by Bob Barnetson

Last week, we discussed why and how you might start collecting an army of 1:72-scale plastic historicals. In this article, we’ll consider the first step in painting the army: cleaning up the bare figures, assembling them and priming them. While none of these steps is particularly difficult to accomplish, attention at this stage prevents problems like flaking paint later on.

Removing Figures from the Sprue
Figures normally come attached to a plastic sprue. The sprue is where the plastic was run into the mould and also makes the figures easier for manufacturers to handle and package. While some gamers prime and paint figures on the sprue and remove them later, I find this requires too much touching up of the paint because figures are normally attached to the sprue in several places. Consequently, I remove the figures from the sprue with a sharp hobby knife as the first step. A box of 48 figures can be cut off the sprue in about 10 minutes.

This process is pretty straightforward (i.e., align the blade and press gently) but a couple of tips should be kept in mind. First, your knife will cut through the figure just as easily as the sprue, so align your cut such that that no part of the figure is between the blade and the surface you are cutting on. Second, getting a clean cut on a curved surface (e.g., the top of a helmet) is tricky. You might try to carve the sprue off to retain the curve, rather than cutting straight through.

Removing Flash
Once you have removed figures from their sprue, you may need to clean them up. Plastic figures are produced in two-part moulds. Flash (thin plastic wafers) is the result of leakage along the seam of the two mould halves. Sometimes you will also find figures with visible seam lines or that have been cast with a slight misalignment between the moulds. In this picture, you can see a typical example of flash around the figure’s bent arm. There is also some flash and the nub of a vent hole that must be trimmed from the top of the slinger’s hand.

With metal figures, a file can remedy flash and mould lines. Using a file on a plastic figure generally causes the plastic to fray, leaving fuzzy plastic strings. A sharp hobby knife is generally more effective. You can attempt to cut the flash off with the edge of the blade. Alternately, you can hold the blade perpendicular to the surface and scrape the flash off by dragging the knife sideways along the flash.

Washing Figures
Many gamers wash their figures after cleaning off the flash. Washing the figures is meant to remove any mould release agent still present on the figures. This greasy film may reduce paint adhesion. I’ve never found this to be a problem in practice and have stopped washing figures.

If you are going to wash your figures, wash them in warm water (not hot—plastic melts and deforms) with a bit of soap. A rinse (perhaps with a bit of vinegar to get the soap off) and overnight drying comes next.

Assembling Figures
Most historical plastic figures do not require assembly. Cavalry is the major exception, where the rider and the horse are often cast separately. If your army is going to include siege weapons, wagons, chariots, or elephants, they too will require assembly. Some companies now also make multi-part plastic figures (e.g., Italeri’s legionnaire figures have both shield and phylum cast separately) to give the figures greater depth of poses and allow easier customization of shields and weapons.

The first question to answer about assembly is whether it should be done before or after the figure is primed. I normally assemble figures and then prime them. This allows me to glue plastic to plastic, rather than having to glue painted plastic to painted plastic (or scrape off part of my paint job). It also means the primer reinforces the bond created by the glue.

Assembling plastic figures has traditionally been very problematic. The polyethylene they are cast from does not react when exposed to the plastic cement sold in most hobby stores for building model airplanes and tanks. Similarly cyanoacrylate (sometimes called crazy glue or super glue) generally does not provide a very good long-term hold, although the newer gel cyanoacrylate is better than the liquid form. This differs from the plastic figures produced by, say, Games Workshop, which works just find with plastic cement.

Some gamers use metal pins to hold horses and riders together. A dressmaking pin (sometimes heated) will be inserted in the top of the horse’s saddle. It can then be nipped short and the figure pushed down onto the horse. This approach works better with soft polyethylene figures than with hard ones. An alterative is to drill holes in the horse and figure and use brass rod.

Recently, a two-part glue that can bond polyethylene (the Loctite company produces it under the name Plastix) has come on to the market. It consists of a primer (applied using a small felt pen) that you brush onto the parts you wish to join. It also has a tube of adhesive. When two primer-coated polyethylene parts are bonded with the adhesive, they stick together quite well. You can still knock a rider off a horse if you work at it, but the glue (reinforced by the primer coat, paint and sealer) has resolved one of the major difficulties associated with polyethylene figures.

The other difficulty posed by assembling parts is that they sometimes don’t fit. This can be particularly problematic when trying to insert a spear into a fist with a hole cast in it when the spear is too large. If you trim the spear by hand, the shaft will no longer be cylindrical. You may need to file (despite the potential for the plastic to shred) or cut open the hand and glue the spear in place.

Painting Sticks
You will need to handle each figure as you paint it. By temporarily adhering the figure to a popsicle stick or nail, you are less likely to touch an area of wet paint with your hand than if you are holding the figure by its base or an extremity. Some painters also choose to glue their figure to its final base and hold onto that while painting. This can sometimes limit how you can position your brush while painting, particularly when multiple figures are glued to a single base.

