G'Day All

I'm in the process of finishing painting my Axis units, needless to say Pea Dot camouflage has taken a long time , and ive added extra WW2 German webbing equipment , ive even mixed up the camouflage schemes for a true late War appearance , ( the Flames of War forum has been a great help here ) . I've stayed away from gorrillas and zombies , so my opponents have the jump on me already in terms of which troops they feild that i cant counter .

Anyway , we have a huge game coming up , 3 x platoons a side and ive agreed to throw my hat in to paint up several of my Allied units for them to use , they have to be done quickly so i want to use the "Army Painter " dip , mid tone .

Question .

Has anyone else tried this ? my aim is to only block paint the basics and leave the uniform in its green undercoat , then brush on the dip and hope for the best result , then texture and flock the baes to match my Axis chaps

Your thoughts on using the dip as a quick way of painting ?

cheers Tom

Testudo Maximus said:

I've zero experience with dipping, but couldn't resist hi lighting something you said, as your allied opponents will, quite literally, have the jump on you!

I use the Army painter Inks (they are designed to match the Dip, but are acrylic and easy to use). I use the soft tone on my Allies (turns the Olive a tad brown, but looks really good). I use the Dark shade for my Axis, it's a black shade that is not as forgiving on the flesh as the soft tone. I just splotch on the colors I want, Ink wash, then do some detail and or Highlighting. I works great for me.

-Ray

I've never tried the Army Painter dip, although I've heard it's just fancily-packaged wood stain or something like that.

I do use the Army Painter inks, though. In their recent paint range relaunch, Games Workshop, for some crazy reason, decided to replace Devlan Mud with some other brownish ink (or "shade" I think they now call it) which isn't Devlan Mud. The closet alternative is Army Painter Strong Tone ink, which also isn't Devlan Mud, but it's so incredibly close.

I don't use the Army Painter stuff, but I use Satin Tudor Polyshade by MinWax. It's about a 5th the price and will do the same thing. This is what everyone was using before Army Painter came up with their own version of it. I think they are virtually identical.

The dip method works great. Dust was my first painting project, so preprimed + preassembled + dip method meant super easy way to get into the hobby.

Now that I've fiddled with more advanced methods, I don't think I'll dip nearly as much anymore, but it still can get you good results quickly (well, I should say with less work - with the dip method you'll need to leave it a couple days to dry before spraying on dullcote or other similar matte varnish.)

But yes, the dip can work well.

Shadow4ce said:

You are absolutely correct , the games weve enjoyed so far ive had all sorts of enemy troops jumping around the place , i know i'm playing at a disadvantage but the zombies and gorillas havent grabbed my attention as yet .

I will pick some up eventually when i see some second hand , they just havent been on my priority list , i should also point out here in Australia we're paying a little more than everyone else around the world , so when it comes to buying a unit , the choice between a rifle section and a unit of three gorillas i'd prefer not to use is easy to make .

thanks for your thoughts , cheersTom

Thanks for the replies guys

I'm not familiar with Army Painter Inks , didnt know they existed , but i'll be sure to look for them .

The only reason i'd like to use the Army painter Dip over any other product is because someone gave me a tin to try out , ive always been a brush painter so this experiment is totally new to me despite painting figures for over 20 years …….

Allot of people mention the Minwax product as a dip but it isnt available here in Australia as a product , so i dont know what the closest equivalent would be over here .

i'm going to try and get pictures of the game on the 30th so we'll see then how the dip came out for me

cheers Tom

By the way, even though I use the "dip" method, I don't actually really dip my minis, but I brush on the dip. It's less messy and you have more control over the results.

Testudo Maximus said:

I hope you realize I wasn't at you. I was at your highly appropriate word choice, "jump."

I purchased my army in pretty much the same order and agree with the choices you've made. Your phrasing just tickled my sense of humor. I often play without my kampfaffen & toten dudes. I find I still do okay, I just have to protect my juicy melee targets with something which makes my opponent think twice about swooping in with his hammers.

No worries Mate , its all good , i know what you meant .

I'm having a little trouble convincing some of my historical gaming mates to even try this game using thier WW2 figures as sub ins , making them armour 2 isnt an issue , but when they saw gorillas and zombies in the Axis list they got a little perterbed

I must admit they are not my cup of tea either but i will get some eventually , but due to the price of unit boxes the regular infantry have been the best "buys" so far and will get me more games.

When i do play my regular DUST opponent , i know ill sorely need those figures to match his Allied list

Cheers Mate , Tom

I am a big fan of dipping. I use the actual dip and flick method, it's just quicker. I have used the "splash"(paint on) method as well. That does give you more control. I dipped my Allies in Strong Tone and the Axis in Dark Tone. For characters I'm using the Army Painter washes. Here are a few examples.

Those look really good.

I've used Army Painter dip on Dust minis and I think it works really well… I suspect it's not that different from the regular floor varnish, but this little tin is probably going to last me an awfully long time… I'd definately paint it on with a worthless brush rather than dipping, and make sure to go back after a minute or so and get the excess off or it'll leave blobs. The dark tone really brings the colour down, so you'll need to take that into account if you're going for, say, dessert khaki unis… Definitely try a sample model first before you paint all your figs…

I happen to really like the glossy finish--I think it reminds me of the little plastic army men I had as a kid… But if you're not into that, you'll need to use some kind of matte varnish after… I haven't really liked the Army Painter matte spray--it seems to really flatten out the colours, but I was just using too much… These days, I use a brush on matte varnish and just go over the clothing and other soft textures. Leaving the gloss on weapons and armour looks pretty good!

I have found that if you are planning to keep the underlying plastic colour as part of your paint scheme, then painting your base helps distinguish the figure… I also like painting the lowest edge of the base black to bring out the mini on terrain…

I've had to repaint a couple units after I decided to change my colour scheme… Just painted over portions of the mini and re-dipped… Didn't really notice much loss of detail--I mean, this was just a quick paint job in the firstplace… I do think stripping off the varnish would be a major pain though…

Shadow4ce said:

Thanks!

calvinc71 said:

What kind of matte varnish do you use? I've tried brush-on dullcote but it still left things really glossy (unlike the spray-on stuff, which *really* mattes things up.)

I tried the GW Purity Seal recently and am really liking the results - pretty matte stuff, but not as matte as the Army Painter stuff or the dullcote, so the metalics don't get too greyed down. But something brush on that actually works would be great for when I want more control.

For a paint on matt varnish I use Liquitex Matt Varnish. It's an artists varnish found in art supply stores. Good stuff.

Feldwebel_Francis said:

yup, me too… been using their floaid and retarder too…

Thanks - I'll check it out.

So I picked up a bottle of the Liquitex Matte Varnish. Do you guys who use it thin it at all? I've read a couple forums where people thin it with water first, but then the bottle specifically says not to thin it with water. Just wondering if you have any advice for technique.