"Painting Soft Plastics" Topic

I daresay this has been asked repeatedly, but what's the best process ? I'm going to wash them first, but then what ? I'm in the UK, so products available here would be helpful. Thanks.

Wash and dry, then a base coat of Gesso seems to work best for me.

+1 Tom Reed

Works for me too.

When painted spray with Plastidip clear. This will give them a rubberised coating which will stop any and all paint loss

Soak overnight in hot soapy water. Rinse with hot water and air dry. My preferred primer coat is a 50/50 mix of PVA (white glue) and acrylic paint, but I'm sure the gesso works.

Paint with acrylics.

For a clear coat, I usually use a slightly thinned PVA (again, white glue, water soluble.) In the United States, you can sometimes find this marketed in a pump spray as "terrain cement" but I don't know about your availability. The alternative to either is to go to a DIY shop and look for an acrylic floor finish in satin, which you can use as a dip. (If it's still too shiny for you, spray with a flat varnish. This is my usual solution in 54mm soft plastics.)

Good luck!

If I wash, Gesso and then paint with acrylics, is a regular spray varnish (Army Painter) good enough to seal them ?

For soft plastic, not really. Plasti-Dip is the best, but also the thickest. The paint will break away from the plastic (unless you use specialty plastic paint…). The clear, outer coating, will not let go of the paint, even though the paint will let go of the plastic, beneath it. The Plasti-Dip, rubberized, outer coating, will form a skin around the plastic, sliding over the slippery plastic. If you flex it enough, it will break, or the plastic will break through it.

Try the Plasti-Dip aerosol, to see what you think. I've used Minwax Polyshades Urethane Stain (poly-urethane mixed with a stain pigment), but it eventually wears thin, with the plastic breaking through, and pieces of the urethane breaking off, after 5-12 years, depending upon handling.

The cans of Plasti-Dip, where you dip the figure into it, will go on waaay too thick -- I tried it. It will form a noticeably thick skin, over the figure, which is obvious, and unacceptable (to me). With the aerosol, you can control the thickness, adding layers, if needed.

As always, experimentation is King, Baby! What we like, may not be what you like… Cheers!

1) Wash the figures well with liquid soap and water.
2) Prime with plastic primer. I use Valspar clear.
3) Prime with your favorite primer. I've been using brite touch automotive primer with good effect.
4) Paint up with your favorite acrylic paints. They are flexible and don't tend to crack.
5) Clear coat as you usually do.

Wash and dry, then a good coat of PVA. I have a 1 litre tub from Wickets which has lasted years. Then paint as normal.

Occasionally I've heard people washing with vinegar. Never tried it myself.

One friend, also said that she uses washing machine for washing plenty of figures at the same time. I'd say that would work better when still attached to sprues.

I'm another Plasti-dip fan. Ace Hardware carries it. Great stuff!

This gets asked a lot, and there are a lot of answers.

So much is down to personal preference. Then the type of figure.

For example, I tried out Vallejo's polyurethane primer on some old Airfix figures – and it sticks like sh*t to a blanket. But on Strelets it just pops straight off. Go figure.

I have had joy using Liquitex acrylic matte medium as a primer and then as a varnish (this is a form of PVA). When one of my sons was younger I painted him two boxes of soldiers – they are individually based. We still use them 12 years later, and only one or two have lost even the tiniest fleck of paint (one lost it from a grenade handle)

I have tried "plastic primers" – they generally underperform, but if one reads the instructions, they are designed for hard plastic furniture, not soft bendy wargame toys.

I have tried gesso (Liquitex again) and like it. But my brother uses Humbrol enamel white, so again, go figure.

What I have found works is the Army Painted dip product, brushed on. Then matte sprayed. I find that lets my armies survive pretty much anything.

So at the end of the day, it is experiment. But often they can be a bit delicate until final varnish. But once finished and based they survive pretty well.

Have fun

Auto parts places sell "flexible primer" which works on vinyl and fabric.

I cannot recommend a UK brand, but pretty sure it is available there.

Paint with regular acrylics.

Plasti Dip clear spray as an overcoat:
link

Then I usually like to hit the figure with a dull coat overspray.

Gesso also works as a primer, but the vinyl primer I get form the auto parts store seems to work better.

