I just received Forbidden fortress from Amazon and really appreciate this video and the time you put into showing the different techniques. You deserve many more views... and some beers! Cheers!

I've come to a similar conclusion about painting with Contrast/inks/washes. I spray dark and drybrush white, but the exact process depends on the mini. Minis I'm planning on painting lighter will get a medium brown spray, while darker ones get a much darker brown. I will also drybrush heavier on faces or other areas that I want to come out brighter. These little adjustments will help with the harsh contrasts you get from a pure white drybrush over black. I also want to experiment with other base colors, such as a greyish-green under light skin tones for a verdaccio effect. Thanks for the video - great work!

Thanks for this experiment ! i bought airbrush and contrast paint since several months, but i have not begin painting yet. I watched a lot of tutos, and searched for this kind of experiment : you have done it !

Don’t turn the air off on the airbrush! Always keep the air going to help prevent it from clogging, and just add paint when you need to... at least that’s assuming it’s dual action, which I think the patriot is. Loved seeing your results otherwise!

Perhaps priming with dark gray and a little more careful brushing of the white highlights could help improve the harsh contrast. Another tip. Zenithal highlight with off white (wraithbone) and go back and dry brush a little with pure white. It will further boost the highlights without overwhelming the darker areas.

Biggest problem with your zenithal is the speckalling which is a common problem when spraying white. You should try FW White Ink. It sprays nicely without any watering down, straight from the bottle, which has an inbuilt dropper in the lid. It's by far the best airbrush white as it doesn't really speckall much at all.

Great comparison! I don’t have an airbrush, but use rattle-can spray paint in two colors (dark grey and white) for zenithal

I was thinking zenithal with black and gray rattle cans, then lightly dry brushing white oil and pulling it across the gray and black to create a smooth gradient. pretty sure it'll work really well and be quite fast aside from letting the oil dry. It trips me out how few people use oils in minis. they are so easy to blend compared to acrylic.

The drybrush method looks much better to my eyes. I will have to try this. Thank you.

I've decided to finally give contrast paints a try and have purchased about a dozen of them so far. I still need to buy a few more colors along with some spray primer then I can start painting my zombiecide minis. I plan on using only contrast paints for this project so stumbling upon this video was a blessing. Big 👍and a subscription from me. Thanks and stay healthy.

If you can bare one more step. You could use a black wash after the zenithal with the airbrush. That gives you both the smooth transition and the detail linings

Ok.... this video is awesome , But that shirt is eerrrm AWESOME-ER

Im gonna try black primer>airbrush grey zenithal>gloss varnish>diluted nuln oil>white drybrush(just edges), just for fun, great vid thou, ty

Okay, so people have already suggested rattle can zenithal and even links to the Montana sprays that Marco uses in his video. And the Liquitex ink for the airbrush. So you already have more options to try out for more experiments. My only extra thing to add then is that it looks like you might be putting the contrast paints on a little too thin, hence why they look "pastelly" and doesn't give enough, well, contrast. It could just be the larger surface area of the Oni's skin, but you really need to put a good amount on, just like with washes, so it can pool appropriately in the recesses to create shadows/contrast. But great video! The airbrush zenithal models definitely looks the best. Whoops, one more thing. Instead of a stiffer brush, another option is doing the zenithal with more of a "drybrush" method using a much softer make-up brush, in the vein of the way Artis Opus does his videos (the drybrush brushes he uses are actually quite similar to certain make-up brushes, but much more expensive). You'll get a much smoother transition, closer to a spray zenithal, but it'll also add more time than spraying.

Came for the Zenithal, but stayed for the Thundarr. Nice shirt : )

I do like the black base then the airbrush white over that and I'm not a contrast paint painter I would maybe use on top of other paints a tad but to each there own way

Thank you for this, it's exactly what I was looking for!

Seems like a rattle can of white for the zenithal highlight would be a good compromise between the airbrush and brush on methods. You may need to splurge for a higher quality white than rustoleum though.

If you've ever seen the stuff painted by Mike of Epic Duck, I think the brushed on gives it an almost comic book style without taking hours. Maybe I'll dust off my knight Marvel Xmen and try it.

I've seen some videos talking about under painting, where a darker color is applied first, and then contrast is applied over that.

Highly recommend Vallejo flow improver for air brush. It does 2 things, thins paint and helps keep paint from drying on your tip which causes clogs

Interesting results! One advantage of the airbrush for your zenithal that you're ignoring is the sheer speed of doing it in bulk for several figures at the same time. One on one the brush and the airbrush feel probably comparable, but try 20-30 at a time and the airbrush obliterates the alternative. It *will* have a learning curve but it's worthwhile. And since it's the same color you will only need to clean the airbrush once per lot. As for cleaning the airbrush, get a wash bottle, it does help a lot and makes it much faster and less annoying, here's a Vince Venturella video where he shows his method: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/r6t5fdZiyJrGo4U.html

Why not both? Air brush in a medium grey and then dry brush in white?

What about rattle can zenithal?

It's looks to me like you aren't using enough contrast paint to get a good colour gradient, you want pooling in the recesses. Contrast can be used very effectively on marines as Jaun Hidalgo demonstrates in his excellent 'eavy contrast marines series: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/b8lmlNNpu96RpGw.html Another point from his videos is he uses a bonewhite undercoat rather than a pure white, which might be worth experimenting with!

Okay, you've convinced me to convert to the zenithal airbrush technique. Any cheap airbrush recommendations? Also, that basing looks Fantastic! I would be interested to see some basing comparison s in the future.

Is it OK to Dry Brush with white Primer Paint (i.e., Vallejo Surface Primer, Stynylrez, etc.) instead of white paint?

If you don't care about quality then Contrast is the way to go. You can burn through a ton of models. They will all look like they were done with water colors and lack depth, but they will be "done". I think contrast is ok as a tool for specific things or to use them as shades or technical effects, but to do an entire model that way, they always look like they were done with contrast.

can always use rattle cans too instead of airbrush

Why not speed it up more by just using a spray can to zenithal? faster setup, easier to zenithal 10+ mini's at a single go (just tape them down to a sheet of cardboard, and no clean up at all.

Woah, early slapchop.

They need some kind of game for Thundarr!

Also I think your colors would be more rich if instead of using a pure white for Zenithal use an off white like Pro Acryl Ivory or Army Painters Brain Matter Beige..just my 2 cents :)

You are entitled to your opinion. But I disagree with almost everything you said. Zenithal definitely IS worth the effort. And Air brush does NOT look the best. The brush method is the best for exactly where and what you want to focus on. But yes, if you are lazy, it's not for you. But then, if you don't care about a good paint job, being lazy is not going to get you good results anyway.