Ahsoka Tano.

12 hours ago, Bitterman said:

Ahsoka Tano.

Very nice!

Which size brush did you use for the Montrals?

If by "Montrals" you mean "blue and white bits" I used a Winsor and Newton Series 7 Miniature size 0, the smallest brush I had to hand, to paint the blue. I'm not sure they came out brilliantly, I probably shouldn't have used Contrast for the blue because it's so thin that the slightest splash shows up and then you have to thicken the line, should have just used normal paint... well, whatever, it looks fine at tabletop distance, would have painted the whole thing differently if this were for display.

1 hour ago, Bitterman said:

If by "Montrals" you mean "blue and white bits" I used a Winsor and Newton Series 7 Miniature size 0, the smallest brush I had to hand, to paint the blue. I'm not sure they came out brilliantly, I probably shouldn't have used Contrast for the blue because it's so thin that the slightest splash shows up and then you have to thicken the line, should have just used normal paint... well, whatever, it looks fine at tabletop distance, would have painted the whole thing differently if this were for display.

(Yes, the blue and white bits :D) I think they're great!

What kind of size do you use for all the other parts? I'm having a hard time knowing which size is correct for each part on my models.

I wouldn't over-think it, to be honest. If you're just starting out, use the smallest brush you can find, that doesn't frustrate you due to how long it takes to cover the area you're painting . This will help the muscles in your hand learn brush control. As you get more confident, progress to larger brushes for larger areas, and save the small brushes for fine detail. But there's no "right" or "wrong".

Much more important IMO is brush quality. You want a brush where the bristles won't split and it keeps its point - with a fine point, you can paint small detail even with a fairly large-ish brush. I'm not an expert, but I only use Winsor and Newton Series 7 or Series 7 Miniature (note the slight difference between those two, and not Series 7 Watercolour, finding the right range can be a bit confusing) - I have heard people who really are experts speak highly of them, and I can understand why. Superb quality. They are quite expensive though, running easily £10-20 for a single brush of the size you're likely to want to use (for this project I've been using anywhere from 000 Series 7 / 0 Series 7 Miniature, to 2, or even 4, depending on the what part of what model I'm painting).

If you don't want to spend that much, the GW / Citadel brushes are OK, though I find they have a tendency to split after lots of use. Those ones have the advantage of basically telling you what to use them for (Fine Detail, Detail, Standard, Basecoat, etc.) though again of course that's just a suggestion.

While GW brushes are more affordable than W&N, steer clear of cheap brushes, they're never worth the savings.

1 hour ago, Bitterman said:

I wouldn't over-think it, to be honest. If you're just starting out, use the smallest brush you can find, that doesn't frustrate you due to how long it takes to cover the area you're painting . This will help the muscles in your hand learn brush control. As you get more confident, progress to larger brushes for larger areas, and save the small brushes for fine detail. But there's no "right" or "wrong".

Much more important IMO is brush quality. You want a brush where the bristles won't split and it keeps its point - with a fine point, you can paint small detail even with a fairly large-ish brush. I'm not an expert, but I only use Winsor and Newton Series 7 or Series 7 Miniature (note the slight difference between those two, and not Series 7 Watercolour, finding the right range can be a bit confusing) - I have heard people who really are experts speak highly of them, and I can understand why. Superb quality. They are quite expensive though, running easily £10-20 for a single brush of the size you're likely to want to use (for this project I've been using anywhere from 000 Series 7 / 0 Series 7 Miniature, to 2, or even 4, depending on the what part of what model I'm painting).

If you don't want to spend that much, the GW / Citadel brushes are OK, though I find they have a tendency to split after lots of use. Those ones have the advantage of basically telling you what to use them for (Fine Detail, Detail, Standard, Basecoat, etc.) though again of course that's just a suggestion.

While GW brushes are more affordable than W&N, steer clear of cheap brushes, they're never worth the savings.

Thanks for the fast and thorough reply!

I've bought some size 1, 0 and 0/2 from Rosemary and they seem fine but they do split (might be my fault due to not cleaning them or rinsing under too hot water). I also bought 1 W&N Series 7 size 0 indeed but I'm scared to use it because I don't have a good brush cleaning routine yet.

If I may ask you another question: what is your brush cleaning routine?

Mine goes like this:

- Get paint on brush

- Paint

- If done with that paint, rinse in cold water.

- If not clean, rinse in Master's Cleaner stuff (I saw this in every video so I had to get that!)

At end of session:

- Rinse in cold water (I'm not doing hot/warm water anymore)

- Rinse using Master's cleaner and leave stuff in bristles and shape bristles.

This will give me a couple of good points for the first 15 minutes in the next painting session but after that my size 0 and 0/2 start to really split and I have to be very carefull not to press too hard on the bristles during painting or splitting will occur.

Remember the bit where I commented that you may be over-thinking it? My "brush cleaning routine" is literally "apply paint to model, shake brush around in water pot". That's it. Top tip: don't get your water pot confused with your coffee mug.

That said... I make no claims to being an expert, as you can see from the examples in this thread (which IMO look great for tabletop use but that's about it, they're not display pieces). If you're seeing videos that tell you to use brush cleaners or what have you, I'm not saying they're wrong. But me? just water.

I've not tried the Rosemary brushes you mention but if they split as easily as you suggest, definitely upgrade.

7 minutes ago, Bitterman said:

Remember the bit where I commented that you may be over-thinking it? My "brush cleaning routine" is literally "apply paint to model, shake brush around in water pot". That's it. Top tip: don't get your water pot confused with your coffee mug.

That said... I make no claims to being an expert, as you can see from the examples in this thread (which IMO look great for tabletop use but that's about it, they're not display pieces). If you're seeing videos that tell you to use brush cleaners or what have you, I'm not saying they're wrong. But me? just water.

