Modelling

HELP

Posted by Lord marcus on 08 Mar 2017, 00:54

Just got some hat El Cid figures in and I need advice.

I need to paint these, but they are extremely flexible plastic and I don't want my paint jobs to chip.

What is the proper way of prepping for painting, and then sealing the paint job after for extremely flexible plastic figures?
Lord marcus  United States of America
 
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Posted by Susofrick on 08 Mar 2017, 10:33

I have some Gauls in, what I think is, the new not so very popular plastic. But I don't think I had much trouble with them. Could be that I'm so lousy painter so the figures plastic didn't understand that it was painted. Had them in soapwater over the night, primed them in some white GW-colour and then painted them with some regular GW-paint.

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Susofrick  Sweden
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Posted by Roland_Kupski on 08 Mar 2017, 10:47

It will be very helpfull to give them a wash with Isopropyl-alcohol and than a bath in soapy water before priming. There are lot of oil or something like that on the surface of this type of plastic.
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Roland_Kupski  Germany
 
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Posted by Cryns on 08 Mar 2017, 11:27

Lord Marcus, someone once told me we should first threat the whole figure with a very thin layer of white glue. This will stay flexible even after drying and when the enamel or acrylic paint sticks to this white glue, it won't chip off.
But I have to admit I never tried this method myself.

Susofrick your Gauls look great!
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Cryns  Netherlands

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Posted by Mário on 10 Mar 2017, 19:09

Good afternoon
Contrary to most of my fellow forum members I like the Hat style and have no great objections concerning the flexible plastic they use. I must recognize that I‘m not an expert painter and only attain war gamming style quality.
To paint the Hat soft plastic soldiers I rinse them in a lot of mild water and detergent and then I coat them in matt varnish. I use a good quality acrylic varnish that is available in art shops. I ‘have used different brands with good results.
It is not perfect but it works. I use Vallejo paints that are known to be very fragile and coat the model soldiers in one, two or even three coats of varnish in the end.
I use my figures for war gaming, sometimes skirmish rules (that means they are not based) and they resist handling quite well.
Best regards
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Posted by Beano Boy on 11 Mar 2017, 05:34

That is very interesting Mario.
I myself never thought to use varnish before painting and I intend to use your good quality tip. :thumbup: It was also good of you to respond in the way you have, because it is a good comment that might solve a lot of problems with the Hat figures in the near future.
I hope that Lord Marcus, finds it very helpful too, along with others.

It is also nice to realise that there is another much nearer to my own `Grandfather Clock age.' It does seem, us older school boys might have good intel to pass along the line to our younger fellow members.

Greetings to everyone upon this bright early day from Fiddle Wood.
Old Catton, Norwich United Kingdom. :-D BB
Beano Boy  England
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Posted by zulu`s 1000`s of em on 12 Mar 2017, 21:23

To add to previous answers, the PVA /white glue option works, it helps if you top coat varnish to finish, my preferred option is to use a spray all plastics primer, the sort used in the motor industry, then paint , and finish with a varnish. Preparation is key wash the figures in hot soapy water first then rinse under the tap and allow to dry before applying the primer.
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Posted by PhilC on 12 Mar 2017, 22:23

Mr. Cryns wrote:Susofrick your Gauls look great!


As Mr Cryns said, your Celts look excellent, particularly the carnyx player - I need to paint one of these for my orchestra :mrgreen:
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PhilC  Europe

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Posted by Susofrick on 13 Mar 2017, 09:04

Can not recommend mine! Too influenced by improvised jazz so the horses usually act a bit odd when he starts to play! But the chief loves it!
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Susofrick  Sweden
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Posted by Edwardian on 15 Mar 2017, 14:42

As a newcomer, I unwittingly treated the soft HaT figures as I had the slightly harder plastic figures I was used to, e.g Airfix, Revell.

So, I washed them carefully in warm soapy water and then sprayed with good old Halfords Grey Car Primer.

I am quite diligent about washing. I soak, slosh and rub gently the figures in warm to hot soapy water, them rinse very carefully, dab off most of the water with a clean towel and then leave to air dry.

I found that primer on the muskets, bayonets and some legs of my HaT Napoleonic Spanish infantry flaked off on a significant minority of the batch.

I sought to remedy this by painting over the exposed areas of plastic with dilute PVA then undercoating these areas again.

This arrested the problem, with very few further chips emerging during the course of painting (a batch of 97). Now they are based and varnished and I have not had any further problems, so far.

For the many figures I had already undercoated, I have applied PVA over the primer, which is perhaps not ideal, but it does seem to have helped. If the paint flakes off, I will cover the exposed areas with PVA and re-prime as before.

My FIGZ Parade entrants were started after I discovered this issue, so these were coated with dilute PVA prior to priming. So far, they seem to have held up better than the figures that did not have that treatment.

My suggestion would be to wash as before, but then brush dilute PVA over vulnerable areas prior to painting. These areas include weapons, legs, plumes.
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Edwardian  United Kingdom
 
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