"The Spray Strip" Topic

In the brochure from The Army Painter, one of their tips is:

1. Apply a spray coat of primer to a piece of cardboard or wood.
2. Place your unpainted plastic figures into the wet paint, and let it dry.
3. Now spray-prime your figures, knowing you can hit them from any angle since the dried paint has "glued" them to the cardboard/wood.

Do you find this a useful tip?

* yes, I'll try it immediately
* yes, I already do this or something similar
* no

For 15's I usually use 1-2 drops of Elmers on each figure and glue about six figures to a nice craft stick for priming and painting.

28's…I prime individually… Never tried this method.

What Murph said, except I do it with three 25mm on a crafty stick.

Eric

I glue my 15mm's to old business cards (I have hundreds of them, not all mine of course)

90% of the time I glue the figures to the base they will actually be using. Then I prime and paint.

I hit my figures after based in company stand (2-4 usually) coating all sides in stages

Paint is for painting with.
Glue is for glueing with.

Never did that intentionaly but had it happen unintentionaly more than once over the years and I hate when it happens. It tends to leavee sharp paint blades on the parts that the paint stuck the mini to the surface like around the edge of a base that then have to be removed. For that reason I prefer using hemostats to hold thing or blue tack or hot glue holding the mini to a bottle cap for painting.

Hot glue fig to roof nails. Place mounted figs on a board which I have made into a peg board so figs are 1.5" apart. Spray primer at figs from all directions being sure to hit them from below. Some figs must be hit as I hold them individualy. I give them a burst as I spin the nail between fingers.

What Striker8 said.

copydex works fine for me

I've switched to brush priming models – but no, back in the day I'd just drop 'em on a board and spray them and turn the cord as I primed. Seems like an extra step and a good way to burn through primer (which is perhaps their intention ;> )

What Murphy said ('cept I'm usually doing several strips of 6mm minis on each stick).

Doug

Most figures I simply space around the big cardboard sheet I use and spray away. Others I'll attach to a yardstick with rubber cement, then spray.
I've never tried the primer as glue approach, but then it seems to me like a waste of primer.

No, I don't find it useful. Now the bases are caked with paint and cardboard that I have to clean off.

90% of the time I glue the figures to the base they will actually be using. Then I prime and paint.

Same here.

Hot glue and sticks. Saves time priming as I only have to handle the sticks and not pick up a bunch of figures at one time. Then paint them on the sticks and then clear coat them on the sticks:

link

4x 15mm figures glued to a popsicle stick with white glue.

28mm figures get based then primed.

The Army Painter's suggestion sounds like a waste of primer.

Well if they are standing up, you can get to all the side angles by rotating the tray the figure is on, and of course that includes from the top as well, and from an angle down below if you move the figure to the edge of the spray platform. So "hitting from any angle" really means spraying directly up from the bottom.

How much need is there to spray the underside with primer anyway? It's not going to suffer much wear from handling.

I also know in the past when I've tried to spray prime every possible part of the figure, I end up with it too thick in some places. Better to stop with a light coat and touch up the missed areas with some thinned same color paint.

The part about this instruction that is interesting is the idea of spray paint having enough adhesive properties that you can use it to stick figures down. I guess that would work. The cynic would point out it uses up the can of spray paint faster, which might imply a conflict of interest on the part of a company that sells spray paint and also publishes modeling tips.

I actually nowadays use artist gesso (brushed on or airbrushed) so to answer the poll, no, this wasn't a useful tip to me.

All kinds of good ideas here!

Evil Bob and I are on the same page. Great minds and all that….

Thanks,

John

I use two sided tape and mount figures to a 35mm film vial or spool . then I prime . I can hod the figure at any angle thus getting primer where i want .

If the figs are going to be based, I glue them to roof nails and prime on a 2x4 that has been drilled for the nails. The figs/nails are then transferred to a foam block for painting at my leisure. If the figs are going to be individual/skirmish, I glue them to the washers and put them on round magnets that have been glued to roof nails.

Nope. I glue them to craft sticks and pop them off when I'm done.

With Murphy. I base them, then cow glue them to a piece of cardboard.

I use double sided masking tape to line up 3 to 12 25/28mm figures on a variety of handling sticks (made from cardboard, lexan, or wood) the number varies with the length of the stick, and I try to put minis that might need weird angles of spray on the smaller handling sticks for easier spraying.

I reckon that technique is designed to make us use more spray primer. Personally, I would be wary of the cardboard/paint/plastic bond to hold my figures on while I am painting. So no, a pass from me.

As to what I actually do – I have discovered the hot glue gun. I mount my figures to sticks to paint in blocks, normally 6 figures (soft plastic figures often seem to come in sixes for some strange reason). I used to use PVA, which took a day to dry, now it takes seconds, which means I can glue them on, then take them outside and spray them.

If you like the hot glue gun you should try the hot glue pot. Much quicker and easier. Just be careful with 15mm figures that you don't accidentally stick your fingertip in the hot glue. Not that I've ever done that before…

Is that a commercial product? I shall google

I use a hot glue pot and put them on craft sticks. How many depends on how big the mini is. Or if it's a single figure, I will use poster tack and a "craft paint" type bottle as a handle.

I use super glue and an excellerant to glue them to finishing nails. I drill holes into a 2 by 4, place them in rows and then spray them.
I use the excellerant because it makes the glue brittle and allows me to use needle nose pliers to remove the models from the finishing nails after painting.

Never heard of it, but I use some Elmers and a craft stick for 15mm.