Trying out 'The Dip'

Bit of a long one this, make yourself a brew!

Over the last week or so I have been experimenting with 'The Dip' or, to give it it's proper name, The Army Painter Quick Shade. I have been using 'Dark Tone' simply because I like the look of contrast it gives. Plus, the miniatures I am using it for, in the main, will be in blocks (as units) on a wargames table and therefore viewed from a few feet away. I think the Dark Tone seems better suited for this type of presentation personally.

I cannot say what the Soft or Strong Tone versions are like as I have not used them - cash is limited - but if I sell some stuff on Flea Bay I may invest in these in the future - my next purchase from The Army Painter range will be the Plate Mail primer spray, looks pretty interesting, but as ever I digress.

OK, the stuff arrived the post from Firestorm Games (http://www.firestormgames.co.uk) in Cardiff (great service, ordered online on Thursday evening, arrived Saturday morning, can't grumble with the dispatch time there). Being an eager soul I hunted about for something to test it on, I found an old GW plastic Empire miniature in a drawer (see Figure 1). It was painted already and had some highlighting on it, eagerness got the better of me so I quickly over painted the areas to get a flat base colour, let it dry then whacked it in the dip and that was that.

In my eagerness I had not properly read the instructions, I only shook the dip off over the can - I did not give it a good shake off as recommended. Plus the fact that I'd overpainted quickly meant the surface was not brilliant which did not make the finish after the dip as good as it could of been. That being said, it did look OK, once I blasted a bit of Dull Coat on it. I'd stick him in as a rank and file troop and not be ashamed (see Figure 2).

I'd tried it out, was pleased with the test and looked about for something to take a bit more time over.

I found an old Marauder Dwarf, unpainted. Washed it in Fairy Liquid to get the accumulated dirt and drawer grime off and primed it white (even though it had 80% plate/chainmail armour on. I figured it would make it easier to not have to overpaint in white the areas I wanted to put colour on, it the beard, and axe handle.

The result was a lot better, looked a bit garish prior to dipping (Figure 3), but once dipped, left to dry out properly the mat sprayed, I think he looks very acceptable (Figure 4). From a time 'under the brush' point of view (i.e. excluding drying times - as doing 10 at a time allows for drying - between coats) I think that he took about 20 minuets to paint ready for dipping! That is quite a significant reduction in time over a whole unit. OK, once dipped you should wait 48 hours or so before matt spraying so you could argue it took two days to do him, but even so it's the 'under the brush' time that really counts.

I found more Dwarves in the drawer, the  7 (no intended reference to a certain Disney Animated Classic) I did took about and hour and a half (excluding the primer drying - I always allow 24 hours drying after using a spay primer, despite what it may say on the tin) to get them painted up ready for dipping. Considering the huge time saving that this stuff allows for, I should have a whole army done in a month - that's if the Boss does not put her foot down and get me to do 'stuff'!!

So, my conclusions on The Army Painter Quick Shade. I think it is an amazing product. OK, an educated guess is that its a combination of some form of clear varnish, turps (as a thinning/flow agent) and a pigment, not dissimilar to what I used to use on Armour (AFV's) - basically thinned down coloured (usually Oak) wood varnish. What makes this better than an improvised DIY version is the constancy of the finish it gives and the uniformity of flow over the miniature. It does not "gloop up" nor is it thick when dry - in fact it seems to have the same 'thickness" when dry as that of a standard wash. You don't get that 'rounded corners' look that you get with self pigmented or thinned down wood varnish, the edges on hard corners stay hard edged and the miniature does not look like it's covered in a smooth hard 'jelly'. From just that point alone it's great. But there are other things I think are worth mentioning in support of this product.

The first thing is that it's an 'off the shelf' product which means that those who are 'less experimental' can get hold of a decent shading wash with no hassle. I personally have tried all sorts of self invented painting aides over the years, some with good(ish) results others, well pass me the paint stripper! The fact that it is off the shelf makes it accessible to all and this is, for me, why I think the hobby in general is much improved by the introduction of this system. I'll explain:

There are many people who want to play table top wargames but feel inhibited when they stand their army up against someone who is quite skilled in the art of miniature painting. Not that this SHOULD matter in the slightest, but you know it's true, especially when you are just starting out. My time working at Games Workshop proved this every Thursday evening and Saturday, the kids would come in and splatter their miniatures on the games table and there would always be one or two who would leave theirs in their bag upon seeing the paint jobs done by others who'd have more experience or were just more skilled.

People who may have got a lot out of the hobby may have not continued with it just on the basis of not being skilled enough to do a 'good' highlighting and shading job on a figure. Dunking even a basic base coated miniature in Quick Shade really makes a difference and I am sure that a lot of people who may not have considered their painting skills to be fantastic, or even those of us who can do a good traditional paint job will see great results with this product. Which, in my view, is a good thing.

From my experiments with Quick Shade there are a few of things you need to keep in mind. You will be coating the miniature in a 'darkening' tone over it's entirety, therefore use slightly brighter colours than you think you want on your finished figure, for example, I used Citadel Lightning Blue (see Figure 6) for some bits on my Dwarf's (which I intend to use in conjunction with my Empire Army of Middenheim) which is a lot lighter blue than I wanted it to end up. Once dipped, the blue went darker overall (see Figure 7). Common sense I guess, but you may want to do a few test paintings before you commit whole units to a particular colour scheme.

Make sure you get an even primer coat over which you paint a good solid flat base coat in whatever colour you choose. Uneven colour depth will be accentuated when dipped. Don't get hung up on shading with the paints - I find this quite hard not to do and start shading with paint - let the Quick Shade do the shading for you, that's the point!

A miniature in flat painted base coats does look a bit odd (see Figure 6), especially if you have painted it in colours a couple of shades lighter than you want it to look when its finished - this feels so alien to me after decades (yes decades) of traditional painting methods. Keep it neat, goes without saying really. The Quick Shade will 'hide' a wobbly edge where a brown belt meets a yellow tunic, but it wont hide a yellow splodge on a belt that's supposed to be brown.

When you dip the miniature, make sure you give it a good shake afterwards - I do this outside - and really swing it. Whatever you are gripping the miniature with, make sure you have a tight grip as you don't want it flying off and smashing into the garden wall while you do this. If you leave too much of the dip on, then it could pool (as in Figure 1, above) so giving it a really good windmill arms shake spreads it evenly over the figure and gets rid of excess dip.

It says on the tin, let it dry for 48 hours before using a Matt varnish (like Dull Coat) on it. DO leave it for 48 hours, if you apply a matt coat too early then it WILL frost and look awful.

Well, that's my thoughts on The Army Painter Quick Shade noted. Personally speaking, if there was an award for most significant contribution to the miniature painting hobby then the guy/s (Bo Penstoft or Jonas Faering) that invented this stuff need it awarding as it's up there with MIG pigments. I think this system will really open up the hobby to more people and it makes painting (large) armies less time consuming. Top stuff, you can get info here http://www.thearmypainter.com.

The next new (to me) product on test will be Plate Mail primer and I am experimenting with stripping plastic miniatures at the moment too - had a couple of melt downs already!