"Plaster?" Topic

I was at the wargames' show today & bought a pile of terrain items made in "dental plaster".

Do I need any special painting methods?

Paint them with regular model paints, even poster paints work okay. Prime them first, plaster soaks up a lot of paint.
Mike Bunkermeister Creek

Agree with priming first otherwise you will be repainting after the plaster soaks it up.

I agree. Plaster soaks up paint. I used to have some micro scale buildings that were called stonecast. They were very nice, plenty of detail. They were even fairly rugged. But they did need priming if one was not to use rather more paint than one might wish. And might I also recommend craft paints?

While plaster does soak up paint, you can use this to acheive layering effects to show aging or black soot from a fire. Take one of the items and play around with the bottom to see how it might work for you. If it does not work, then prime the plaster and paint like it was made of resin.

If you seal the plaster first with Testors Dullcoat it will form a barrier and the soak in effect will noT be an issue.

Use craft paint – it's made for that (the name CeramCoat should be a clue). And use the appropriate primer.

Thanks very much for the tips.

This looks involved, but is pretty easy to do:

Use a 50:50 mix of white glue and water as your 'primer' (you can use less glue if you want the surface less sticky.)

This seals the surface when it dries (and also bonds with your first coat of paint), and the plaster absorbs the water and keeps it from immediately sucking the water from the paint. It also wets down any plaster dust.

Brush it on, then follow up with your base coat (this can also be watered down some, but not too thin. Actually, if you are adding washes and drybrushing after, you could use a 4 water:1 paint mixture.) Best to base coat before the surface of the plaster dries out.

After the surface of the base coat dries (i.e. no puddles or wet spots), you can give it a wash of watered down paint to bring out deeper detail. After your wash has seeped in, you can then drybrush with straight paint* (this can be done after the plaster dries, but it's better while damp.) * A gloss finish paint adds extra protection to wearable surfaces, and sheds washes when dry.

Paint in other details, glue on any designs (it's best to paint them on paper & cut them out. Trying to do corrections to something painted direct to plaster can get frustrating, quick. ;-) The plaster can be dry at this point, as the previously painted surface slows down water being absorbed.

After everything is painted/glued/assembled, let it dry, then apply a wash of water/gloss varnish to the surface to protect your paint job from normal scuffing & to lock the paint job down.

I've painted thousands of plaster pieces for my 3-D DOOM and Space Hulk sets using this method (I wouldn't have, if it didn't work. ;-) Creative drybrushing is what will make the detail 'pop'…

I *thought* a coat of white glue might be a useful step. OK: I'll follow your expert advice with thanks.

You can actually thin down the white glue quite a bit if you need to (especially for large pieces that will suck up a lot of water.) I usually go on the thin side (3w to 5w:1 glue), but you may want to experiment to find a mix that you like. An 8oz bottle of white glue can go a long way… ;-)