My Ogre Kingdom Army Dipped

Hi y'all!

I wanted to start this Gnoblog to share the progress of my OK army as well as put up some pictures of how dipped Ogres would look.  My intention while starting this army, is to have the ENTIRE army dipped. 

What i use for dips is the Army Painter Strong Tone  , with the brush-on application.  I don't believe in yanking and wasting all those excess dip and it would make a terrible mess of anywhere that I do it, since i don't have my own pad at the moment. 

As for paints, i use a variety mainly GWs and Vallejo.  Tallarn Flesh is my best friend for flesh tones.  I also use Tallarn Flesh as a base to work upwards to other tones.  Next best friend is Dheneb stone.  It gives a very soft off-white unlike skull white which is waaaaay too striking for my taste.  With the release of the new paints, i stocked up on both of these.  Not sure what are the replacements for these...
 
I embarked on this project about 4 months back and have now a pretty good progress. 

For starters, i'll share some pictures of my completed stuff.  Note that with the exception of my Slaughtermaster, these are ALL DIPPED. I must admit the pictures suck with an iPhone camera and  I am gonna order a new photo-tent soon.  With my Dad having all kinds of funky cameras at home, i think it'll be a waste if i didn't at least attempt to take pictures of my army with a more decent set-up. 

First Model i painted up - Butcher Post Dip 


Second Model - Slaughtermaster - 

Slaughtermaster Completed


I realise that i didn't dip my SM as i used Dheneb stone for both his pants and apron.  I was concerned that it could make the mini look too dirty.  But as it turns out, it looks fine.

Having dipped more than 20 minis so far, i wanted to share some tips and mistakes i made which made the mini turn out much worse than it could be.

• Mix your dip well.  Typically, the dip would consist of the solvent and the coloring.  Over time, the solvent floats upwards and the coloring settles at the bottom.  Its a good idea to mix it up a fair bit, turn the tin upside down a few times to make sure its mixed well. 
• If you find that your dip does not run, its probably too thick.  When i first used my Army Painters, i found that it took a minimum 12 hours to dry, with a mini-fan blowing constantly at it.  The dip flowed smoothly and was easy to apply on using a brush.  Most of the excess would run downwards and gather at the feet of the mini.  Over time, some of the solvent probably evaporated and curing time reduced significantly, to an extent that when i am doing my Ironguts, i dipped them in the morning and they were ready for matt-coat in the afternoon!  At first i thought that was perfect but upon closer inspection, i found the problem.  It produced ugly patches of brown, particularly at places where it stops flowing at the midway of the mini.
• Read the instructions on your dip can.  Ok, i realised my dip was too  thick.  So i wanted to thin it down and googled for an answer.  I could not get a satisfactory answer after 2 days of on & off searching.  So, i decided to try turpentine and to prevent spoiling the entire can, i poured out about 1/4 of the can into another glass jar and mixed in turpentine and it worked.  I managed to get it back to the original consistency. Hooray!  For all you googlebots out there, TURPENTINE THINS DOWN ARMY PAINTER DIPS. Anyway, the instructions on the can also says turpentine works...
• Turpentine also works for cleaning out your brushes you use to apply dip
• Next problem came after a week.  My new 1/4 can of newly thinned down dip became a jello.   I was pretty sure the jar was air-tight but if it wasn't, i must have inhaled a shit load of solvent vapour.  So i had to throw that away and get even smarter when i want to use it next time by diluting just a smaaaaall amount of what i need
• Dips are like paints.  They will get uneven if you paint it on unevenly.  Make sure you get a good coverage the first time round, paint it over and don't keep going over the spots you already covered.  The dip dries pretty fast and if you go over it again whilst its drying, you might move the dip that is NOT DRY, leaving the dried edges.  That will make your finishing look bad and if you attempt to repair it, more uneven coats will result, adding up to a total disaster.  Best advice, don't go over it.  Once is enough. 
• worse thing to do is to disturb the drying process.  Even i find it tempting to touch the mini while waiting for the dip to cure.  Result - finger print on the sword. If you really want to find out if the dip has completely cured, touch the base where the excess has flowed to. 
• Start the matt-coate only when the dip is COMPLETELY CURED.  When the mini/base is sticky to touch, it means that it is not completely cured.  Mine typically take between 8 to 12 hours but i usually leave them over-night at minimum.  If you apply matt-coate while its not dried, it will result in white polka-dot like patches and it looks VERY bad. 
• After the dip dries, your mini will look terribly bad and dirty, depending on the amount of dip you dish out.  To me, this is normal.  After i put on my Matt-coate, it actually looks much better and you will be glad to have chosen to dip your models
• Do your dipping in a well ventilated area.  I swear it gave me a 2-day stinging headache after getting lazy and letting it cure in my bedroom overnight
• feel free to drybrush over certain areas after dipping if you so wish and if you think the dip ended up too dark. It isn't really that different to drybrushing over a GW wash - Courtesy of Justinr

Ok, this is it for now.  I'll share more tips as i find them.  Everyday is a learning experience.

Thanks for the advice - I have dipped a few things in the past (I wanted to paint an entire tyranid army very quickly) and found it a great way to get stuff down well quickly.

Another bit of advice to add to yours, if I may - feel free to drybrush over certain areas after dipping if you so wish and if you think the dip ended up too dark. It isn't really that different to drybrushing over a GW wash.

Thanks for the advice - I have dipped a few things in the past (I wanted to paint an entire tyranid army very quickly) and found it a great way to get stuff down well quickly.

Another bit of advice to add to yours, if I may - feel free to drybrush over certain areas after dipping if you so wish and if you think the dip ended up too dark. It isn't really that different to drybrushing over a GW wash.

Nice!!

My photocube which i ordered from Ebay just came in the mail yesterday.  Pretty pictures are en-route! no more iPhone quality stuff. 

For your reference, this is the link of the buy I got from ebay.  Taking into account free-shipping, this is probably the most economical deal. 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/180896820674?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1497.l2649

I really like the colors you used on the gnoblars.  They look really good dipped.  I have only had minor successes with dipping so congrats on your consistency!