"Sticky Caesar Figures" Topic

When i first opened am pack of ceasar figures, i thought they were the most amazing little plastic men i had ever seen. Since then we haven't gotten along. Painted them the first time, they got so gummy and sticky, because the material they were made out of apparently doesn't like enamel paint. Tried base coating them with normal black paint. Didn't work. Tried Krylon Fusion and they're still sticky. What do i need to make the paint on these figures dry!!!!!

Most likely they're still covered with mold release compound. The traditional way to solve this is to take the raw plastic figures and scrub them in hot soap and water before allowing them to dry overnight.

Another method, which works with most, is to put them in the dishwasher while they're still on the sprue. Most plastics are strong enough to handle this, but you might want to do a test sprue just to make sure they don't melt.

-A.

Vinyl based plastics -- vinyl, polyvinyl, PVC, and so forth -- react chemically with enamel based paint. They will become tacky, and will STAY tacky pretty much forever, until they accumulate enough lint to be mistaken for swamp monsters.

Use acrylic paint instead.

You can try removing the paint and starting over, but anything that will remove the enamel paint will probably also ruin the minis – not that they aren't ruined already.

As Doc Bedlam says, enamel paint and vinyls don't mix. You need to use acrylics. And, as Aurelian says, make sure the minis are clean before priming or painting.

I had the same problem with a few sets , i washed mine appropriately and i used acrylics , they remain tacky several years later .
this only happenend with the WW2 Germans and Partisans sets , i have painted many of the Ancient Egytpians and Urban Terrorists and they have taken the paint very well and not tacky to touch .
A freind of mine had the "tacky " problem with the Ancient Romans as well .
Perhaps its a batch problem ?
I keep all my figures away from sunlight and dust to avoid the problem getting worse . Tom

Happened to me when I painted their Egyptians. I took a cheap brush an recoated them with black water based paint. It solved the problem.

Try to remove paint by soaking your figures in Fantastic type cleaner, then take an old tooth brush and try to scrape the paint off. Try it on one figure first to make sure your figure doesn't melt.

People still use enamel paint on vinyl plastic miniatures? Classic.