Dip Chop method? patent pending. JK.

[FormelyKnownAsSmashyPants]

Hi all, like I’m sure a lot of people are aware of, there’s a method of painting making the rounds on YouTube at the moment called Slap Chop where you undercoat your mini black and then dry brush up to white. The process basically works by creating predefined shadows and highlights to which you then apply clear colours like Contrast paints, Army Painter Speed Paint, or ink. It’s actually a really old technique, centuries in fact having begun in the fine arts on canvas, but still nothing new amongst miniature painters. The term Slap Chop was coined buy a delightful YouTuber who goes by the moniker Rob the Honest Wargemer but a lot of YouTubers including Duncan Rhodes have picked up on the craze. Anyway while watching Duncan’s video where he also discussed the Dipping method, which also is not new and involves using a wood stain or Army Painter’s very own dip product to kind of produce shadows, I came up with the idea of creating shadows and mid notes by using Army Painter Strong Tone or Dark Tone Dip over a white undercoat, to which I can apply a Matt coat followed by Contrast paint to add colour and then edge highlighting. I do realise Army Painter Dip can take up to 48 hours to fully cure, but that isn’t really an issue for me. You may wonder why I’d do this intead of painting black and dry brushing up is that unless you apply drybrushing consistently, you can end up very differing results with the finished product, and the dip will always end up providing consistent shading, provided done right. and consistency is important for me from model to model and squad to squad across an army. Can anyone find fault in the theory behind my reasoning? I don’t get a lot of hobbying done and I feel this method would help me get hobby done after years of living through others on forums and YouTube. Just to see what people think, would you use Strong Tone or Dark Tone Dip?

 

Edit:An added bonus to the combination of methods I’ve described is that dip provides an extremely durable virtually indusctrutable coating so would mean that metal minis could be painted and played with without any worry of paint chipping off.

Edited November 23, 2022 by Captain Smashy Pants

[Halandaar]

I am absolutely no paint expert so my opinion may well be bad/wrong, but it feels like starting off with what is essentially a brown wash will leave all the colours looking pretty dull? I mean slapchop having pure white at the extremes means the contrast-type paints will be very bold over those areas. Brown dip over white, even if it's there to settle into recesses, will still have stained the extremes to some extent which feels like it would dull down the colours applier over it.

 

 

[LameBeard]

I am certainly no great painter but I have often painted models by starting with white primer and then a black wash - maybe just thinned down chaos black or equivalent. I find it gives me some shadows but also helps me actually see the lines that I’m going to be filling in at the next stage of adding colours.

 

I don’t think dipping compared with “big brush that hits everything with a wash” is likely to be a massive time-saver, and like @Halandaar suggests, it is doing the shading but not highlighting.

 

Anyway, I definitely think this is worth trying. Please go paint something and come back and share the results!

[Inquisitor Eisenhorn]

This is a really interesting straightforward idea, I am going to try it with some dark washes since I don't use Army Painter shades specifically.  I like the potential for variation of effect depending on what you use to shade the model. 

[jaxom]

Found this on the Army Painter site:

Seems like Strong Tone would work pretty well, keep the higher areas more light whereas Dark Tone really seems visible everywhere.

Edited November 24, 2022 by Firedrake Cordova
Fixed broken image :)