"Flexible plastic infantry - not a success?" Topic

I guess not.

They don't generally hold paint well. I had a lot of them as a kid and kind of look at them as kid's toys. Cool for that, I guess.

Yep, they were great for getting started with WWII collecting/gaming, but a pity they don't hold paint well.

are the new releases in flexible plastic? How do you tell appart from the box?

Depends on which formulation of flexible plastic you're talking about.

Army Men plastic doesn't take paint well.

Dragon Styrene is softer than the usual plastic model styrene, but it is harder than Army Men and takes paint as well as plastic model kits.

It might be a little more difficult to get paint to adhere to the polyethylene figures, but I remember Tom Wham (this was quite a few years ago) showing how tough Liquitex Matte Medium was as a final finish after painting Airfix figures. There are means available to make the soft plastic figures quite durable.

Used to be a problem until some TMPers talked about priming before and sealing after painting. Not one problem since, and they have have taken some abuse as I often play with children.

That is an old gamers tale no longer true.

One word: PlastiDip. It is that rubberised stuff you find on the handles of pliers. You can get it in clear. Spray thinly. Coats the figure in a microscopic layer basically of clear rubber. Virtually unbreakable. Done

Krylon makes a specific spray paint for plastics. It comes in many "camo" colors and can be found as most ACE hardware stores. Used as a primer it will solve the problem of paint sticking to almost any plastic surface.

TomT