I’m a virgin. I never ever played a game of 40K. I battled my first games with Airfix, I played the marvellous Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, I won and lost with Blood Bowl and I have painted many (my wife says too many) historical miniatures in 6, 15 and 28mm. O, yes, and Dropzone. Until yesterday my brush had never touched a 40K model. Incredible, isn’t it? Remember, virgins exist.

In the goodiebag from the Poldercon wargame convention I found a Space Marine donated by Wendy’s Miniatures. I saw Contrast Paint Youtube tutorials that promise that you can paint them “in under 20 minutes”.

That’s slow. I can batch paint Napoleonics in 20 minutes with Quickshade so I wondered – can a Space Marine job be done faster than 20 minutes, if you focus on speed and use the dip instead of the CP technique?

Here’s what I did. The whole process took 9:44 minutes, still not a record time but at least faster than contrast painting/highlighting with expensive GW-Citadel paint range.

As true virgin I didn’t know the correct colour scheme, but Blood Angels are red and black and I had a spray cans Army Painter red.

Step 1: Base colour: black

A simple spray job. Cheap car paint. No brush. I sprayed the base reddish brown – saves painting time.

Step 2: Red Death From Above

I sprayed the body of the miniature lightly from a distance and from above with leftover Army Painter red paint. Deep recesses remain black with this method.

Step 3: Add (a) few colours

I painted the emblem dark grey, the gun and the left shoulder pad simple silver, and I added a few gold accents. Gold for the coronavirus face mask looks fantastic! 🙂 The trick of speedpainting is that you limit your palette.

I finished with a dot of Army Painter Pure Red on the top of the helmet and right shoulder pad, and a few other exposed area’s. A before-the dip-pre-highlight is a very effective and simple way to accentuate a model, faster than post-highlighting after the varnish and then re-varnishing it.

Step 4: Dip!

Make sure the varnish is quite thin (stir well, use white spirit if very thick, the varnish can dry up and thicken in the tin) and splash it on the miniature. Come on! No fear!

Unfortunately these Space Marines cost 4 euro per miniature, so speedpainting them feels like heresy, even a Horus Heresy. After this experiment I believe, though, that the final result comes cheaper, faster and just as good as Contrast Painting them.

Ten minutes (and 24 hrs drying time) later….

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Of course, it’s not a pro paint job, it’s a 10 minute paint job. Compare him (or her, or it, he/she might be a transgender Space Marine 🙂 to the contrast painted Space Marines below, by a certain Sanguinus.

Do you see much difference? Quickshade or Contrast Paint, make your choice. Do you feel lucky, punk?

PS: I’m not against CP. I have used them succesfully as high quality ink. I just don’t think that contrastpainting is a ‘simple beginner’s technique’ or the best speedpaint method ever. Many (sponsored?) tutorials on Youtube often advise to combine the CPs with other (expensive) GW products, like GW special medium, special drybrush paint and wash. Why, other than marketing? I want a quick tabletop army, I don’t want to win painting competitions.