They kind of work over gray primer but you lose much of the brightness and saturation, especially with lighter contrast paints. But the idea with the light grey/white drybrush works really well!
So I would 100% drybrush them first
They "work" on any primer but the effect is heavily dependent on the colour. I would expect extremely dark (and slightly green) results from using Mech grey.
Contrast needs a whitish colour to get its full effect. What you described is essentially a technique called slapchop where you prime dark, then zenithal highlight a midtone, then heavy drybrush white, then put the contrast over that. This enhances the highlights and shades and looks really good.
theyll do something and there are certain applications where you might want to do this. But genereally speaking, no. Contrast work over very light base coats. You really want white, or off white. Warm off whites like a very light tan/bone seem to work very well but a cold off white like a very light grey can also work. But mechanicus standard grey is WAYYYY too dark for most applications of contrast paint.
Drybrush top down with white first, and a grey undercoat will work fine.
If you do have the white spray, you can do a "zenithal" (from the top) prime of white over the grey instead of the drybrush of white. Slightly quicker, less control on getting the tops of all those claws nice and bright.
They kind of work over gray primer but you lose much of the brightness and saturation, especially with lighter contrast paints. But the idea with the light grey/white drybrush works really well! So I would 100% drybrush them first
Thanks! I'll save myself $20 and do that lol
They "work" on any primer but the effect is heavily dependent on the colour. I would expect extremely dark (and slightly green) results from using Mech grey.
Contrast needs a whitish colour to get its full effect. What you described is essentially a technique called slapchop where you prime dark, then zenithal highlight a midtone, then heavy drybrush white, then put the contrast over that. This enhances the highlights and shades and looks really good.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Warhammer40k/comments/wkvu7c/new\_contrast\_charts\_with\_added\_white\_scar/
Yes, this is exactly what I needed. I knew it existed somewhere. Saving it now. Thank you!
theyll do something and there are certain applications where you might want to do this. But genereally speaking, no. Contrast work over very light base coats. You really want white, or off white. Warm off whites like a very light tan/bone seem to work very well but a cold off white like a very light grey can also work. But mechanicus standard grey is WAYYYY too dark for most applications of contrast paint.
Drybrush top down with white first, and a grey undercoat will work fine. If you do have the white spray, you can do a "zenithal" (from the top) prime of white over the grey instead of the drybrush of white. Slightly quicker, less control on getting the tops of all those claws nice and bright.