It’s an incredibly exciting time to be a Warhammer hobbyist – the Citadel Colour range is expanding with 25 vivid and versatile new Contrast paints, the Shade range has been reformulated with a further seven new colours added, and a brand new bright white spray primer is coming! It’s a chromatic Christmas, and it’s still summer! The other parts of the models are more consistent – the shiny insectoid carapace uses Gryph-Charger Grey over a Leadbelcher basecoat, with added highlights of thin striped Stormhost Silver , all followed up with a wash of Terradon Turquoise thinned with Contrast Medium . The meat and bone bits are Flesh Tearers Red over Wraithbone, with Pallid Wych Flesh highlights. The meaty parts then got a thinned Volupus Pink wash, while the talons and hooves were finished with a wash of Gryph-Charger Grey. Gav: Termagants and Neurogaunts Finish up the tongue with a glaze of Terradon Turquoise and Contrast Medium (1:1) in the recesses, and line in the deepest recesses. Tyranids are a purely organic faction, which means that even within a fixed colour scheme there’s room for individual variation and mutation. This is great news if, like me, you have trouble figuring out the right recipe for the colour you want – you can experiment on different models and units until you’re happy, and the results won’t look odd at all! Lizzie: A regal and rich blue, with deep tones that seep into the recesses. This is perfect for making those Stormcast Eternals look fit to serve Sigmar.

The great thing about this scheme is that if I need to paint a lot of models fast, as you often do with Tyranids, then they look great and ‘Battle Ready’ at just the Contrast paint stage and I can add the highlights later. Airbrush steps - 1) Basecoat with Screamer Pink . 2) Zenithal (top-down, but most of the model) Magenta 3) Zenithal (directly above) Emperor's Children 4) Under shade with Volupus Pink Sitting next to Volupus Pink, but even richer, this colour comes close to the intensity of Screamer Pink, but with the unique flow of contrast.Emma: Regally vibrant, Luxion Purple keeps a bright tone even in the darker areas of your miniatures – great for Hedonites of Slaanesh and the Emperor’s Children . This is my favourite purple Contrast of all time!

Citadel Colour’s Volupus Pink is an acrylic paint with a smooth matt finish. It contains a high concentration of pigments, providing excellent coverage with just a thin base coat. This colour works great as a foundation for highlighting lighter pinks, and the paint is easy to use even for beginners. It is a beautiful addition to any palette and ideal for miniature painting, especially for models that require a vibrant and eye-catching appearance. What armies to paint with Volupus Pink

Eyes are basecoated White Scar . Wash with Hexwraith Flame mixed with a bit of Yellow Fluorescent . This can flow onto the lids for a glow effect. Establish a centre dot of white, then glaze with Yellow Fluorescent And there’s more – all Citadel Colour Shades have been reformulated to make them even better, seven more have been created, which we’ll be taking a look at next week. Plus, we’ve also perfected white spray paint, making it easier than ever to undercoat your miniatures. Follow up with a thin highlight of Temple Guard Blue . On the tongue, this is the chunky highlight. Stippling here looks quite effective.

Contrast blues are some of the most saturated paints in the range, and Pylar Glacier exists to slot in between Aethermatic Blue and Talassar Blue . Anyway, for this step I glazed in some thinned down Murder Scene from Army Painter’s Speedpaint range in a 50:50 mix of that and Speedpaint Medium, but this works just as well with something like Volupus Pink from Citadel. I also use this color on the skin tone I have to make the area the tentacle is emerging from look more like muscle.

Step 2: Pink Basecoat

Launched in 2019, the Contrast range revolutionised miniatures painting. Now, the new colours span the entire spectrum, from eye-searing emeralds and yellows, to fiery reds and bold blues. We’re really spoilt for choice! To give us a hand exploring the new range, we asked Warhammer TV painting presenter Emma Robinson to provide us with ideas for using some of the new colours. Lizzie: Easily one of the most vibrant of the green tones, this really draws attention to a miniature. I’ve used this to create some bright warp flame, and Nighthaunt magic. Retributor Armour: Gold is a warm metallic color that pairs well with the cool tones of purple and pink. Retributor Armour is a high-quality metallic gold that can be used to highlight and add accents to miniatures painted with Volupus Pink. Attaching all the branches can be a pain in the rear. I recommend starting from the top and working your way to the bottom, with the base pieces left off. Generally, you want to have the smaller branches toward the top and the larger branches toward the bottom. Dry fit the branches before you glue them on and find out which branches you want to go where, you should aim for a nicely shaped crown with the leaves and branches spread out evenly. Aeldari Emerald is a colour unlike any in the current Contrast range, giving you a brand new choice for a whole range of effects.

Emma: I’ve been painting for many years, and Contrast is one of the most fun and versatile paint ranges I’ve worked with. They are easy and fun to use, making armies faster than ever to paint. Add Shyish Purple to the very deepest skin recesses, particularly where the under shade is strong, such as feet. I actually mixed in Druchii Violet to Volupus Pink in lieu of not having Shyish Purple ! Final steps. I painted the manhole and grate with Typhus Corrosion, then drybrushed it with Ryza Rust to give it an old rusted metal look and a gritty texture. Next comes the technical paints. I painted a few globs of Nurgle’s Rot on the cover, and a generous dollop under the tip of the tentacle and in the crook where it’s bending over itself. This gives it a wet, green texture but I want to get the rest of the model. I don’t want to wash out the green completely so the rest of the model gets covered in ‘Ardcoat. I wanted very pink Pink Horrors. This recipe uses an airbrush for zenithal highlights and basecoating for speed, but I am sure this could be achieved with a brush. This covers the painting of the whole model. Skin

Step 2: Base Coat of Blue/Purple

There’s a lot of green in Warhammer, from Salamanders and Nurgle Daemons, to Orks and orruks! Gutrippa Flesh is here to help, slotting in between Militarum Green and Plaguebearer Flesh . Emma: Such a rich, vibrant teal colour! It’s perfect for Seraphon and many other models – I have even thinned it down to make a spooky verdigris for Grand Alliance Death models. Emma: This paint has a lovely jade-like tone, which is really intense and vivid. I love using it over Stormhost Silver on gemstones or thinned down for a different take on crystal blades than the usual blue. These were a bit of a challenge for me, as I didn’t have much experience building or painting organic models. Not much call for organs within the Adeptus Mechanicus. Fortunately, I had just finished painting 50 Skaven in a month, so I had some skin-painting momentum carrying me forward. The recipe for tentacles here is largely the same as how I painted those Skaven tails.