Contrast paints split miniature painters into two camps. One sees a shortcut that finally got their army out of the box and onto the table; the other sees a way to ruin a model in a single coat. The truth sits in between, and it depends on whether you know what the paint actually does. This is about the AK Quick Gen range – what it is, how to paint with it and which shades to buy first.

What a contrast paint is

A standard acrylic covers. You put it down and whatever was underneath stops showing – which is why you paint in layers: base, colour, shadow, highlight. A contrast paint does not cover, it settles. It is built on a resin with low surface tension, so once applied it runs off the raised areas into the recesses and folds. The film stays thin on the high points and thick in the hollows – and because the paint is translucent, thin reads light and thick reads dark.

The result is that shadow and highlight appear on their own while the paint dries. What takes three layers and half an hour with a standard acrylic happens here in one stroke.

Where Quick Gen came from

Quick Gen is AK Interactive’s answer to what the market has wanted since 2019. Compared with the first contrast paints it uses a thicker resin that runs less on vertical surfaces and, more importantly, it states its strength on the label. That piece of information matters more than it sounds.

Intensity: Low, Medium, High

Every Quick Gen bottle carries an INTENSITY scale with three boxes and one of them ticked. It tells you how much light the layer lets through:

• Low – translucent, tints mostly the recesses. White Shadow, Light Grey Shadow or Human Flesh are exactly that: over white the surface stays nearly white while the folds gain shape.
• Medium – balanced coverage. Desert Yellow or Forest Green give full colour and shadow in one coat while the sculpted detail stays readable.
• High – saturated on the first pass. Black, Power Blue or Crimson Red cover so well that the surface goes dark and the gap between the raised area and the recess narrows. Thin them with medium for subtle transitions.

The practical consequence: paint white cloth with a high-intensity shade and you get grey cloth. Paint a black cloak with a low-intensity shade and you get a grey cloak. Intensity is not quality, it is a tool – which is why we carry it as its own filter in the shop.

Why the primer has to be white

A contrast paint is translucent, so the result is always the paint plus what lies beneath. White primer gives the cleanest, most saturated tone. Bone or light grey mutes everything – which is sometimes exactly what you want, for example on historical figures. Over black primer a contrast paint does not work: the recess and the raised area are equally dark and the whole effect disappears.

The best compromise for fantasy models is white primer with a zenithal shadow: spray white, blow light grey in from below and only then lay the colour. The contrast paint will exaggerate the shadow that is already there.

A model in twenty minutes

A routine that works on a 28 mm gaming model:

1. White primer. Let it cure for at least an hour – contrast paint over primer that is not fully dry behaves unpredictably.
2. Large areas. Cloak, armour, trousers. One continuous stroke with a mid-sized brush; let the paint settle by itself. Never go back over an area that has started to dry.
3. Skin. Human Flesh or Dwarf Flesh in a single coat – the eyes and mouth draw themselves.
4. Leather and wood. Leather for belts, Wood for hafts.
5. Metal. Dark Steel for armour and weapons, Gold for ornaments.
6. Details and highlights. A drybrush over the edges, a white dot in the eye and, if you want it, a thin black line between parts.
7. Matt varnish. Contrast paints stay semi-matt and rub off during play.

What to buy first

Starting out – eight shades

Human Flesh for skin, Leather for leather, Wood for wood, Dark Steel for metal, Black for black cloth, White Shadow for white, plus Power Blue and Forest Green as your two colours. That eight will carry the vast majority of fantasy models – add AK Quick Gen Medium 18 ml to it.

A fantasy army

With an army one thing decides everything: how many models you finish in an evening. Pick two or three main shades for the scheme – say Ultramarine Blue for armour, Crimson Red for cloaks, Gold for trim – and add skin and metal. The rest is detail work. Painting orcs or goblins, the base is Orc Flesh; for undead it is Putrid White and Plague Yellow.

Historical figures and vehicles

The military part of the range has full coverage and is mixed from real uniform references: Field Grey and German Grey for the German side, US Olive Uniform for the American, British Uniform for the British, Russian Uniform and Russian Blue for the Soviet, DAK Green and Desert Sand for the desert. At 1:72 and smaller a contrast paint beats a standard acrylic outright – at that size brush-shading would take longer than the figure is worth.

Medium: the only correct thinner

Quick Gen must not be thinned with water. Water breaks the surface tension that holds the whole effect together – the paint stops settling into the recesses, starts pooling into stains and leaves visible rings once dry. AK Quick Gen Medium 18 ml is a clear gel that thins the paint while keeping the resin properties. Roughly 1:1 for a gentle lightening, up to 1:3 for a very thin layer. Mix on a palette, never in the bottle.

Airbrushing follows the same rule: thin with medium, around 1.5 bar. The larger AK Quick Gen Medium 60 ml bottle works out considerably cheaper per millilitre.

Markers: the same paint, faster

Quick Markers are the same paints in a marker with a brush tip. They add no new effect, they remove the palette, the water and the brush cleaning. On small areas – skin, belts, eyes, outlines – they beat a brush; for large surfaces and vehicles the bottle still wins and costs less per millilitre. The full range is in the AK Quick Markers category.

Five mistakes you can spot across the table

1. Black primer. The most common one. A contrast paint over black has no reason to exist.
2. Thinning with water. Stains and rings that cannot be fixed except by varnishing over and starting again.
3. Two coats back to back. While the first is wet the second smears it. Let it dry, then add.
4. Too much paint on the brush. Contrast paint runs – the excess gathers at the lowest point and dries as a dark puddle.
5. High intensity on light cloth. A white robe painted with a saturated shade is no longer a white robe.

Quick Gen, 3rd Generation or both?

3rd Generation is a classic acrylic – it covers, mixes and layers exactly the way you are used to. Quick Gen is a tool for speed. In practice they do not compete, they complement: Quick Gen does the surface and the shadow, 3rd Generation the detail and the final highlights. Painting a single display piece, start with the classic acrylic. With thirty models on the table and a game at the weekend, Quick Gen is the only way to make it.

FAQ

How long does Quick Gen take to dry?
Touch dry in about 20 minutes, fully cured in roughly an hour. Only add another layer once it is completely dry.

Can Quick Gen shades be mixed?
Yes, shades within the range mix without trouble. Do not mix them with standard acrylics, though – they lose the ability to settle.

Does Quick Gen work on 3D prints?
Yes, and particularly well on resin prints, because the surface is smooth and the paint flows over it better. What matters is degreasing properly and priming.

Why does the paint refuse to stay on the edges?
Because that is exactly what it is meant to do – it runs off the high points. If you want colour on the edge as well, add a second coat once dry or finish the edge with a standard acrylic.

The full Quick Gen range is in the AK Quick Gen Color category, the markers in AK Quick Markers and AK’s classic acrylics in AK 3rd Generation.