Temporarily affixing figures to a popsicle stick or nail can be done in several ways. A dot of super glue, a bead of white glue, or even two-sided tape can be used. I prefer a bead of white glue. Plastic figures are notorious for popping off bases, in part because the bottom surface of the base is very smooth. With a bead of white glue, it is possible to seat the figure into the glue. The base of most figures tapers slightly towards the top and, if the wider bottom can be seated and partially covered by glue, this lip of dried glue mechanically holds the figure down even through the glue won’t adhere to the plastic that well.

I normally try to put figures cast in the same pose on the same painting sticks. There are significant time efficiencies to be found painting in a production line manner; you quickly learn the best way to apply paint to each figure and this speeds up painting. Once you have your figures based on paint sticks, you are ready to move onto priming them.

Types of Primer
The tendency of plastic figures to shed paint can be reduced by priming the figure. Primer gives your paint a grittier surface to adhere to. Some primers are even especially formulated to bond to plastic. Gamers at my club use several different types of primer:

• Automotive primer: I use automotive primer in a spray can to coat metal figures and it works on plastic as well. Automotive primer is generally flat and paint seems to stick better to flat surfaces. Automotive primer is also very inexpensive.
• Plastic spray paint: Recently there have been several spray paints designed to adhere to plastics (e.g., Krylon Fusion, Rustoleum). These paints sometimes have a glossy finish, thus the paint slides around on the primer a bit. I haven’t found any real advantage of plastic paints over automotive primer.
• Model paint: Some gamers simply use a coat of model paint as primer. I haven’t found this as effective as a spray primer as it tends to flake when the figure is flexed.
• White glue: White glue (sometimes called PVA) can be use used as a primer. Diluted slightly with water, PVA can be painted onto figures. It is important not to apply too thick a coat, or surface detail will be obscured. This is particularly problematic where arm position creates a natural hollow for the glue to pool in, as well as between the legs of figures. The glue will dry clear.

Primer Colour
The colour of the primer you choose (black and white being the two most common colours) will affect how you paint the figure and the colours you use. Most model and craft paints are somewhat translucent (i.e., they allow some light to pass through the paint, hit the opaque primer coat and then reflect back out).

If you use a black primer, it tends to dull the colours you paint on top. Also, paints with weak pigment (e.g., yellow and red) will often require more than one coat to cover black. Depending on the army you are painting, this dulling effect may be desirable. For example, a dark ages army tends to be grimy and drab; black primer accentuates this.

Your choice of primer colour is partly driven by the painting style you use. Gamers who block paint (a technique addressed in a future article) may choose black primer because, with a bit of care, exposed primer can be used to create a natural border between colours. Another advantage of a black primer is that, if you miss a spot when painting, it is not obvious (i.e., it looks like shadow).

If you use a white primer, it tends to brighten colours and reduces the re-painting of weakly pigmented colours that a black primer can cause. Again, depending on the army you are painting, a white primer might be useful. For example, an army with soldiers wearing lots of undyed cotton will be easier to paint over a white base than a black. Gamers who use washes (also the subject of a future article) often choose a light primer because washes depend on light reflecting off the primer coat.

I find the figures themselves inform my choice. Figures with significant raised details like embossed shield designs lend themselves to a white primer, followed by a wash of black ink or magic dip This causes the details to pop up and makes it clear what to paint. The Italeri figures I’ve painted for this series were primed white and given a wash. On the other hand, figures with little raised detail seem to do better with a black primer. This allows you create shadow and depth by block painting and leaving some primer exposed as shadow.

A hybrid approach (again more appropriate for figures with lots of raised detail) is to spray-prime black and then drybrush the figure with white. Drybrushing is a technique where a brush is dipped in light coloured paint, most of the paint is wiped off on a cloth, and the brush is then lightly dragged over the figure. The paint then adheres to the raised detail, creating a highlight. It if often useful to drag the brush across the grain of any raised detail and, with figures, downwards from head to toe.

Drybrushing white over black can create a striking monochromatic look. It also shows you where to apply paint by highlighting the parts of the figure that the light would naturally hit. When painted, the white paint behind the colour creates a subtly lighter area of colour than where there is black behind the colour. This shading adds depth to the figure.

For new painters, I usually recommend a black primer. It tends to be more forgiving and creates a sense of depth on your figures that, if you use a white primer, requires an ink wash to achieve. A bit of white drybrushing can also be helpful in discovering where to put paint on the figure.

Priming
If you are using a spray primer (ideally outdoors, with eye protection), several light coats (with drying time in between) are better than one thick coat. Several light coats give you the same degree of coverage as a thick one, without the thickness of the paint obscuring the detail on the figure.

It is also important to spray the figure from different directions to ensure the figure is fully covered. This can be accomplished by turning figures on their side and spraying the underside of figures (especially horses).

Painting primer on requires you to get good coverage without applying too much paint. I’m not a fan of this method because it is much more time consuming (time better spent actually painting) and it is hard to get a good coat without obscuring detail.

Up Next
With figures primed and drying, it is time to consider one of the trickier questions raised by painting historicals: what colours should I use?

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 7th, 2008 and is filed under Gaming in plastic.

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