Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Hi all,

Anyway, I intend to be dipping some dark eldar soon and I'm looking for advice on the colour scheme.

I've settled for white armour dipped in a soft tone (inspired by the white armoured Mantic elves The Army Painter dipped) with red cloth. But as this is the first time I've ever dipped models I need some advice;

- When doing the skin tone, will soft tone provide enough definition to forgo giving the skin a wash before hand?

- Similar to the last one, would you suggest washing in the recesses of miniatures to add more definition? I was thinking the deep groves on the DE raider and the flooring of them.

- Should I do weathering before or after dipping?

- Once dipped, should I go straight over with a matt varnish or should I use a gloss then a matt to prevent the matt frosting up?

Any other advice you'd like to share is appreciated...

Thanks for taking the time to read.

this dude is your friend in all things dip related.
http://www.youtube.com/user/BootlegPainting

Thanks, but the video didn't answer many questions (only the last one). It did, on the other hand, give me some confidence concerning dipping.

From what I gather from the video I should just go for it and see what happens...

I've settled for white armour dipped in a soft tone (inspired by the white armoured Mantic elves The Army Painter dipped) with red cloth. But as this is the first time I've ever dipped models I need some advice;

Be aware that the dip will darken all the white a bit.

- When doing the skin tone, will soft tone provide enough definition to forgo giving the skin a wash before hand?

It should do, as long as there is some detail in the skin to start with. Dip works by pooling in the creases.

- Similar to the last one, would you suggest washing in the recesses of miniatures to add more definition? I was thinking the deep groves on the DE raider and the flooring of them.

Not needed, IMO. It depends on how well defined you want the armour grooves. If you want very well defined metal armour grooves, you could run a very fine Gundam pen along them.

- Should I do weathering before or after dipping?

I would do all the weathering before the dip. Part of the purpose of the dip is to act as a varnish.

- Once dipped, should I go straight over with a matt varnish or should I use a gloss then a matt to prevent the matt frosting up?

I do softshade dip then spray matt varnish on my Tyranids. You have to let the quickshade dry 100% before spraying on top.

You need to be aware that dip is not a way of getting Golden Daemon standard models. It is for getting tabletop standard models done quickly and easily. It works really well for that, but you have to be a bit forgiving of imperfections.

My advice is to blob the dip on with a brush and sop off the excess with another brush. Go back a couple of times when sopping off, and pay particular attention to the bottom-most parts of the model.

You can paint on the dip two or three times in local areas to get more definition. Let the first coat dry, then put a bit more on places where you want some more shading.

wizard12 wrote:Hi all,

Anyway, I intend to be dipping some dark eldar soon and I'm looking for advice on the colour scheme.

I've settled for white armour dipped in a soft tone (inspired by the white armoured Mantic elves The Army Painter dipped) with red cloth. But as this is the first time I've ever dipped models I need some advice;

- When doing the skin tone, will soft tone provide enough definition to forgo giving the skin a wash before hand?

Well, if it is not dark enough you can always add to it after the fact, remember when it comes to weathering you can always add to, but not take away....

wizard12 wrote:
- Similar to the last one, would you suggest washing in the recesses of miniatures to add more definition? I was thinking the deep groves on the DE raider and the flooring of them.

- Should I do weathering before or after dipping?

- Once dipped, should I go straight over with a matt varnish or should I use a gloss then a matt to prevent the matt frosting up?

Any other advice you'd like to share is appreciated...

I would just keep your first colors simple and clean, then make changes after the dip. As far as the matte finish goes, I use testors laquer dull coat and I have never in 10+ years of using it had anything "frost" if your clear coat is frosting you have 1 of 2 problems, cheap product, improper application, the testors dull coat is the easy stuff to use and it's cheap!!

Here is a link to a quick dip that I did as a test, it shows the before, after and final product. In the last picture all I did to make the highlights was take my original colors that I had used and hit the high points on the models, that was it,took me about 15-20min painting time to do this model.

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/339745.page

Ashton