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OK, so I think I might have seen a video or read about this whole "Dipping" thing a while ago, but I'm not sure I completely understand why anyone would do that to fairly expensive models. Could anyone explain the process as well as the thought process for this method of "painting" Tyranids?

Thanks

SG

Dipping 'Nids is when the engorged Rippers have filled themselves to bursting and willingly jump into digestion pools to be...digested ...and the raw materials slurped up into the Hive ships.

Just kidding. "Dipping" is really fast and easy way to "wash" you model.
With Nids being a horde style army it can be tremendously tedious to "properly" paint so many models. Especially the gribblies like Rippers and Gaunts that aren't supposed to spend much time on the board anyway.
Regardless of how "expensive" the models are $$$-wise, points-wise they do not always justify the amount of effort needed to paint them the traditional way

You just base coat your mini, usually just 2 colors: 1 for the main body parts and another color for the Chitin/armour. once dry, you dip them to shade the recessed areas.
Bam! model done

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People do it because it's a very low effort way to both shade and varnish your models to get them on the table. You can probably spray and dip a whole army in an hour. They look "good enough" depending on what colours you used and if you did it properly

Dipping as a painting tool is very old and was the easy way to paint a lot of models prior washes were a thing

It was mainly used for Tyranids as you needed a lot of Gaunts and they still looked good with just 1-2 different colours (a reason why this never worked with imperial guard soldiers)

So a white primer, some sparkles or details in bright colours and a cheap wood glaze (until Army Painter came up with a dedicated one for miniatures, which was their first product) applied by either dipping the minis in and let it flow off or with a brush just like the newer washes.

the result varied a lot and it was still hard work to make it look good (after dipping overflow needed to be removed with a brush or the right position for drying of the model needed to be fixed, primary colours were important as not everything looks good with brown glaze etc)
But it was the fancy new stuff to paint models fast before washes were a thing

example pictures (not mine)
https://i.warosu.org/data/tg/img/0501/11/1478333479274.jpg
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-D0NRw1ermtg/UkFOzDyPF7I/AAAAAAAAFyI/aJ8HIFo1_8c/s1600/20130920_124908.jpg

Some guy back in 2008 looked at his shelf of unpainted minis and said to himself "aint nobody got time for that". And the dipping method was born.

It's alternate paining method for glazing/washing. It is particularly effective on muscle tones, which makes it suitable for models like orks, nids, kroots, daemons, etc.

One tip is to dip them and hang them upside down so it doesnt pool towards lower crevices.

 skchsan wrote:
One tip is to dip them and hang them upside down so it doesnt pool towards lower crevices.

The downside to this is that it pools towards that top of the model instead.
Personally, I'd try to rotate the models as they dry to avoid any significant pooling.

What I do when I wash a model is to slowly rotate them on their side for a moment or so, then put them down and move to the next model.
After repeating this with the second model, I go back to the first and inspect it for pools. If there are any, I use a brush to remove the excess.

I then give the model another rotate back and forth before putting it back down.
Then I wash the 3rd model, inspect the second model, and repeat

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