Painting tip

[Moavoamoatu]

As I have no time to paint my zombie miniatures for now I decided to buy a bunch of Horrorclix zombies. As they are prepainted, it's perfect to start a game.

But I wish to paint them as the paint on them is basic.

Here come the questions :

As I will use acrylic paints (GW, Vallejo) should I wash the miniatures with a detergent, basecoat them,...?

How do you do it ?

Thanks

[Ritual]

Can't you just use a spray primer over the pre-painted surface? I've heard people do that on other types of pre-painted minis (like AT-43). Washing shouldn't be necessary really. I almost never wash my minis. Seems like a waste of time.

[Moavoamoatu]

I fear that soft plastic cracks the paint.....

[demonherald]

Can't you just use a spray primer over the pre-painted surface? I've heard people do that on other types of pre-painted minis (like AT-43). Washing shouldn't be necessary really. I almost never wash my minis. Seems like a waste of time.

I just about always give my minis a wash off a lately...usually after cleaning up.. .. go figure .. must be a force of habit thing after dealing for years with GW minis and their pockets of totally waterproof minis full of mould release agent....


as for the pre paints have a check in last Iron Painters WIP section.. Skya did a cracking piece out of prepaints and covers a few tricks in there.....bzzzott was it's title I believe..

[Ritual]

I've never ever experienced any problems from not washing minis. So, I never do it. :dontknow:

[green stuff]

I've had the same experience as Anders : very few to no release agent -> never cleaned my minis (except resin).

As for pre-painted minis. If the paint is thin and rather smooth, than just prime it.

When prepping, I acetoned my Captain Vrachov (http://www.coolminiornot.com/192255); the plastic went a bit soft and puffed up a bit, but as it dried it went back to normal. If you plan on cleaning the mold lines, I'd suggest you wait till it's fully dry. Also, if the plastic is really soft, prime it first, than clean the mold lines and reprime after. The primer toughens the plastic a bit.

[St. Anger]

You could possibly go without, but I would suggest washing them just to remove some of the oils and releasing agents. My experience, with some WizKids minis, is that they sometimes release some oils from the plastics, especially if they have been left in a hot car. Also, washing them will remove any oils from handling them during normal gameplay.

An additional optional step that you may want to consider may be to spray a light coat of Dullcote over them and let that dry. That will provide a surface that will help new paint adhere to the mini.

Just my 2 cents... Hope that it helps.

[demonherald]

I've never ever experienced any problems from not washing minis. So, I never do it. :dontknow:

To Be honest I haven't for a while but I think it's just become habit.. ya kow part of the whole warm up routine.??

[Moavoamoatu]

I never wash my miniatures, even plastic Games Workhop sprues or Alkemy miniatures but Wizkids are way softer.

St Anger gave a good idea : spray dullcote.

Green stuff, your captain is amazing.

[Wren]

I know I've heard of people enhancing as well as completely repainting pre-painted miniatures, so it must be possible to do. By enhancing I mean doing some washes and drybrushes and stuff. Starting with dullcote seems like a good idea if you want to try this.

I always wash my minis (and their bases) before applying primer. It gets off the mould release agent, dust from sanding and my finger grease. I've had two people who work making miniatures tell me it's a good idea because of the mould release powder. And it doesn't take long. It's something I'd rather do to be safe than sorry since the painting does take long. Of course if I painted as fast as moa I might not bother. ;->

[green stuff]

@Moavoamoatu : Merci beaucoup :). It's a fun mini to paint. It just needs more prepping than non-PPP :P.

[Ritual]

I always wash my minis (and their bases) before applying primer. It gets off the mould release agent, dust from sanding and my finger grease. I've had two people who work making miniatures tell me it's a good idea because of the mould release powder. And it doesn't take long. It's something I'd rather do to be safe than sorry since the painting does take long. Of course if I painted as fast as moa I might not bother. ;->

IF I had any reason to fear problems from not washing minis then I would definitely wash them. But after painting LOTS of miniatures from all sorts of companies in different metal alloys, resin, plastic etc. and never had any problems despite not washing I have come to the conclusion that washing is a waste of time. It may be a waste of very little time, but it's still a waste. ;) I prep my minis very carefully, so I bet any dirt or similar would be removed then, and I take an old brush and dust it off before priming. Works really well!

