"Do you bake your figures?" Topic

I seem to recall reading in GHQ literature to bake your figures after painting them to seal the paint job and help it stick better. I've never tried it – have you?

I use to bake the enamal primer on my figures years ago. I would let them cool for a day and than finish painting them. You have to be careful and run some test figures through first as some of the metals have a low melting point.

When I bake. Its edible!

As for baking figures….crikey there are already so many obsessive, ridiculous and quite unnecessary steps people go too already.

I've been painting and collecting for five decades and I have yet to see, ONE of the dire consequences people predict will happen if you dont do this and you dont do that.

I have NEVER washed "mold release" off my metal figures, either.

I have also read the early "experts" tell us to soak them in vinegar to "etch" the figures before priming. Then to prime with Floquil primer (a plastic sealant, and THEN to undercoat.
However, it seems that "lead rot" is caused by lead acetate and acetic acid fumes…
In fact, the few figures I have from the 70s that have load rot underwent exactly the prophylactic steps mentioned above.

Don't believe everything you read about painting.

Considering the wide variety of alloys used in the Earlies, I would hesitate to experiment with baking, lest I stumble vacross a low melting point one.

I did it once, wiht enamels, and it does harden the paint on.

Not sure it is worth the smell though, and one of the minis, of a set, had the paint change in color, from green to blue.

I haven't done it since.

I always wash my minis to get rid of any residual mold release.

This is a new one on me. After three decades I figured I'd heard most everything.

Wow.

Eric

From what I recall it was meant for enamel paints without primers and was supposed to help "bond" the paint to the metal. I tried it once more years ago than I care to think about with some C-in-C British Chieftains that I had painted with Humbrol enamels. Military miniatures painted with a nice matte dark green went into the oven and what came out were little tanks in very shiny British Racing Green. Couldn't scratch that paint though!

Yes – but thats for figures made from sculpy (polymer modelling clay that needs baking)

eg :

Baking metal figures though ? never heard of it. Something about melting points would make me nervous of that.

+1 what Mal said.

I like the advice that says rest your models for 72 hours after priming. Lol… I rest them for about 20 minutes and I have never had an issue.

If I have used inks or washes s the final touch I let them dry overnight. Sometimes the enamel spray can cause the ink to run. Other than that I think baking with newer acrylic paints would kill them. It's like the cooking shows on TV, one ingredient to many.

No, but I've been baked a time or two…

Think most of the figures would end up looking like 'The Blob' if I did this, esp the 2mm ones!

Never needed to wash metal unless I have stripped it – I do wash resin ones though as I have had undercoat go splotchy on an early piece.

Likewise, never heard of this one. I'd avoid trying it with plastics……

Sounds like another of those half-arsed "this seems like it might work" borox ideas.

An anecdote.

There used to be more of it about. Back in the 70s the letters page of Airfix magazine used to be full of similar stuff (presumably from blokes who still lived with their mothers**). I remember one such genius idea well.

Someone wrote in with their method of obtaining a, IIRC, feathered 'spray' finish on German tanks – rotbrun, olivgrun, dunkelgelb, that sort of stuff. Their method was DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME!!! take an Airfix tank, paint it dunkelgelb enamel, splodge on the other colours, and before it was dry, immerse for a few seconds in a pan of boiling water. This produced 'quite a realistic effect'

Picture the scene…

The young Connard Sage, an Airfix Tiger tank, tins of Humbrol enamel, a saucepan full of boiling water. You can guess the rest…

**to be fair, so did I…but I was only about 15 years old.

I've never heard of this and would not try. I'm already dangerous enough without heat and flame added.

I don't bother to wash metal figures either, though I do wash resin and plastic.

I don't wash figures to remove mould release, I do it to remove finger grease and filing particles from handling them. Enough residue comes off to make it clear that it is worth it for me.

Soaking figures in vinegar – for older, high lead content figures – seemed to improve the acceptance of the primer I used to use but newer primers don't seem to need it.

I'm not saying that either of these were ever sticktly necessary but they did/do seem to improve things for me.

"I have NEVER washed "mold release" off my metal figures, either."

Nor do I. On several occasions, I've received figures, had them cleaned and based, primed and completely painted and sealed in the same day because I don't go through the extra time consuming steps. I want them. I paid for them. I want them on the table and I don't want them shiny. That is all there is to it.

No. Never heard of this idea before. I have never done such a thing in over 30 years of figure painting so I see no need to do so now.

As for baking… the only thing like that I remember from 40 years ago were suggestions in the model mags, that before spraying on Dullcoat, if you heated the model in the oven the Dullcoat would be less likely to turn white. This was probably a method to reduce the effects of humidity.

As for washing lead figures, I for one have found that spray primers especially white Krylon go on much more evenly if I soak the figures in viniger overnight. Otherwise the primer beads up.

I used a dryer to dry oil paints, which was a box with a small light bulb in it. I would leave the figures I was working on in the box with the light on overnight, and that would dry the oil paint. I still use a lamp to help dry the figures I'm working on and before dullcoating. Can't remember ever baking figures in the oven . . . .

When I became aware of paint-it-yourself military miniatures in the 50's it was, as the OFM mentioned, with Flo-quil paints. They reccommended/require baking to set a permanent finish. I still have my Dr Ralph Bussler creations in 54mm, though from a later purchase done with Hellenic Colors.

I have always done this and have for years. 20 minutes at 200 degrees F. I never have paint wear off of a miniature no matter how much it's handled. The only problem I ever had was with Humbrol matt clear, which turns yellow.

No

I tried it once long ago. Everybody's right about it being a dangerous bit of science.

Never dabbled in alchemy, have 31 year old figures and never had lead rot (knocking on desk), probably would cry as if losing an old friend

Heard of this decades ago…

Never tried it.

I do not.

A search on "bake" on message board posts will bring back a lot of hits.

I believe from the couple people here I've seen post about it, that it's used to fully cure a layer of paint, often the primer. You put the figures in at the lowest oven setting, 175 degrees, 180 degrees, (in a toaster oven if available, on a cookie sheet is handy etc) and leave them in about 20 mintues.

Just thinking out loud, even hard plastic figures are put in boiling water to bend them, which is hotter than that. So it's probably safe for all figures.

Though I've melted plastics by putting them under a halogen lamp to cure green stuff, so you'd want to be careful.

The only paint baking I've heard of is for cars. I'm told the only reason that's done is to cut down the curing time. I recall a friend from many years ago who put his newly finished Airfix Typhoon infront of the gas fire to help it dry; it morphed into an interestingly painted blob.

I bake mine to dry them faster. And with turpentine washes it doesn't seem to removed the basecoat as easily when they are baked.

I bake figures I have coated with MinWax/The Dip. If I let them air-dry, they take 2-5 days to fully cure; if I bake them at 175 F, for 20 minutes, they are ready to dull coat, and/or game with. I prop the oven door open, to vent the fumes, open a window, and start the exhaust fan above the stove.

I've done this with plastic figures (Army Men, mostly, but also Hat, Italeri, etc.), as well as Model Metal figures cast in Prince August molds (melting point of 600 F?). Never had an issue with it. Makes finishing figures much faster. Cheers!