What are dipping inks?

Highly pigmented inks with an oily textured medium that allow you to shade your wargaming figures and miniatures with a single application, that's why they are known as fast paints, express paints, contrast paints, or simply Speedpaint.

The dipping range is composed of 36 acrylic paints, also available in 6 boxes with 6 colours, including from very vibrant colours such as Red Opulence Dip or Green Ghost Dip to darker colours such as Deep Black Dip or Green Shark Skin Dip, where each coat of paint allows you to bring out the highlights and shadows without the need to be an experienced painter.

Its formulation allows advanced painters to mark volumes, as well as to make glazes with ease, highlighting the details of the figure quickly, being a very useful tool for a professional painter.

Where to buy dipping inks?

Green Stuff World is the manufacturer and seller of acrylic dipping inks also known as speedpaint or contrast paint for wargames at an affordable price and discount. The range includes 36 colours and 6 boxes and we ship to all countries worldwide including Spain, France, Italy, Germany, Holland, Canada, UK, USA, Australia, and many more. You can find the list of countries where we can ship in the following LINK.

How much does a Contrast Paint cost?

The prices of Contrast Paint fast inks can vary radically depending on the manufacturer and you can find huge differences. Also, paying more money does not mean better functionality, and paying less does not mean having a lower-quality product, quite the opposite.

350 €/litre Games Workshop (Citadel Contrast)

210 €/litre The Army Painter

190 €/litre Scale75

180 €/litre Acrylics Vallejo

70 €/litre Green Stuff World

As you can see the cost per liter of our inks is much cheaper than other brands on the market, with far superior results. The cost of the contrast inks is the result of the simple optimization of the formula and the production system in 60ml bottles, perfect for you to have long-lasting paints and to be able to paint whole armies.

What is the best primer for Dipping inks?

Any matt white primer or other light-coloured primer is suitable for this function, such as our white primer, cream primer, or grey primer. It is not necessary to use special primers such as Games Workshop's Wraith Bone or Scale75's Holy Charm which claim to be different but do not add any additional function or enhancement to the performance of the acrylic paint.

How to use Dipping Contrast Paints with the airbrush.

They have the perfect dilution for airbrush use. No thinning is needed. There are many interesting airbrush painting techniques with incredible results.

What are dipping inks or contrast paints used for?

Contrast paints are designed to be applied over light primers, creating shadows and highlights in a single pass. They allow multiple layers to build up or saturate the colours.

How can I paint my minis faster?

The first thing to change to paint fast is to use larger brushes. Forget about the paint brushes in size #0 or smaller, we will try not to use them, because they are intended for very small details that may not be seen or even need. Use paint brushes of at least size #1, although we recommend size #2, as long as we are talking about wargame-type miniatures, or maybe something a bit bigger.

Limit the color palette so you don't have to be looking and thinking about what color you have to use every time. Normally 4-5 colors should be enough, depending on the shape and figure. If something you do not know what color to use, you can always leave it black.

Use fast painting techniques taking advantage of zenithal or grisaille techniques (snap chop), which although they are not really the same technique, but in the end, they are very similar.

Take advantage of the color saturation of the Dipping inks contrast paints and paint each area of your figure without staining outside that specific area. Simply apply colors by zones.

Paint many figures in series, so that you can optimize the colours, and the tasks that are repeated between figures. In addition, in this way, the colors will have time to dry properly.

Difference between Zenithal and Slapchop (Grisaille)

The zenithal technique consists of simulating the color of the sun at noon, just when the sun is just at its zenith. After applying a coat of black primer, simply apply a second coat of white primer from above in a single direction so that a natural shadow is created. This can only be done with an airbrush or with a primer spray/aerosol.

This technique achieves almost perfect gradients and good color transitions with very realistic lighting. After this initial technique, you can start coloring all areas of the miniature with a paintbrush with GSW speed paint: Dipping inks.

The quick painting method of grisaille (in English Slapchop technique) for painting miniatures, consists of priming in black, applying a strong dry brush in grey or almost white colors, and leaving darker areas in the deepest parts of the miniature. Then simply apply Dipping ink colors to color each area.

The first zenithal technique is smoother, but it requires an airbrush or spray, and on many occasions, it may not look too good if some final lighting is not applied. This technique requires a little more control and paint level to be able to correct possible overhead lighting errors. 

The best painters in the world use this technique because basically, they are able to highlight and correct any interpretation of colors, shadows, and lighting, so their finishes will possibly be better than any other less complex technique.

The grisaille technique, on the other hand, has other advantages, which would be its possible application with a brush, always using brushes with large numbers, and that they will achieve very fast lighting and shading, although not as realistic as the zenithal technique, but at the same time and in the vast majority of occasions will be completely valid for painting any board game or wargame miniature with ease. This grisaille technique (or snap chop) will be more suitable for beginners.

Is dipping ink the same as wash ink?

Wash paints are less pigmented inks with a proportion of black colour used mainly for shading or contrasting miniatures.

Dipping inks would be somewhere in between normal paint and a wash in terms of consistency and coverage.

Is dipping ink the same as intensity ink?

Intensity inks are highly pigmented, usually pure inks used to increase the intensity of another colour. They are usually pure, unmixed primary colours with a similar formulation that allows them to be used like dipping inks.

Dipping ink paints are usually secondary or tertiary colours which, thanks to their unique medium, allow different shades of colour to be obtained in a single application.

Where to buy Contrast Paints at a discount?

The best price for Contrast Paints, in the dipping ink version, can be bought on the greenstuffworld website at a price of 70€/litre (4€ for 60ml) instead of 350€/litre (6.35€ for 18ml).

What are the best Contrast paints?

There are many amazing colours in the Green Stuff World colour range, but for me, these would be my top or best Dipping Inks:

- Red Opulence Dip

- Skeleton Brown Dip

- Turquoise Ghost Dip

- Cool Blue Dip

- Deep Black Dip

Is it possible to mix contrast paint with normal paint?

For the main functionality, it is not advisable to make these mixtures as they would lose some of their properties by acting strangely. There are 36 colours in the range and I am sure that one of them has the colour you are looking for.

However, you can mix dipping ink with other colours, for example, white, to get second highlights and make more powerful illuminations.

Differences between a Citadel Contrast paint and a GSW dipping ink?

Citadel paints from Games Workshop have only 32 colours, cost 350€/litre and have a satin finish, whereas dipping ink has 36 colours, costs 70€/litre and has a completely matt finish.