I have a rock polisher with a fine grit. I run the figures in that for 10 to 15 minutes to roughing up the surface. Then I wash and dry like everybody else paint with acrylics, and then cover with Minwax polyurethane.

I stopped varnishing soft plastics (I only do WW2 in softies, so Matt finish is fine). I've used a sheet of plastic – I think it was food packaging – as a paint pallet for years and when it gets too thick with acrylic, I just peel it off. I figured if it created a rubbery layer like that then varnishing was a waste of time! So I painted up some test figures (after the usual soapy bath and acrylic primer) and bent them about to give them the roughest of handling: no cracks, no chips, all is well.

Jeffers, what kind of Matt Coat are you using? Type of paints?

I find type of paint is just as crucial as anything. Humbrol oils always flaked off. Gunze Sangyo (now Mr Hobby) was very flexible.

The olde polythene (Airfix, Atlantic) was very flexible but paint resistant. New "soft plastic" figures are a different kind of plastic.

All acrylic. My paints are now roughly 80% Vallejo, 15% Foundry and 5% Humbrol. The test was all Vallejo on Airfix Type 1 figures. They are more robust than the later offerings, but by the rubbery sheets I peel off my palette (not a big lump of wood that auto correct made it in my earlier post!) the result should be the same.

PS I think the trick is to ensure the whole figure is fully covered: a kind of full-body 1/76 gimp suit.

I found a method on the Hat website in the Tips section many years ago that is easy and nearly foolproof in keeping paint on plastic figures. As an indication of how well this works, I have a collection of 18th century figures (1/72 Zevezda, Hat, Revell) based individually for old school rules and store them piled together in a box. I never have chipped paint even on swords and bayonets.

I don't wash the figures, I just glue them to craft sticks and coat them with Aleene's Tack-It Over and Over, a craft glue that stays sticky even when left to dry. (I am in the States but believe it is available on Amazon UK). You have to apply the coating sparingly, enough to make sure entire surface is sticky but not too much so that you lose the figure's detail. I let the coating dry overnight then spray with primer (any kind). The primer seals the sticky coating. After the primer dries, I paint as normal with hobby paints (mainly Vallejo). Finally, I coat figures with Liquitex Matt Varnish. That's it.

The sticky undercoat creates a bond between the plastic and the primer paint that is very difficult to break. So even when a sword or bayonet bends, it may produce a crack but it disappears once returned to original position and more importantly the paint doesn't flake off. This may seem like a lot of extra work but the figures are really durable and saves time having to repaint chipped figures.

Similar to Jef although I´ve Never washed them, no pre-paint Treatment and never had Trouble with paint cracking, Peeling etc.
What does everyone do with them post painting that they Need "chemical" Treatment pre painting ?

I have never been able to just paint my plastics without prep and avoid cracking and pealing but perhaps a function of how I have stored and handled them. I just created a blog. There is a post that shows how and why I do it.

hm18172.blogspot.com

Interesting, HM. Cheers!

Nice start Dave, blog added to my blog roll.

Very nice – good to see some 1/72 Imagi-Nations love.

I may try that glue

Thanks for feedback guys. I'm just getting started on blog front so still figuring it out. Paul, your blog has been an inspiration, so thanks.

I tried the Tack-It Glue, in the past, but I got it on too thick. I may need to re-visit this.

I took some 54mm Vikings figures, to use as Frost Giants, in my 25mm fantasy miniatures games. I hate re-painting figures, so I wanted a technique where the paint would NEVER come off the soft plastic Viking figures. I was not aware of the step for priming the Tack-It Glue coating… That would have saved me a lot of grief.

The Tack-It Glue is permanently tacky -- it never stops being tacky. It will stick to the LDPE plastic of soft Army Men figures, until you soak it in vegetable oil, I believe. This is an old technique, but it is not well known. My research into it, found little detail, so I missed some critical steps, like priming the whole, to fully cover the Tack-It Glue. I still have some of those 54mm Vikings figures, still tacky, after 10+ years, sitting in my painting queue. Looks like I may need to re-visit them. Thanks, HM18172!

I painted 54mm Army Men figures, back in the late 90's, covering the paint with Minwax Polyshades urethane stain. It lasted for 5-10 years, but it rubbed off after that. I may need to re-visit that project, with the Tack-It Glue, as well… Cheers!