Dip Shading Warhammer 40k Miniatures With a Wood Stain (Specifically ORKS!!!)

I've completed the first half of the Independent Characters' 2014 Hobby Challenge, and I'll put some cool ravenwing pictures up soon, but after six months of painting inside the lines, it's time to let loose with some Orks that I recently came into from a friend.

I'm very excited to get to work on da boyz, but it's intimidating to move from Deathwing to Orks, who will field at least 100 more models for the same point value!  Preferring to minimize any tedious repetition, I sought suggestions from friends and the internet on how best to build and paint this army.  Todays post explores the latter. (The basics of the process are down by all of the images, but I've included some backstory directly below as well - for those with nothing better to do.)

My top priority was to devise a quick method of painting ork flesh that would still be "high quality" in my eyes.  Secondarily, I wanted this process to be modifiable, so that I could introduce variations in shades with minimal effort.

Washes

The first recommendation made to me by a friend was to employ the method used by thoume2 in a youtube video called "Warhammer 40k Painting Tutorial - Orks with (mostly) washes."  Let me pause here and provide a spoiler for you: the process works great and (I think) it looks amazing.  Go check it out!

So at this point, I was pretty certain I wanted to emulate this process with my greenskins and I took my first 20 boyz out into the backyard for a foundation spray of Army Painter's bone color.  Next came a layer of Devlan Mud by brush, and this is where things hit a snag.

Dip Shading

Washing 140+ boyz by hand, then washing them some more, then basing them does not sound fun to me.  After one round of brushed-on brown wash, I decided this step could be replaced by a much faster but somewhat unconvincing process I'd heard of: dipping.

I first heard of the method from Matthew, on this very blog (here and here), when he was experimenting with some eldar and tyranids back in 2010.  Since then, I had heard that Army Painter released a line of dip shaders, but at the time that I was thinking about this, I was completely unwilling to put the process off for days while I waited for my dip to arrive from an online order.  Thankfully, I had also heard of people using wood stains in lieu of one made for miniatures.  As fate would have it, there is an Ace Hardware at the corner of my street, so Minwax Polyshades (Stain and Polyurethane in 1) Tudor satin wood stain was my weapon of choice.  Spoiler number two: Army Painter dips may or may not work better, but the wood stain has worked excellent for me so far!

Experimentation

This post is going to get a little bit convoluted, so please stick with me.  In the images below, I have documented three distinct methods of painting an ork.

Ork A is the "control" ork.  He was sprayed with bone and hand-washed with a layer of devlan mud before anything else was painted.

Ork B represents the process I expected to use, and would recommend for highly detailed models.  Ork B was sprayed bone and dipped in wood stain before anything else was painted.

Ork C represents the method that I'd recommend for the majority of "troop" models in a horde army.  This Ork was similarly boned and then I painted all of his clothes and gear - except i didn't shade or highlight anything - before dipping him in the wood stain.  

Below, I have a video and a few photos addressing the process of completing Orks A and B in a parallel process.  

First things first: materials.  I have 20 boyz, a box top to function as my surface area, the Minwax 2-in-1 polyshade (Tudor color), a rubber glove, some paper towels, and a box to shake excess stain into.  

As you can see below, the process is quick.  Spoiler number three: people sometimes use a drill to spin excess stain off of minis: I suspect this would be a waste of time for most people.  By simply hand-shaking, I'm avoiding the hassle of attaching minis to the drill and am probably saving a lot of time - which is the point, after all.

Once my Orks B were stained, it was time to get painting.  The following two photos offer a bit of insight into that process, and reveal that the end results of Orks A and B were very similar.  (I apologize for the learn-to-draw-an-owl two-step tutorial.)

Anyway, Ork B was pretty rad!  That said, I ended up painting over a ton of shading on the boots, gun, and other gear that the stain had already done for me.  Thus Ork C was conceived!

You may recall from a comment in the video that many people online finish their model before dipping them.  Turns out those people are smart.  My plan for Ork C was to paint anything that was going to get something more than a wash (i.e. not the skin or the bone-colored shirt, etc) before dipping it, so that the stain would do even more work for me.  Following the dip, four things would happen: washes, highlights, a matte spray of the entire mini (for protection and to eliminate the gloss created by the dip), and a quick application of 'ardcoat (a brushed-on gloss) where I still wanted things to shine.  The process went approximately as follows:

Spray with bone and begin to paint basic colors.

Add more colors, including metals.  Avoid painting any of the areas that will later receive a wash.

Dip Da Boyz.  

Next step: apply green and brown washes to the skin and shirt, respectively, forget to take individual pictures.  Done.

Unfortunately, I don't have a solo pic of Ork C complete, but I do have a group shot of all Da Boyz for comparison below!

As can be seen, there is no significant difference between the different styles once a matte finish and a bit of 'ardcoat are added to each.  The only difference comes in to amount of time saved!  With Ork C, my dip provided the shading for everything other than the skin and shirt, which took two layers of green wash and a single layer of devlan mud, respectively.  I hope to time the process soon, and will be back with an update on that!

Another point that I hope to check back about is the feasibility of using different sprays or brushed paints under the dip and green wash for different final flesh tones.  Specifically, I think a white or gray base spray will bring out different fleshtones from the bone without any real change in the process.  Other options include painting the flesh green or brown or something before the dips and washes.

Anyway, that's it for this one, hope you liked it!

Daggerburg