The above figure is a plastic boardgame piece from one of the Cthulhu: Death May Die sets, and the paint job I gave it is nothing special. In fact, I was less interested in the figure itself as I was the base. I wanted to experiment with painting a 'dungeon' base. You know, a base that looks like the irregular flagstones of some forgotten underground corridor. It's a technique that Kev Dallimore uses in the work he's done for the Frostgrave photography, though he usually goes with more regular looking stones. Obviously, my work isn't up to his, but I think it came out pretty well for a first attempt. I even added a few little blood splatters for colour!
The doorway is also a bit of an experiment. It's from the modern HeroQuest game. I painted up a bunch of these figures last summer... unfortunately, most of them became 'sticky'. Some of you will know what I mean. Essentially, there is some combination of plastic (usually of the cheaper, bendy boardgame type), primer, and varnish, that sometimes causes figures to 'sweat'. This can make them very sticky and unpleasant to use. I tried hitting them with another layer or two of varnish, but it was only semi-successful. It actually killed my enthusiasm for the game. However, over the weekend, I pulled out an unpainted doorway. I used brush-on primer (a first for me!), gave it a quick paint job, and then used brush-on varnish. Hopefully, this will keep it from getting sticky - though it may be a few months before I really know for sure.
Anyway, as you might be gathering, I'm thinking about constructing my own dungeon crawler set - just for my own hobby amusement - it is not part of a professional project, though that distinction can grown blurry at times!
I also have some sticky miniatures, and I've heard that they should be cleaned with warm, soapy water. After that, it's recommended to apply a gloss varnish, followed by a matte varnish. I believe this method should help improve their condition
ReplyDeleteI believe a polyurethane primer such as that made by Badger (best) or Vallejo (OK but easier to find) might work on 'funny' plastics. It can be brushed on or sprayed on and is water based so no solvents that can mess with the plastic and it leaves a good finish to paint on.
ReplyDeleteThat is neat painted on flagstone effect. All the best with destickifying your minis.
ReplyDeleteIn my experience, avoiding varnishes at all is 100% guaranteed to succeed. I have several "bendy" miniature sets that correlate with that perfectly. Soapy water didn't help and although I haven't tried a gloss varnish before a matt varnish, some friends have had sticky minis after that, too .
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