I've not tried the Rosemary brushes you mention but if they split as easily as you suggest, definitely upgrade.

Haha great, thanks!

Well, to me these "tabletop use" already look extremely good! Kudos!

Alliance Rangers.

Saska Teft.

Murne Rin.

Biv Bodhrik.

I'm still going, but honestly not sure how many more pictures I'll post here... hardly seems worth it with only a few days to go before it all closes. But, then again, I'll be taking the photos anyway, and it's not very much additional bother, so... well, let's see.

I'm still enjoying your posts and hope you will continue on a different platform (reddit?)

Know that your pictures were an inspiration to me starting the same process 2 weeks ago.

I had not logged into the forums for a long time, but just looked up my login just to let you know. May the force (and contrast paints) be with you!

Well, when you say such nice things, I can manage at least one more. Here's Loku Kanoloa.

Glad you took some amount of inspiration from what I've come up with, and I hope your adventures with Contrast paints are as fun and rewarding as mine have been! Got any photos of your own to share?

I might show off these models somewhere else, but it won't be Reddit because that place is a mess (seriously, there's IA content there? How is anyone to know?). The BGG forum is a maybe, but I never got the same sense of community there that I got here, and I think it's only a little bit less dead than this place is - though of course this place will be experiencing a very final death very soon. Maybe I'll go looking for a Facebook group, but then (even assuming there is one) that tends to find it perversely difficult to build a community, too - best case scenario, people post lots of photos - but just hoping for likes, there's rarely any discussion on such groups. Ah well. Maybe I just need to get with the times and post these pictures on Instagram or OnlyFans or something (those would be suitable places, right?).

Sorry, no photos yet. I started a lot of models at the same time (Tuskem Raiders, Nexu, Trandoshan Hunters), basically a lot of figures that I think should be easy and give me some experience with the Contrast paints.

I finished Jedi Luke (excluding the base, which I still need to think about) and I am fairly happy with him, just think one side his of face has a slightly too thick layer (used Guillerman Flesh).

Learning a lot from these initial ones, but still need to do some finishing touches.

I also didnt buy all the contrast paints, just a selection of 9 + medium (black templar, apothecary white, wildwood, skeleton horde, snakebite leather, one of the yellows, tesselar blue, Guillerman Flesh and ork flesh). This is to try out and in line with the figures I would like to paint first. I think for the rebels I might need a few more (for example the Gryphcharger Orange). Out of curiosity, which specific paints did you buy?

Also thinking about brushes. Using an older army painter regiment brush, but having an issue that the lines ar sometimed not as sharp a I want. Not sure if that is due to the paint, the brush, or my inexperience. (What brush do you use?)

There is a seperate reddit subforum for Imperial Assault. And while reddit doesnt really work like a forum where your thread can keep going to the top with updates, several people do post pictures of their painting (sometimed per model, but some also per batch).

It is not as active as these forums once were, but I think most people still interested in the game go there.

https://www.reddit.com/r/ImperialAssaultTMG/

48 minutes ago, Soulflame said:

Out of curiosity, which specific paints did you buy?

Actually... all of them. Eventually. I started out with something pretty similar to what you just listed, and painted a few figures for Cthulhu: Death May Die. I fell head over heels in love with Contrast paints, marched straight down to my local GW and bought one of each of the ones I didn't already have.

I'm sure there's no real need to be that excessive, especially if you can get Contrast Medium to work (I think I must have mixed in too much when I've tried it, because everything comes out really runny and splotchy). And there are definitely some paints I use more than others. But I have used all of them, at least once.

Couple of weird omissions from the range, though. A mid-tone brown for example - Wyldwood and Cygor Brown are very dark brown, Snakebite Leather and Goregrunta Fur are very reddish brown, Agaros Dunes and Skeleton Horde are sand and bone respectively... where's, just... brown? Also, three flesh tones, but nothing pale enough for elves, nor (probably more importantly!) dark enough for black human skin? (No, the dark browns don't look right as skin!) Overall though, a great range.

48 minutes ago, Soulflame said:

(What brush do you use?)

Had a bit of a discussion about brushes with someone else further up the thread. But to save you looking: Winsor and Newton Series 7, and/or Series 7 Miniature. Superb brushes IMO, though I'm not an expert. Cheapo crappy ones like Army Painter? Ugh. Don't get me wrong, I use Army Painter dips and anti-shine spray a lot, and sometimes their bottled varnish and a few other things... but their brushes are crap IMO. Spend a bit more money and buy quality.

From a video I watched (from 'Drive thru gaming') who also has a lot of examples (66 models to be exact) of figures with contrast paint (for different games), he used wildwood and used contrast medium to slightly thin it at certain points. That looked pretty good as a dark skin to me.Z
Pale skin is probably also one of the 3 actual flesh tones, thinned down with some medium.

Since I will probably only paint the Imperial Assault mini's, I'm trying to keep the number of paints down, but I think I can't really do without some (I think I really need the orange, and a red one as well...)

For brushes; I have the old Army Painter one, and a brand new one (never used) but I keep reading a quality brush is better (in addition to the W&N 7 I also read a lot of good stuff about Raphael 8404).
The worry I have is that, being a beginner, I might ruin the brush fast. Also, I saw several video's where they actually advised against using quality brushes for contrast paints, as they are so thin that they can run into the ferrule easily (and that because they are thin, fine edges are hard anyway). In addition they advise against using nice brushes for metallic paints. Since with the method we are doing in this thread, I think that would really limit the use...
Then again, they are not THAT expensive. 10 euro's for a brush (the primary tool you use on all the 170+ miniatures), is not really that expensive... so I might just go for it anyway. Even if it helps just a little, it might be worthwhile.