Dipping Warlord Romans

[Rogue]

Hi All:

I am finishing up my first century of Romans from Warlord Games and to be honest I have come to the conclusion that my usual techniques of painting are just too much for Warlord Games. I am more accustomed to painting up miniatures with more definition and larger models as opposed to Warlord Games. For my next century I am thinking about just painting up the base coat and dip the models since I really cant get the kind of shading and highlighting that I want. I know about dipping models, but I have never tried it. Does anyone know a good place to find a turorial on it? Likewise can someone explain their experience with dipping.

Thanks

[redben]

I tried it and found it awkward, messy and time consuming in comparison to using washes like Devlan Mud and Secret Weapon Armor wash which is pretty much all I use now. If you do decide to give it a try I'd advice brushing it on rather than actually dipping the mini. It gives you much control over how the dip goes on rather than just drowning the mini in it. For best effect I found I needed to leave it to dry overnight.

[Spinocus]

You won't have to look very hard friend, the answer you seek lies in Warseer's own mammoth dipping thread over in the M, P&T section of this forum...

http://www.warseer.com/forums/showth...hlight=dipping

Dakkadakka also sports similarly helpful threads and articles...

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum...st/452732.page

http://www.dakkadakka.com/wiki/en/Us..._Space_Marines

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

Personally I prefer the manual application of the dip with a brush over the literal 'dipping' & shaking/spinning/whipping method. Using a brush allows for far more control and is potentially less messy, less hazardous to your model and less dangerous to clothing, furniture, pets and innocent bystanders...

[Caiphas Cain]

Army Painter has stuff on their dips as well.

[Whitwort Stormbringer]

I've been using Army Painter's Quick Shade strong tone on my plastic Warlord ancient Britons and it works pretty well for quick results. They have instruction on the side of the can, but like others have already said I think brushing it on is a better method than actually dipping - much cleaner and you have better control over the amount of dip that ends up on the model. You do have to clean up your brush afterwards, but that's still less hassle than finding a place where you can be spattering dip all over the place.

As far as the Romans, I have some minis but haven't yet painted or dipped them. I would think they should work as well as any other minis, though. I've seen a pretty good dipped Roman army over on the WAB forum, where I believe the guy painted on a basecoat, then dipped, then gave a quick highlight on the metal parts and they came out really well. I'll try to track down a link.

[baphomael]

Personally, I found very little difference between using a devlan mud wash and an army painter dip*. I started painting an empire army through dipping... and found devlan mud to be fairly similar, just without the faff of waiting for the dip to dry and having to matte varnish it afterward.

*Incidently, I've heard people mention the army painter strong tone wash thingy, in the bottle, is a good replacement for devlan mud.

[Rogue]

Thanks folks for the information so far. As stated earler I was really trying to find something different to the layered painting that I normally do since that is really not working as well on these miniatures. I only use washes sparingly, mainly on metal, but for things like flesh, and clothing, does Delvan Mud (or whatever they call it now a days) really do that well of a job?

[Caiphas Cain]

Washes are a great way to get poorly painted miniatures to look average. Personally, I like having my miniatures painted to a high standard, so I don't use washes very often (other then armor). That said, if you're looking to get dozens of miniatures painted in a short time (or just don't like painting), you should give dipping or wash soaking a try.

[The Devourer]

I would reccomend heavy washing over dipping, it has a very similar effect but is less hassle since washes are easier to use and dry matte. You can also use a combinationof washes (just pick 2/3 colours) to make the models look slightly better for not much extra effort or time, this also prevents the models from getting the obvious dipped look which isn't to everyones tastes.

[Rogue]

Washes are a great way to get poorly painted miniatures to look average. Personally, I like having my miniatures painted to a high standard, so I don't use washes very often (other then armor). That said, if you're looking to get dozens of miniatures painted in a short time (or just don't like painting), you should give dipping or wash soaking a try.

Were you trying to give me something constructive or bloviating about how well you paint your miniatures? I can't figure out which.

[Rogue]

I would reccomend heavy washing over dipping, it has a very similar effect but is less hassle since washes are easier to use and dry matte. You can also use a combinationof washes (just pick 2/3 colours) to make the models look slightly better for not much extra effort or time, this also prevents the models from getting the obvious dipped look which isn't to everyones tastes.

Well that seems to be the consensus so far. Thank you for your help on this. I will try to do more washing on my next century and see what I get from that.

[Caiphas Cain]

Were you trying to give me something constructive or bloviating about how well you paint your miniatures? I can't figure out which.

I was indeed trying to be helpful. If quantity is prefered over quality, dipping is the way to go. I don't like how it looks, so I don't do it.

[Whitwort Stormbringer]

Here is that plog on the WAB forum I was talking about. The same user also did a pretty good-sized Celt army using Warlord minis (linked in the first post of the Roman plog) and it's pretty much entirely dipped, so those should give you a feel for the results when done well.

[Rogue]

That is a great PLOG Whitwort. Thank you for pointing that out.