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| The Tools Of The Trade |
Oh, yeah, I blog about painting sometimes, don't I?
My
proxy Hobgoblin Archers are slowly taking shape. The first ten with
musician are now finished bar a varnish, and the second ten with unit
leader is next on
the painting table. All is progressing as normal, albeit very slowly -
I'm spending a lot more of my time reading RPG books right now,
especially with purchases from the closing down sale at the Dragon & George .
The
Hobgoblins haven't been painted exactly the same this time around.
After the routine base coat, I decided not to paint on Quickshade in the
manner of an
ink or wash as I usually do. Instead, I would to finally try the art
of "dipping".
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| One for the 90s kids. |
"Dipping"
was how the idea of Quickshade first came about, essentially.
Basically, the figure is painted in neat block colours and then the base
is clamped
with a pair of pliers that fully submerges it in a pot of fluid. Originally a wood stain in the manner of Ronseal was the preferred
choice - as shown on this internet guide from way back in 2006. Quickshade came along a few years later, a stain made for the dedicated purpose of
dipping figures.
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| Pictures from Army Painter's downloadable guide to their products. |
The
figure is given a few shakes to make sure it's an even coating with no
dark blobs of shade, then it's left to dry. Once the figure has totally
dried - which
can take several hours if not a day or two - the whole piece will have
an even browny-black shade which graduates darker when it goes deeper
into the recesses. A gloss finish is likely, but a matt varnish can
lessen this effect for those who don't like it.
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| The left is a Goblin painted with a solid brown spray; the right is the same but with Dark Tone Quickshade added afterwards. Other dips exist which are more brown than black in hue. |
Dipping
is a bit of a controversial topic for some miniatures painters.
Undeniably it allows for a large load of figures to be shaded easilly
and without too
much work - anyone desperate to finish painting a whole army to finally
play will appreciate that. For someone with as minimal skill as me,
the shading effect it produces is very smooth without any of the "dirty"
look that a bad wash can end up leaving.
However, others find it a bit soulless and automated - it's a "cheat",
almost.
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| My Hobgoblins as seen last time - barely basecoated. |
Well, I'm afraid I intend to "cheat" more often in that case!
...Actually, don't tell Sister Superior I said that, I think it may be misinterpreted.
I
did my dipping out in my garden, armed with my pliers, Dark Tone
Quickshade and a cardboard box to plop the figures on. After an
abortive first few tries where
I hadn't shaken the figures enough, the dipping process went pretty
smoothly. A single figure did make a break for it out of my pliers and,
when fished out, had sustained some damage - the top and bottom of the
shortbow had broken off, necessitating some
repair work when I got back indoors. All nine other figures went fine,
and once they had dried only needed a pinch of red and green edge
highlighting to seal the deal for me.
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| Those same Hobgoblins, after a dip and basing with black poppy seeds. |
The
main downside I found to dipping was the mess and smell. I had
prepared my clothing accordingly, wearing scabby old trousers and
unimportant shoes, but had
not been bright enough to bust my gloves out. Inevitably in the
handling and shaking of the figures one can't help but end up with hands
splattered with Quickshade and it took quite a bit of scrubbing and
spraying to get it off - even then, the next day I
kept smelling the smelly smell of smelly varnish. Similarly the smell lingered a bit
in the room I was drying the figures in, making me long for a Man Shed
or Garage outside I could leave something like this in overnight.
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| Hobgoblins 11 through 20 await the process to repeat on them. |
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