Can dipping substitute for an early-stage ink wash?

[BrotherCaptainArkhan]

Hi all,

 

I'm in the stage of painting up a rather large bunch of models at the moment for my Sons of Tyr company, and am wondering if I could use dipping to make the early stages of painting slightly faster and less mind-numbing. At the moment the first two stages are a spray with Tamiya's German Grey, followed by a heavy wash of black ink (Army Painter Dark Tone, analogous to GW Badab Black). Army Painter sell a dipping jar labelled 'Dark Tone' and I'm wondering if I could use this to circumvent the ink wash stage on each model by dipping each one rather than brushing on the wash - which would save a huge amount of time. All I've found so far on the 'net is that dipping gives the model a slight 'shell' not quite as thick as a varnish coat. If so, would this interfere with the rest of painting the model? Following the black wash, I still have a lot of work to do on the armour such as drybrushing, highlighting, weathering, etc. I'm wondering if having dipped the model so early in the process would interfere with adding more coats of paint after.

 

Any insights appreciated!

 

Arkhan

[Peredyne]

The AP dips will leave a glossy surface that you should flatcoat after the dip dries (takes about 2-3 days to dry solid). Other than that, you can paint over the dip as normal.

[Major_Gilbear]

I'm not sure how dipping the models is faster than slathering them with a thick wash? The thing with a dip is that you still have to shake the excess off the model, and you don't get the control that a brush gives you, so it's not such a massive time-saver if that's the stage you're at.

 

However, a couple of tips for faster wash application:

 

1) Use a bigger brush

 

2) Wet all the models by dipping them in water and setting them aside before you start. The water trapped in the detail will draw the wash in, and between wetting the models and applying the wash, most of the water will have drained off the other areas. With some practice, you can get great results.

 

If you do go down the dipping route, I'd try this:

 

- Undercoat.

- Block in base colours

- Block in first highlights, using a tone close to the base colours. HIghlights should be about 50% of the model

- Dip

- Matte seal

- Go back with final highlights and other details

- Matte seal again.

 

When you go back to highlight and detail, you can do as much or as little as you like. The thing with dips is that, like airbrushing, you can make it as obvious/lazy or as subtle/involved as you want to. Dipping is perfectly valid (whether you dunk the models or apply the stuff with a brush), but tends gets a bad rep because it is often rushed and left without much further work as a final stage. As with all painting techniques though, it has its own tricks, advantages and drawbacks, so the best thing to do is try a few figures with variations on what you're intending and see what works best for you.

[Gurth]

I'm not a fan of dipping models, but I do like the effect of painting glaze onto models — just apply the stuff with a brush all over the figure. This gives better control (you can decide not to put it on part of the model, and can make it exactly as thick or as thin as you want) and doesn't require you to hold the model while the excess glaze drains off. In addition, you don't run the risk of losing your grip on the model and having it fall into the tin

Though note that I've not used it on ones with power armour or similar, only on WWII troops so far, so i can't really say if it works well on space marines.

And as another tip: you can easily make a glaze in any colour you want by going to a hardware or paint store and buying a tin of clear, water-based varnish and mixing in either pigment (probably available in tubes of the primary colours and some others in paint stores) or acrylic model paint (test that first by taking a bit of varnish from the tin and mixing in some paint, to make sure nothing unexpected happens). This will cost about half what a tin of Army Painter glaze sets you back, and can give you exactly the colour you need.

[BrotherCaptainArkhan]

Gents, thank you very much for the feedback. I have abandoned the idea of using dip and will simply be taking the time to wash the minis traditionally - by hand - instead. I'm particularly interested in the ideas of making my own glaze and wetting models before using a wash on them - I will definitely try both out when I have the time and a model or two spare to practice on.

 

Thanks for the helpful comments.

 

Arkhan

[Red Fury]

You could use ink to dip with and avoid the shinny thick hard coat that the Army Painter and other urethanes will create.  

 

Didi's magic ink comes in a nice big bottle for a low price.  http://www.thewarstore.com/didismagicink.html  2oz vs the standard .5oz bottles.  In my experience with didi's, the black is too dark and the brown is too light.  I usually mix the two on my pallet before applying to get better results.  I imagine you could combine the two into a third dipping container at the mix you find gives you the right amount of brown/black.

 

Also for making your own washes, I saw this some time ago: