Figure painting tip

[pickelhaube]

Although I am not into figures they are a major part of the hobby.

There has been several times when somebody has posted questions on painting them. In this month's Fine Scale Modeler the question was brought up on how to paint them. Some paints never set up or get gooey.

They said paint them first with Future Floor Wax. The same stuff that you put down before you use decals. You can spray it on or dip the figure in it I suppose. They said let it set for a couple of days. This should solve a lot of head aches I suppose. You can eather use acrylic or enamels if you do it this way.

Of course try a sample before you commit.

[Jesse James]

Future is actually an acrylic itself, not really a "wax". So it's a little misleading, and is a modeling dream product... I've read in FSM that it even can be airbrushed direct from the bottle, making it really just a sick product to use.

What you're effectively doing is to coat the figure prior to painting/work. I hear Future takes a punishment too, and flexes decently, so it works well on PVC/polyvinyl type plastics, which is what most action figures these days are made almost entirely of.

Star Wars figures used to have a lot of styrene type plastics used in their construction but that's dwindled over the years. Some of their torsos, usually ball/socket ones, are done this way yet, but if you were to look at a figure like the RPG Indiana Jones figure which I just took one apart about 5 minutes ago, it's almost completely (except for the pins at the ball/socket joints) made of PVC.

That's the plastic that gets soft in boiling water.

I wouldn't dip the figure in "Future". While thin on its own, that still would end up with pooling I'm afraid. I'd try spraying it on with your airbrush, or painting it on in light coats if you wanted to try that. Myself though, I loathe oil-based paints in general so I avoid them for acrylics, which avoids the need to use this in the first place. It's great as a top-coat though, and I've read you can even mix it with Tamiya Acrylic's X-21 Flat Coat to make it dry dead flat. I think I read that in FSM this month. Essentially making a good, cheap, and airbrushable flat top coat... That's super durable....

Not a bad deal.

[Fritzkrieg]

I've found that Krylon for plastics (Ultra flat), makes a great base coat for most figures. I've used it on Bravo Team and Indy figures with great results. The only time I have trouble, with the super rubbery plastice, like the bottom uf the XD german Tunics, too soft and the paint never fully dries. I use Krylon's Desert Tan as the base coat for all of my SS camo paint aps. It stains well with acrylic washes, so you can work with the color to get it where you need it. It has a good strong bond and holds up great on articulated joints. I wish they offered more color options in the ultra flat. Walmart carries Black, Sand, Olive, and brown. I use to be able to find ultra flat white, in the craft shops, but they do not carry it any longer.