Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Dipping - The Conundrum

Over the last six months or so, I've been gradually seduced by the lure of the army painter dip. Like most I think, when I first heard of this stuff I was, to say the least, warily pessimistic as to the veracity of the claims that it was some sort of magic shading sauce. I saw some minis done with it and thought, 'Too shiny, too muddy, bleagh. Away with you.'

A few weeks later, on the excellent Carpe Noctem, I was looking through the gallery of folks recent work. I saw these guys above. I thought wow, they're nice, very nice indeed! Imagine my surprise when I learned they were done with the aforementioned army painter. I was a little gobsmacked, in fact. This prompted me to reconsider. I thought I better give this stuff a shot.

Here's one of my first minis done with the painter. I was very pleasantly surprised. With careful application (brush, NOT dip), a good matt varnish and good basing, the minis looked magic, and here's the thing: they took very little time to do. To fully understand the effect this had on me, we'll need some back-story: I am a VERY slow painter. I am fastidious. I own my own weight a few times over in miniatures that I really want to paint. This was a solution sent from on high.

Now, don't get me wrong, I still apply details and highlights over most dipped figures. It doesn't suit every mini or every colour. I won't be giving up traditional painting, far from it, I'm just getting into my stride. BUT, and it's a gargantuan but, I can see my armies actually getting finished, and looking damn good, if I do say so myself.

4 comments:

  1. So, this ghoul you did, was pained how?

    - white spray primer?
    - base colouring of the clothes, hair, etc.
    - drybrushing the base?
    - using the dip.

    Does it matter much if you actually dip and shake off excess rather than paint it on?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hey Sjeng.

    The primer was black, apply base colours, dip, then re-highlight with skin mix, pick out teeth, eyes etc, then drybrush the base.

    I always brush on dip. It gives you more control, as I may not want it on all areas. Also I can remove any minor pooling so that the dip shades better without leaving muddy areas.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks for the info ;)
    I've got an entire Mantic undead army to paint, and I'm planning to dip them all. The more I know about it, the better.

    ReplyDelete
  4. No problem, good luck with the army!

    ReplyDelete

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