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Yay I can start painting and dipping minis this weekend. I made a trip to my local Lowes and picked up some 5/16" All thread, a couple of different sized washers, some nuts, some cheap white primer, and a can of Minwax Polyshade (Pecan I believe). At one end of the all-thread I will place a bolt, place the appropriate sized base washer on it then end the pole with another nut. This will give me an appropriate sized area to clamp the base onto. I will then insert the opposite end into the handy, dandy drill and will dip and spin till I pass out from the fumes. Hopefully pictures will be coming soon. I was pretty excited to get the ball rolling on my dipping accessories and workstation.

I'm going to dip Nids. I'm going to base them white, armor plates will be dark grey, eyes will be red, but I haven't decided on the areas that look ribbed (like on the Gaunts guns/arms). The Pecan Polyshade looked fairly dark so I'm thinking that the Grey will be nearly black and the white will get stained pretty dark as well. If I am wrong in the assumption I will find out after the test model.

Other test colors will include an Ultramarine Blue armor, grey stripes, and yellow eyes. Vermin brown armor, Snakebite leather spots, and Red eyes.

Hope to have pics this weekend to show you how everything went.

barlio

YAY! Have fun! We will await your test pictures

I've always wanted to know how this process would work... I can't wait to see the results!

will be watching this one as im debating doing this to mine

Could you please post WIP pics? I'd like to see how this bolt in a drill rig looks as I have an old drill sitting around here somewhere and I'm very interested in dipping my minis.

Do yourself a huge favor and go back to Lowes, and exchange your Polyshade for Minwax water based American Walnut stain:
http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=80519-24-21803&lpage=none
Heck, I use this stuff to dip, I keep a paint pot filled with it at my desk to brush on small areas, and I have taken to spraying it on large models with an airbrush. Love it, love it, love it!!!

If you insist on using toxic, smelly, slow-drying, hard to wash off your hands, sure to ruin clothes or any surface it touches Polyshade, Pecan sounds too light. The darker the better, or you just don’t get the strong shading you really want.

I haven’t liked staining a white basecoat. I’ve tried it and it looks dirty and unfinished. It’s really hard to flick (or spin) off a consistent amount of stain to get a uniform look. Any other light colors work great. Dipping dark colors makes for a very dark look, with the shading muted. You can experiment with base colors, and see how they turn out when dipped. Even after you remove the excess stain, they first look darker than they will look after they dry. You cannot judge until the stain dries completely. If you use water based stain, as I strongly recommend, the figs dry in 20 mins. to an hour, depending on how deep the creases and crevices are. If you use Polyshade, they take at least 24 hours to dry.

Have fun, it’s hip to Dip!

Ok I will probably start tomorrow and will post pics tomorrow night. I'm going to heed Gobbla's advice and try the water-based Wood Stain. It's appears to be twice as much (price per Fluid ounce), but the quicker dry time and water-based nature are more appealing to me.

I've also considered the paint scheme. I think I'm going to use a primer closer to bleached bone. Armor plates and scales will be a fairly dark grey. Hopefully this will produce a fairly light color for the "skin" and a dark, almost smoky appearance on the armor plates.

I've ran into an issue with the size of the nuts (hurr, hurr). I had orginally purchased a nut that was near 1/4" thick. I didn't think about the thickness. Ideally I will find a nut near 1/16"-1/8" thick. The washer I purchased fits inside the inner diameter of a standard round base. I will use a Binder Clip to hold the mini to the washer. I purchased 5/16" all thread because it seemed to be sturdy enough when the spinning force of a drill is applied. It is also small enough to fit into the drill chuck.

The only other issue I expect to run into is the dipping of larger models (namely a winged hive tyrant and Carnies). I'm thinking the best solution will be to pour the stain from one can over the mini into another can or liquid holding device, but as always I would appreciate any other advice. I would have done them in pieces, but I recieved assembled and I'm dealing with it the best I can.

Again pics will be posted tomorrow. I am considering starting a blog on my Tyranid experience as this has been one of the more interesting armies I've ever tried to build and with the demanding time frame I will be experiencing in a couple of months. I have had a great time really concentrating on 40k this summer.

When I dip, I just take a pair of need nose pliers, lock them in on the rim of the base, and dip away. Simple is usually the way to do things. Then when you done, just lightly shake the mini until you think youve taken enough wax off. Its much easier and less complicater then using a drill and all that crazyness you bought.
Good luck tho! We are going to be dipping my wives nids here in about a month, so Im curious how yours turn out.

Show us the WIP!! Coz my friend wants to try dipping as well.

I await the outcome!!

Goodluck!!

Ok I started dipping this weekend and it turned into a *facepalm* event.

I'm going to go ahead and take sometime to get my ducks in a row. I will start a thread the weekend of the 4th and will have a complete breakdown with WIP and final pics. I'm sorry for the letdown, but I need to do it right. I will pm those who wanted pics when the thread is ready.

A friend of mine recently emailed me a really good tutorial on dipping. However I'm currently blocked out of my email (thanks to the great firewall of China). I will post a link as soon as I get back in, if you need it that is.

I appreciate it any help I can get. Thanks Lukus

Multiple tutorials are always a good thing, someone elses technique might have that little bit of inspiration that can help someone else perfect their own.

I tried dippin briefly many moons ago with waterbased stain. Ended up watering it down and using it as an ink/wash lol. 12$ for a pint and Im still not half way through it 6 years later. It does stink though.

Gobbla wrote:Do yourself a huge favor and go back to Lowes, and exchange your Polyshade for Minwax water based American Walnut stain:
http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=80519-24-21803&lpage=none
Heck, I use this stuff to dip, I keep a paint pot filled with it at my desk to brush on small areas, and I have taken to spraying it on large models with an airbrush. Love it, love it, love it!!!

If you insist on using toxic, smelly, slow-drying, hard to wash off your hands, sure to ruin clothes or any surface it touches Polyshade, Pecan sounds too light. The darker the better, or you just don’t get the strong shading you really want.

I haven’t liked staining a white basecoat. I’ve tried it and it looks dirty and unfinished. It’s really hard to flick (or spin) off a consistent amount of stain to get a uniform look. Any other light colors work great. Dipping dark colors makes for a very dark look, with the shading muted. You can experiment with base colors, and see how they turn out when dipped. Even after you remove the excess stain, they first look darker than they will look after they dry. You cannot judge until the stain dries completely. If you use water based stain, as I strongly recommend, the figs dry in 20 mins. to an hour, depending on how deep the creases and crevices are. If you use Polyshade, they take at least 24 hours to dry.

Have fun, it’s hip to Dip!

Good to know. I'm thinking about dipping my orks and am gonna check out the the Minwax as you suggets.

Couple of questions:

1. What is the finish like (shiny?) Can you dull coat the models afterwords?

2. Do you have any pics of your models you have used the Minwax on?

ok here it is

http://www.librarium-online.com/painting/a-quick-guide-to-dipping-your-minis-885.html

CT GAMER wrote:1. What is the finish like (shiny?) Can you dull coat the models afterwords?

2. Do you have any pics of your models you have used the Minwax on?

1) Yes and yes.

2) I can get some later tonight and upload tomorrow.


<<<This space saved for pics>>>



Ghidorah