Dip (ink plus gloss varnish) recipes

[Jagannath]

Hi all,

For 15mm I've recently got into using army painter strongtone dip over a two stage paint scheme (base plus highlight with black lining between parts). It's giving me great results and I LOVE the inbuilt 'varnish' effect. I hate brushing on gloss plus I'm convinced it's tougher.

Now I'd like to try and progress this method by making up a few other colours (a green and a blue for starters) and brushing it on to specific parts.

What recipes does everyone have (I'm uk based so need to be able to source stuff here)?

Just to be clear, I don't mean simple wash recipes - it need to be 'dip' style, with an inclusive 'varnish'.

Appreciate it,

R

[robh]

You can mix enamel based gloss varnish (any household polyurethane that cleans with white spirit) with matt humbrol enamels. Quantities vary depending on how much colour depth you want but 8:1 or 10:1 will give you good results with most colours. This will work like the dip and colour everything it touches to some degree.

Doing the same with water based varnishes and paints/inks does not work as well.

If you brush on rather than dip you can also mix enamel gloss varnish with acrylic paint, this does not discolour the base as the pigment is floating in the varnish rather than incorporated into it and settles to the recesses. Has to be brushed though as you need to limit the thickness of the application and keep stirring the mix otherwise the tint goes grainy. Is a technique that needs practice.

[Jagannath]

Thanks - for that first recipe, is it fairly self leveling? Seems to me that Quickshade works well particularly as it's quite self leveling and settles well.

Appreciate it.

R

[Major_Gilbear]

I know in the US, Minwax Polyshades is a very popular for dipping. I also know that whilst the wood colours (i.e., browns and golds) are the most common, they also do lots and lots of other colours too (including reds, blues, greens, purples, etc).

I'd be surprised if Ronseal or such didn't do an equivalent in the UK. 

[Jagannath]

Ah great, thanks for that - I hadn't realised they did other colours. Perhaps that's easiest.

Am I right in thinking that Future floor stuff (I know it'd discontinued but it's available on eBay) would be a good clear base to add colour too... people use that don't they?

R

[Major_Gilbear]

Am I right in thinking that Future floor stuff (I know it'd discontinued but it's available on eBay) would be a good clear base to add colour too... people use that don't they?

Yes, but that's more for making a sort of lacquer-wash rather than a dip.

If you want my advice... I'd get some acrylic mediums (Glaze and Matte), some clean water, and some fine paints and inks, and make your own wash/dip. Les Bursley's recipe here is popular, but by varying the ratios of ingredients you can get different behaviours/effects.

Afterwards, you just gloss varnish the models (for protection), and then matte/satin finish after that (for aesthetics).

[robh]

Thanks - for that first recipe, is it fairly self leveling? Seems to me that Quickshade works well particularly as it's quite self leveling and settles well.

Yes, it works exactly the same as the ArmyPainter type dips.  This method was developed amongst the old 20mm plastic figure gamers (Airfix et al) decades ago as it dries really tough and would shade well even on the light detail of the soft plastics.

[Jagannath]

Yes, it works exactly the same as the ArmyPainter type dips.  This method was developed amongst the old 20mm plastic figure gamers (Airfix et al) decades ago as it dries really tough and would shade well even on the light detail of the soft plastics.

Perfect - I have a bottle of Vallejo PU gloss, so I'll grab some humbrol enamel after work and give it a go. I'm working on a lot of vaccsuit type troops at the moment (Corporate Wars... in Spaaaaaaaaace) so this will help me achieve the lurid vaccsuits I want, whilst also being lazy! Nice one.


R

[robh]

Found an old picture of some WW2 20mm plastics I did with the varnish/enamel mix. These are dip (although brush applied as it wastes less) over a single colour base then matt varnished.

[Jagannath]

Wow, that's really effective. Can't wait to try it out. Appreciate your help on this good sir.

R

[freewargamesrules]

I've always used Les Wash Recipes (got it off the Internet years ago - the site is no longer around)

WASH RECIPE:

You will need:

* Distilled Water
* Liquitex Matte Medium
* Liquitex Flow Aid
* 1oz (30ml) bottle
* Daler Rowney Acrylic Artist inks (Water Proof)
*2 filler bottles
* Recipe notebook so you can write down custom mixes

All recipes use 1 oz bottles. Adjust to whatever size you decide to go with.

Preparation:

*Fill 1 filler bottle with Matte Medium, the other with a 10:1 Distilled Water and Flow Aid.
*Fill the 30ml Dropper Bottle half way with Matte Medium then fill the rest of the way with the Water/Flow Aid mix leaving a little room for the ink drops so you dont over flow.
Every bottle uses this combination to start with.
*Shake inks well before adding them to the mix.


Tailoring Washes to your liking:

-DARKEN-LIGHTEN: add or subtract drops from the recipe
-THICKEN WASH: Change the 1:1 medium and water mix to have more matte medium than water i.e. 60% medium 40% water
-THIN WASH: Opposite of above, more water than medium in mix.

Experimenting with MIXES and Custom Colours:
This took time and money to get things right in the recipe. The best advice I can give you is "write it down". Have a little notebook just for mixes. Write the medium/water ratios and drops of ink (each colour if it's a combo). The number of colours you can come up with are limitless.

Colours:

My mixes will give you a starting point and you can customize to your liking from there.

Soft Body Black: 20 drops Black

Heavy Body Black: 60 drops Black

Parchment: 40 Drops Flesh Tint

Flesh Wash: 40 Drops Burnt Umber

Dark Sepia: 40 Drops Sepia

Blue: 40 Drops Rowney Blue

Green: 40 Drops Dark Green

Purple: 40 Drops Purple Lake

[obsidian3d]

This is a really interesting sounding thread. As much as I like the idea of varnishing my figures, I've found the quickshades to actually take longer. This is due to my particular circumstances I think though, as I have no place to dip and shake...thus I have to brush it on. The added curing time (over night) plus the requirement for matt varnish after just takes all the 'quick' out of it.

The protection afforded your paint job through the process is something I won't deny however!

[Philhelm]

The protection afforded your paint job through the process is something I won't deny however!

My wife took a dipped (Army Painter) plastic miniature with an integral base and jammed it onto our Christmas tree through the legs.  Not a scratch.

Other than the curing time, etc., that has been mentioned, what is the general opinion of Army Painter dip when compared to other methods?  I have found that it give a good effect through intelligent planning of base colors (a few shades lighter).

[obsidian3d]

The pigment in the two AP shades I have (soft and strong tone) is quite substantial, so yes you'll need to select your paint colours carefully. I would recommend going with a brighter paint colour than you think you need, because it will darken down a lot. I wasn't able to find a dark tone shade locally and ended up with a Mixwax Tudor black, which has a lot less pigment in it, and I actually prefer.

[robh]

I agree, the AP mix is very intensely coloured, Minwax or Blackfriars are less so and they can be diluted with clear gloss varnish to reduce the intensity even more.

I use coloured varnishes but always brush on. I found with the dip (apart from the amount of waste) that I spent longer per figure dabbing away the pools on the hem of clothing and under arms etc that it would take me to brush on anyway.