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What is a dipped army? Does anyone have any pics of one?

Dipping is a method of adding shading to your models by literally dipping them into a pot of wash or something similar. It is used to add shading to troops and get them to a tabletop level very quickly.

Army Painter quick shade and Vallejo large wash are the two I can think of off the top of my head. A quick google should get you ample images and youtube videos of the process and results.

It's just dipping your models into wash. I used to do it in my early days, (or just brush wash on.) I don't really like the look any more though. My painting style has evolved more into drybrushing, and now I have solid painting. Why take the time to paint a thick coat over the entire area, wait for it to dry and then appy wash, when you could just do a few quick drybrush strokes and get near the same effect.

http://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/Dipping_Tyranids

there is more tutroials on dakkadakka. this is one ive seen a couple of times. It works wonders for a practice squad of orks... Keep in mind the color of finish you use, I got a reddish one and it looks like my weapons are rusted, oh well. It took me 20 min to paint five models using this method and 51 min to paint normally with little detail. Also depending on what your army color is white gets distorted the worst out of all of them.

Good luck and try it!

This stuff, if used correctly (as with anything really), can be a HUGE help. I have a small Eldar army I'm going to paint very fast after I finish my GK. You can get some very good results with it, that's for sure. I don't know which method is better though, actually dipping or brushing it on. I've heard good things about brushing it on (more control and far less mess), and the results SEEM to be the same, but I haven't tried it yet.

 Rysgame wrote:
Does anyone have any pics of one?

Yup !
My orks are dipped.

Few examples, hope this helps :

When dipping, do you paint the model complete then dip, or basecoat then dip then paint in details? Just wondering as i find the basecoat and wash part very boring and anything to speed up the process is welcome.

Those orks are great!

 leroy233 wrote:
When dipping, do you paint the model complete then dip, or basecoat then dip then paint in details? Just wondering as i find the basecoat and wash part very boring and anything to speed up the process is welcome.

I thought it was paint, dip, and touch up.

Personally, I paint the miniature entirely (for troops that's only basecoats, for elites and HQs I add some highlights) and then dip it into the wood stain.

Next step is using a salad spinner to remove the excess of stain.
As said by other posters above me, Wood stain/Quick shade can also be applied using a brush, it works as well as dipping. But it's far less fast, makes the technic less interesting from my point of view. Still usefull for big or fragile models, though.


Another exemple, on this page all my zombies were dipped too : http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/240/406869.page


Edit : thank you Aes Sedai !

I Dipped then noticed giant clumps of the stain in lots of the crevesase and decided to brush it on... never thought of a salad spinner lol. I brush and whipe with a rag to get a much more controlled version. I also spray on a matte finish afterwards to reduce the gloss, my orks looked like they played in the oil pits or something.

Minus, those look fabulous! I'm very impressed with how those turned out. So you just basecoated your average troop (no highlights whatsoever?) and then applied the dip? Even without highlights, those look amazing. I'm thinking even a light drybrush could help, so that could be something to try in the future. I mean dipping is all about time saving, so adding an extra step doesn't seem required, especially when they turn out that good.

 anticitizen013 wrote:
Minus, those look fabulous! I'm very impressed with how those turned out.

Thank you.

 anticitizen013 wrote:
So you just basecoated your average troop (no highlights whatsoever?) and then applied the dip?

Yup.
On my ork troops (lootas, 'ardboyz, stormboyz..) it's only a base coat on each area. No washes, no highlights. Only the rust requires a bit work (but I use a pretty quick method), and of course some colors need several layers to cover the black undercoat.
On characters, meganobz and so on, I highlight most areas before dipping.

On my zombies, it's even faster than the orks, I use pre-shading (zenithal white spray on black undercoat) followed by diluted basecoat on each area. This already creates shades and highlights. Then dip, varnish and add blood. This is DAMN efficient and fast.

In every case, the bases are painted after the dip.

Perfect, thanks for the tips. I just got back from the hardware store and bought all the stuff I'm going to need to build my board. Much cheaper than I thought. Now I just need to wait for some stuff to come in the mail and I will start a blog about it.

But as for dipping, I will apply your techniques to my Eldar army with some slight modifications. I'm probably going to do a very light drybrush on the models just for a little bit of added highlights. Thanks again, they look great.

Some more examples. Here are my Salamanders.

The squad in back in after dip, the squad in front is before dip



more pics
1st pic squad before dip, 2nd pic squad after dip