Painting Salamanders with Contrast Paint

Following on from the previous post, I had a number of comments and direct messages about what I was going to do with this Mark III Iron Armour marine. To put readers (mostly) out of their misery guessing what I'm up to, this particular marine has been painted up in Salamanders Legion colours.

For the bulk of the paint job, I decided on using contrast paint. Now, there are several formulations out there for the "best" green for Salamanders colours. For me, I have opted with the usual (white) basecoat followed by the Warp Lightning contrast paint.  If you've never used contrast paints before, I can thoroughly recommend them -- I have been a convert since finding how well they performed on Alpha Legion marines, and this Salamanders marine is no different. 

The contrast paint goes on really well and gets in to all the recessed areas of the model to provide shaded parts with little effort what so ever. I highlighted the edges in a lighter, more wood green colour, but for the deepest recesses, added a little nuln oil to taste since I wanted this marine to possess a worn look. 

The shoulder pads are done with a gold base, nuln oil layer, and then griffon gold dry brush to bring out the highlights. The inner shoulder pads and back pack are black, but highlighted in a few grey tones to pick out the wires. The face and head follows a relatively similar approach with a black base and grey highlighting for the features. As for the eyes, they're picked out in red, with a fleck of pink in them to give the customary devilish look to the Salamanders. The bolt gun meanwhile is done with lead belcher and nuln oil, with a lighter silver for highlights. 

Since I was wanting a worn look, I have also applied weathering extensively on the miniatures. This is in two forms: the brown dust and mud colours near the feet, and the chip painting at various locations (most obviously the forward knee on this model). This is achieved with a splotching of black and silver to insinuate wear and tear. Finally, some decals have been applied from the 40k range (as I don't wish to splash out for the Forge World ones at this stage). 

Overall, I'm very pleased with how the contrast paints performed yet again! Thoroughly recommended!