Okay, that sounds weird, but yeah, show me your dipped minis!

I want to do a simple yet effective job to my Descent and Doom minis and I'm probably follow the "dip" road for most of them, looks too good to be true, after seeing so many pictures, it really looks like it works.

If you have "dipped" you Descent (or Doom) minis, please post pictures.

Only Dipped ones, I have seen plenty of pro paint job already, I'm only interested in seeing dipped minis and only Descent or Doom minis.

Thanks guys!

I have some non-dipped minis (GW's Lord of the Rings series)and have been wanting to paint/dip my Doom/Descent ones for a while now, so when I do I'll post them up

-shnar

Check out my pictures on Boardgamegeek . All of my Descent minis are dipped.

Click on the image to go to BGG to see a higher resolution image. Also, the comments have links to the expansion minis.

(except that BGG is down now )

-shnar

Woa, weird, BoardGameGeek just displays "It works!", but GeekDo.com is still working fine. I wonder what's up...

-shnar

What is dipping? How is it done?

Dipping is a speed-painting technique that's very easy for beginners to do. You paint one color (usually brighter than normal) on the major areas (no shading, no highlighting). You then "dip" the figure in a bottle of wood-stain, usually a brown or black color depending on the model. Shake the excess free and let it sit for 28 hours and you're done. The stain flows into the recesses of the figure and effectively does a shade and highlight in one swoop. You can paint a *lot* of minis very fast that way, and considering the time it took, they look pretty good.

Here's an article on how to dip, but using Space Hulk marines:

www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/441415/how-to-paint-a-terminator-in-15-minutes-

The initial article doesn't paint the figure (leaves the model read and just paints non-red stuff). I don't recommend doing that, but the principal is the same. Look at page 9 to see some good results:

Very simple paint job (you can even be somewhat sloppy, not "staying in the lines" as the dip hides mistakes), *very* fast to complete.

-shnar

I'm very interested in how Edroz managed to paint his minis' bases like they were tiles... Are they stickers or painted? How do u even reach between the figure's legs??

Wanderer999 said:

They're painted. The space between a mini's legs might seem small, but when you're painting with a brush that is at most a millimeter or two wide, it's not that hard.

I've been painting minis for a long time and I am only just now hearing of this! Man, would have been nice to know before I started painting my Descent minis. I'd be done by now! And I have staining stuff in the garage!

I *love* the dipping technique. It's such a great way to paint a large number of figs. As long as you don't need showroom or "hero" quality, then it's the best way to go (especially if you have a bunch of minis to paint like in Descent).

-shnar

I just put a undercoat on mine (well beastmen sorcerors and skeletons) I am about to start painting soon, I am going to dip all of me boardgame mini's (non-warhammer ones) I will try and put them on here.

Quick question though, would the satin cover the eyes, should I just paint them like normal or is there a special treatment for them?

How does yellow work for dipping, I havent seen much of it, does it turn ugly or just go to a dirty kind of look? (I wouldnt mind that too much, thinking of doing that for the robes of the sorcerors)

Finally, does it obscure drybrushing? Does drybrushing still work good?

You can always paint over the dip and then seal that portion. In fact, many people like to seal the dipped figure with a matte seal so there's no shine (the dip will protect very well as is but usually is glossy). You don't really need to drybrush if you're dipping, paint brighter than usual colors and the shading effect of the dip will make it appear drybrushed as well.

Experiment with a few and let us know how it goes

-shnar

I think the dipping technique will work well with the red master monsters. All the white ones I based coated black and painted as normal. But I was wondering how I can paint the reds and still know they are master monsters (that matters in the game you know, cha-ching!). But after hearing of the dipping technique and seeing the pictures above my problems are solved!

Ninjaman65 said:

Personally I intend to paint the red monsters' bases red and the white monsters' bases white. =P

I have to admit the dip method shows very interesting results, but I've had bad experiences with washes in the past. I look at the how-tos on dipping and say "The painting they do before the dipping is 90% of the painting I do anyway!" I've never been much for highlights and shadows on my minis, except in some rare cases.

I guess I'm getting too old and stubborn to change my painting ways now. =P

Steve-O said:

Same, the painting involved in dipping is almost the same amount as what I do, I dont even ussually use washes, I only highlight really textured areas (beard), and I will probably do that anyway on a dipped figure to make the highlights stand out more.

