home

Author Topic: Question about dipping?  (Read 5487 times)

Offline jcorey1

  • Members
  • Posts: 52
Question about dipping?
« on: January 18, 2010, 07:27:08 PM »
Well, I've slowly come to the realisation that I really do not have the time to spend 4 hours per mini like I used to. Mostly due to my heavy courseload for college...so I've been looking into dipping. (I know eep people frown on it). It's not that I can't paint, I just don't have the time to put the 100% effort in anymore. So...

I'm just wondering....I'm from the U.S. and so I know the standard is minwax something other. I know also that it works best with reds, yellows, oranges, greens, browns etc. I am currently considering trying a talabec color scheme with it, but I dont know which shade of yellow and red to use with it, or really how to dip in general. Any help will be appreciated, thanks guys!
"Fury of Nuln!"

Offline steveb

  • Members
  • Posts: 4624
Re: Question about dipping?
« Reply #1 on: January 18, 2010, 09:55:30 PM »
walnut min wax brushed on or dipped and excess brushed off wil work.  Have you considered any of the army painter products, they are just a little more expensive, but I think they work better and last longer. they have 3 shades; light, medium, dark. In my opinion whatever you use, you must control it. Brushing on is best I think, too much can present a problem with obscuring details and blobbing everything up and dipping is messy.  good luck    steveb

Offline mattdus

  • Members
  • Posts: 30
Re: Question about dipping?
« Reply #2 on: January 18, 2010, 11:25:56 PM »
I would also recommend looking into the army painter products. I have seen it used to great effect on 15mm miniatures and i am sure that with careful application it would work fine on these as well.

Offline Delthos

  • Members
  • Posts: 4647
  • Evil Polish Guy
Re: Question about dipping?
« Reply #3 on: January 19, 2010, 10:12:45 PM »
It's up to you, but I wouldn't waste your money on the Army Painter. I've used both and they are pretty much the same. The Minwax is a little less than a third the price of the Army Painter. A can of Minwax runs about $12 in Lowes and other hardware stores. There are two types of Minwax that most people use. They are Minwax Polyshades Satin Antique Walnut and Minwax Polyshades Satin Tudor. The walnut is a nice red brown that is good for miniatures with lots of warm colors like red, yellow, oranges, and browns. The tudor is a nice dark brown, almost black color, that is good for cool colors like blues and greens. They also have a Black that is pure black. The walnut is about quivalent to the Army Painter soft tone (although soft has a bit more black to it), the tudor to the strong tone, and the black the dark tone.

Here is a link to my photobook album of my Ostermark army where I used Minwax Antique Walnut. I'm not using it on my hero and lord choices, but the rest of the army is using it. I've come to really like the technique. Also a link to my painting log with more of my insights on the technique. It works quite good for the colors I'm using.

http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k112/prozinskij/Ostermark%20Army/

http://www.warhammer-empire.com/theforum/index.php?topic=29699.0

Here is a link to a good tutorial on the technique, although it uses the Army Painter product, the technique is the same.

http://theminiaturespage.com/workbench/317214/

Some extra advice is, don't shake it to mix it, no matter which product you go with. Shaking it will get it in the rim of the can. If you aren't careful to wipe it all out of the lid, it will dry there and glue the can shut. You will have a very difficult time opening it, if you can at all. I always carefully open it without shaking it and then stir it with a stick. I went with the one quart Minwax and mixed it up and transferred half of it to another can. That way it is easier to handle without getting on the rim.

Also it works pretty good on 15mm miniatures, although it doesn't have as nice of an effect due to a smaller area to shade.
« Last Edit: January 20, 2010, 08:42:03 AM by Delthos »
Ostermark Photo Gallery
Ostermark Painting Log
"Kill 'em all and let Morr sort 'em out!" (General Ghent, Battle of Dumsky's Fallow)

Offline Finlay

  • Members
  • Posts: 18635
  • C'mon Son
Re: Question about dipping?
« Reply #4 on: January 19, 2010, 11:53:19 PM »
what about the new GW inks?
I don't care about the rules.

Pass the machete.

Offline Badwolf

  • Members
  • Posts: 630
  • 10mm KoW
Re: Question about dipping?
« Reply #5 on: January 20, 2010, 12:45:39 AM »
what about the new GW inks?

Washes are magic for more subtle shading used in conjunction with colour blending and/or highlighting techniques but for time saving I've used AP dip on my WW1 stuff...

Undercoat (spray)
Basecoat all colours
Light drybrush highlight (optional, I've only done this on my french horizon blue)
Dip
Spray Matt varnish (AP Antishine varnish. AP Quickshade does set with a very shiny finish)
Spray GW Purity Seal (the satin type finish brings the colours back out after the matt varnish which tends to dim them a bit too much for my liking)
Finish base etc....done. Tabletop quality at least.

Also, GW washes are £2.25 rrp for 12ml whereas Army Painter Quickshade is £17.99 rrp for 250ml, enough for scores or even hundreds of figures. You could use GW washes the same way but it wouldn't really be as cost effective.

Offline Delthos

  • Members
  • Posts: 4647
  • Evil Polish Guy
Re: Question about dipping?
« Reply #6 on: January 20, 2010, 01:20:10 AM »
Using the GW washes will work, but they won't give the same effect. It would also be quite a bit more expensive than even the Army Painter dip. Price comparison.

12 ml of GW wash. $3.70 or $.31 per ml
150 ml (less than 1/3 pint) of Army Painter. $33.95 or $.23 per ml
950 ml (1 quart 32 ounces) of Minwax $12.99 or $.02 per ml
240 ml (1/2 pint or 8 ounces) of Minwax $8.99 or $.04 per ml

Even if you buy the big can of Minwax and waste 3/4 of the can you are still spending less than if you used an entire can of Army Painter. As they are almost identical in function it seems obvious to me which you should use.
Ostermark Photo Gallery
Ostermark Painting Log
"Kill 'em all and let Morr sort 'em out!" (General Ghent, Battle of Dumsky's Fallow)

Offline jullevi

  • Members
  • Posts: 502
Re: Question about dipping?
« Reply #7 on: January 20, 2010, 01:32:21 PM »
I agree with Delthos that if you have a good access to product that is guaranteed to be suitable for dipping, there is no need to invest in Armypainter. Personally, I switched to Armypainter products because my alternative dried up in couple of months and it was too hard to find a replacement can, as opposed to Armypainter that had become available at my FLGS.

Personally, I have tried both methods of dipping and I can 100% vote for brushing on the dip. It uses up less product, gives you better control and, all things considered, takes equal or even less time and effort than dipping straight into can and shaking off the excess.

Nowadays, I dip most of my miniatures. I have adjusted my painting style so that I can actually get better results by dipping, yet saving a good amount of time and effort even if I don't cut as much corners as many dippers do. I think I have posted some of my thoughts about dipping in the past, but I may re-post them here later.
Knowledge is power, hide it well.