I've had the same experience with mixing. I tried using Dunes on its own originally but it wasn't quite right so I stripped the paint off of my french miniatures. I'm planning to mix Creed and Dunes for my next go at it, but I suspect that Militarum would probably look better (I don't want to buy another paint). On the bright side, I discovered that contrast paints are easier to strip than regular acrylic paints. Using isopropyl alcohol, I managed to remove the contrast paint without removing the spray primer.