Common Mistakes
Priming dark — Contrast paints need a light undercoat to work.
Going back over areas that are drying — this reactivates the paint and creates blotches.
Using on large flat surfaces (like vehicle panels) — they pool unevenly.
Applying too thick — use just enough to coat, not flood.