Topic: Dipping

[Rugratrik]

Hi guys! This is my first post here, although I have been reading a lot lately on this forum. The one thing that I found particulary interesting was the subject of Dipping. I am not much of a painter, especcially not my first models, so I decided, after reading Andreas Ringqvist's post on his new army in one month, to try it myself. Since I did not have any previous experience, I just went with what I had, and this happend to be walnut-colored  stain. I thinned it with some paint thinner, and then started to brush it on the models. I hope any of you can help me further develop this technique, because I think my models have improved a lot, but I would love it if they could evolve even more! So any critique is welcome    (First and last pic are undipped, more to indicate my lack of skills as a painter)







And Yes, I know my backgrounds suck, but bear with me I just wanted to have an opinion on the models...

[Henerius]

well some critics then. 

Mouldlines stay visible, no dipping will help there I am afraid.

Paint the colours between the lines. (look at the spearmen, red on his hand and red spilled over his spear...)
Before dipping paint the entire model. An unfinished model is after dipping still an unfinished model.

I like the effect of the dip on the white and red, if youre skills are that bad it sure is something you might exploit...  but still although the end result may improve, it only does so if you finish youre models first.

So give it youre best shot, pick up a model remove the mouldlines, paint regimental colours, hands, face, shoes, armour, metal parts, wood,  hair and then dip him.   You have to hang in there and focus on the result, I am sure you can do it. 

Show us a picture or two once you've finished the model 

[ZeroTwentythree]

I agree with Henerius, tidying up some of the paint will clean up the figures. A lot of people paint from the "inside" to the "outside." So they start with the hard to reach places first, then finish up with the stuff on top. That way you're not trying to reach your brush past parts that have already been painted. (If that makes sense... hopefully I'm being clear. In the case of the spearmen, the order I paint mine are: flesh, hair/hat, clothes, armour & shoes, then weapons & shields last.

I think the dip came out great. It looks good with those colors, too. I keep wanting to try it myself.

[Stonedog]

I dip all of my models exclusively.  It saves a bunch of time and looks "very good table top standard".  I use it on eveything from my Blood Angels to my BloodBowl teams and my beloved Empire Army.  Also, if you use the right kind of dip you will NOT get rub off.....it will make for a shiny model....so you still have to spray with Dulcote.

A few pointers:

Make SURE ALL MOLD LINES are GONE!  Dipping makes them stand out all the more.  Period.
Clean up the paint job.  Nice clean paint lines goes a LONG way making them look GREAT!
Definitely paint inside to out!

[johnjohn2]

just too add, the paint job doesnt even have to be that great, dipping is fantastic as it only needs really a base coat of paint first. but yeah, try and pain in the lines, even if you mess up a bit along the recesses it may get covered by the wash/dip so you can worry less about the paint along the recesses but FOR SURE clean up the paint along flat surfaces and you should be golden.

After all, the dipping method is fantastic for us who are more concerned about finally getting armies painted and on the table as apposed to obssesing about winning painting competitions.

[Stonedog]

I couldn't agree more.  I want my armies to look good....but not 'eavy metal standards!

A fully painted and well painted army adds all the more to the fantasy of the battle!

[GamesPoet]

I saw someone crank out some serious skaven models, and another crank out some ghouls, both using a dip, and they turned out quite nicely.  Not sure I'd want to try it on my Empire army, but some day I might give it a try on something.

If I recall, I saw an example of using the Army Painter product in an advertisement inside a Wargames Illustrated, or maybe it was even an article, on how someone color blocked a roman legion unit and then dipped it.  It came out quite nicely.

If I get into one of these zombie rules systems at some point, maybe color blocking out the zombies and then using a dip, might speed the process up a bit.  Not really sure I want to spend a lot of time painting zombies, like I spend painting other models.