Does a dark brown turn nearly black when dipped? or does it just become a slightly darker brown? I am talking about scorched brown form the citadel paints, I want a nice dark color for the boots of the skeletons.

I always do base color then wash then drybrush, so dipping dramatically speeds things up for me (removes wash and drybrush, and the base color can be a lot more sloppy than usual, the stain almost always covers the mistakes).

The key to dipping is remembering the final color will be a bit darker than the original. Look at the red of the Terminator above and how much darker it is after dipped. Browns don't turn black, but they do turn dark brown. Also, sometimes you have to decide if you want to dip in brown stain or black stain. I did a set of Uruk-hais in black stain and it looked *fantastic*, but then tried a woodelf in black and looked very ugly.

-shnar

I just figured out I cant paint bones for my life! Hopefully dipping covers up as much as I am hearing it does!

Well with dipping, just paint the bones white and dip! You're done!

-shnar

I'll have my Master Skeletons dipped tomorrow, the other skeletons are getting close to done, but I am going to see how dark the masters turn out.

I'll try to post some pictures sometime after, if I can find my camera.

Okay, I finally got around to dipping some of my Descent minis last night. I didn't have any wood stain like I thought I did. I had some Old English Scratch Cover. I did two dips, one on a master sorcerer and Grey Ker.

The Socerer was done from scratch. I gave him a few colors here and there (my first dip, so I didn't do too much work) and submerged him in the dip with some pliers and shook him off outside. This was last night and I took the picture this morning.

Next is Grey Ker. I had already painted him entirely and was waiting to give him a black wash when all my minis were done but I thought what the heck why not.

I like the outcome of using the dip method, but I think I will like it better with the real wood stain stuff. Also, I think I am going to stick to painting the entire mini and do the dip method instead of washing. I was taking my black paint and watering it down and splashing it on with a brush. I don't really like it and I am runing out of black paint! So the dip method will come in handy with my normal painting routine. I have several other Descent minis painted, but at the request of the original post I'll just show the ones I have dipped.

The paints I use (Reaper paint) doesn't seem to stick well to the plastic, I normally have to prime them first. Do the Citadel paints work any better on plastic or do they require a base coat as well?

Ninjaman65 said:

In my personal experience the Citadel paints are no better. This was with Doom minis, mind you, but they're made of the same plastic. However, Vallejo paints do seem to be covering these minis better since I switched to buying those. At least the black and the white, since I usually undercoat one of those two colours, the rest of the paint I use doesn't actually touch the plastic itself.

These are also the first bottles of each colour I've bought, though. I know the consistency of the paint can vary from bottle to bottle (at least it does with Citadel) so maybe these two are just lucky. All the other Vallejo bottles I've bought seem to have a similar consistency though.

I first started out painting the metal type figures from Reaper minis (that’s the only brand my comic shop carries) and I would base coat them by brushing on white paint. It was bad. Then I starting finding tutorials online and very quickly learned to spray the base coat on. I use Game Workshop base coats, I have white and black. That made painting the rest of the mini so much easier.

Only since I got Descent have I been dealing with plastic minis. I first started with the red master dragon and without any base coat I gave him a wash of watered down black (before I learned of dipping) then dry brushed some red back on top. I then tried painting some of the heroes but for some reason I decided not to base coat them and I quickly noticed that the paint doesn't stick well. I had to put on several coats to get a good even color. I eventually started base coating all the Descent minis to make painting easier, except for the red master monsters as seen in my previous post.

So with all that being said that is why I wondered if Citadel paints are better.

Since a lot of people paint Warhammer minis with the dip method (which means they use no base coat), I figured maybe Citadel paints stick to plastic easier. I also ask because I may have to switch to Citadel paints anyway. My comic shop carries VERY limited Reaper paints with almost no color variety. There is a Hobby Town USA nearby that has a butt load of Citadel paints to choose from. I guess since its focus is on hobby stuff and not comics that is why they have way more to choose from.

Actually I have alwaez thought that u were supposed to PUT primer on the minis, then dip. From wat u said, u seem to have implied that if u intend to use the dip method, u shouldn't apply primers?

P.S: Ur sorceror was farny~ U gave him a beard

shnar said:

That's what I got from this. Don't most of those Space Marines come red out of the box? I don't know, I've never bought any myself. Anyways, seeing as how he mentioned not painting the whole thing, that's why I brought up the question of which paints work well on non-primed plastic minis.

I gave the sorcerer a beard because he has one. It's in all the art work provided with the game.