I HAVE heard of people having trouble with the primer due to the minis still being slightly moist from washing, though. :vb_devil:

[demonherald]

I HAVE heard of people having trouble with the primer due to the minis still being slightly moist from washing, though. :vb_devil:

done that before... I think for me it has mainly been down to previous experience with GW minis and the fact that my hands are very greasy.. It's the same reason I never paint without latex gloves. I sweat paint stripper.

must admit I've been using a stiff brush (short dremel attatchment a lately instead of washing as much but I still can't resist giving them a quick dip.:tongue2:

[Moavoamoatu]

Of course if I painted as fast as moa I might not bother. ;->

And for zombies it will be ultra fast as they are tabletop minis : 1 hour each, no more.

[Chameleon]

Out of curiosity, if you did have loads of oily finger marks/mould release agent on your mini and you didn't bother washing it, what would happen? Would the primer just not go on smoothly or would it not bind very strongly or something?

[goblyn13]

Primer wouldn't adhere as well to the surface and could slide off later, and this would also cause that the paint could rub off later on.

[Bexley]

The primer could also fisheye or have a wrinkled appearance, but those are uncommon. After priming, finger oils can easily make the paint bead up as you try to paint it on.

[Moavoamoatu]

@ Ritual : I agree, I didn't wash a miniature and had no problems so far.

@ Chameleon : some people told me the paint was flowing on the miniature and could not adhere on it

@Demonherald : I use latex too....not gloves :D

[Wren]

Enh, I usually wash minis at the end of a prep session so I'm not about to jump into painting right that minute anyway. If you're buffing really well I can see why you probably wouldn't have problems. (And I could probably risk it, I buff and I don't actually have greasy hands cause I wash my hands too much.) But lots of people don't prep the surface that extensively, so I don't think it hurts to give them advice to wash. ;->

[demonherald]

@Demonherald : I use latex too....not gloves :D

you paint wearing condoms??? or is it latex underwear??

[Skullcrafts]

Not entirely sure if my statements will mean anything to most of you, but I figured I would give it a go anyway...

The reason painters wash their minis before primering: To get off any dirt, grime, residue, oils, etc. If the mini doesn't appear to have these types of problems, there's no real point in washing it.

The reason painters "prep" their mini before primering: To get off any dirt, grime, residue, oils, etc...yes, the same answer...but there's more to it than that. We also file mold lines, cut away flashing and venting, add or remove details as needed and a number of other things. Usually this is followed by a clean up step using a rotary tool and a wire brush which pretty much removes any need to wash the mini.

So for the original question of if someone should wash a prepainted miniature before primering. The answer should be either yes or no, depending on if you see anything wrong with it or if it's been handled excessively. If you're not sure, give it a qucik toothbrush scrub with rubbing alcohol and then hit it with primer. You won't need to strip the paint underneath, you'll only end up with more of a mess than you started with.

Anyway, that's my two bits.

:)

[ThunderhawkerMinis]

IMHO: "Prep" varies as needed from mini to mini, depending on what its made of, who made it and how much, if any, conversion will be involved.

I also am of the school of non washed minis and have yet to have a problem (But as Skullcrafts said, I use a wire brush and rotary tool on most of them.)

[Moavoamoatu]

I asked a german friend some of you might know as he is a great painter and he pointed me to this article on his site :

http://www.agisn.de/html/paint_advice.html

Thanks to all of you for your advices.

[Chameleon]

Ok, thanks for the info everyone. Sounds like it might be worth giving it a try as I don't brush the minis or anything and I do tend to find that my paint rubs off quite a lot. Maybe I'll do a little comparison. If you don't mind me picking your brains a little more, what's the benefit of brushing the mini other than to get rid of little metal flakes from the filing process, which I normally do just by blowing on it? Using a dremel tool sounds like it would be fairly harsh, but I presume there's a reason for it?

[Moavoamoatu]

I never brush my miniatures. I remove mold lines and prime the miniature with a paint spray (white paint for me).

I never had any problem with paint pealing off or rubbnig off except if the miniature falls or is manipulated a lot.

When your paint is done, just use a matt varnish spray if it's a wargame miniature. I never varnish contest miniatures as I don't manipulate them.

I only use my Dremel to fix pins in the limbs or under the feet (to glue the miniature to the base). If it's a plastic slotted base (for wargame purposes) I don't pin it at all.

Hope it helps.

[Wren]

I polish the mini with a wire brush Dremel tool as a later step for a couple of reasons. One is that it gives the mini a uniform shine, which I find makes it easier to find mould lines or rough areas I might have missed. Also I think it smooths the surface just a little. If a mini's really rough it's going to need more than that (heavy filing, coarser sandpaper, brushing over it with thinned milliput and then sanding, something like that), but for a well-made and well-prepped mini, it's just that final stage of smoothing. I paint to get a pretty smooth result, so it makes sense to me to spend some time on the surface the paint goes on. If I were army painting or quick painting I might save the time and skip that step.