RAPID FIRE! ....................

PAINTING PLASTIC FIGURES

A Rapid Fire Guide to bringing these cheap and cheerful (and bendy) figures to life.

Why Plastic?

Try telling that to all those thousands of fans who regularly visit the Plastic Soldier Review web site (www.plasticsoldierreview.com/links.html)
and eagerly await the latest offering from the likes of HaT, Revell and the host of other 1/72nd scale plastic figure manufacturers.

Plastic is cheap (around £5 a box or less for up to 50 figures), covers every conceivable period of history and some of the figures are very well designed. The main drawback - apart from a bit of 'it's kid's stuff' snobbery - is the fact that most plastic figures are made of relatively soft plastic, which can cause problems with taking and retaining a coat of paint.

Being an oldie, I grew up with the very first sets of these figures, made by Airfix in the 1960s. I think the British Guardsmen were the first release and at a shilling a box (5p today!) I collected them like crazy for many years, eventually painting and then converting all sorts of W.W.II plastic armies.

In more recent years I've always tried to slip a few plastic figures into my largely metal forces, but I've only recently had a go at creating totally plastic RF units. With RF 2 in preparation Colin and I decided to illustrate some of the rule mechanisms using easily available (and cheap) figures to encourage younger, or less affluent wargamers and show what can be done with stuff straight from the model shop.

So what can be done and how do you do it?

Preparation

The main difference between painting metal and plastic is in the preparation.


Straight from the box plastic figures look like this. These Revell German Infantry (Ardennes) are still attached to their sprue. This is made up of plastic that has hardened in the channels that feed the individual figure moulds during the injection moulding process.

•  The first thing to do is to carefully cut the figures from the sprue, making sure you don't slice off an important part of the figure by mistake.

•  Wash the figures in warm water and a little washing up liquid to get rid of the mould release agent. Let them dry.

•  Trim the 'flash' (mould lines from the injection process) using a sharp craft knife. This is the most difficult and time consuming part of the process. Some people melt off the flash with a heated blade, but I personally find this too risky.

•  Glue each figure to a square card or thin plywood base, by scoring lines on the bottom of the figure's base and gluing it with a 'gentle' contact glue like UHU. This base is just to give you something to hold when painting.

•  Paint the figure with polyurethane gloss varnish. This stiffens the soft plastic and provides the first layer of undercoat.

•  When this is dry, spray the figure with white car spray paint primer. This will provide a good paintable undercoat and will further stiffen the figure. (Remember to wear a mask and ventilate the room when spraying.)

The figure illustrated isn't a Revell German, but one of the new Pegasus SS infantry. See the special section on these figures later in this guide.

Painting techniques

These are exactly the same as those applied to metal figures, but here's an outline to give you some ideas.

I use two painting styles: 'Wash and Line' and 'Block and Shade'. Both of these can be applied to plastic figures. I normally use acrylic paints, but you could just as easily use enamels and thin them down with the liquid that fills most of an unmixed tin.

'Wash and Line'

•  After the white undercoat is dry, paint the figure's jacket and trousers in a thinned down version of the colour of your choice. The paint should be thin enough to flow into creases and leave the bits in between naturally highlighted.

•  If this coat has flowed over straps or other equipment go over this in white and, when dry, carefully apply thinned colour to these as well, including helmets, packs, boots and weapons.

•  'Block' paint the face and hands with your desired flesh colour. (For Black troops a better effect can be achieved by using a wash of black/brown. On plastic figures the facial detail is usually quite fine and natural lining and highlighting will result.)

•  Now the tricky bit! Using a very fine brush (0/5) line in the edges of belts, packs, sleeves and some uniform creases with a very dark ink. The shade will depend on the dominant uniform colour and I normally use black, dark brown, or dark green. Permanent inks can be found at Games Workshop or art shops.

•  Line in fingers and eyes/facial creases with a red brown or black (depending on skin tone) and on pale-skinned figures add a very thin wash of red brown to the lower face to pick out lips and give an impression of '5 o'clock shadow'. Then highlight nose, cheeks and back of hands with lightened flesh colour.

•  Check each figure for missed 'bits' and gloss varnish. This will further stiffen the figure and a coat of matt varnish can be applied over this if desired.

This technique doesn't look 'realistic' close up, but gives you bright and detailed looking figures that stand out on the wargames table (so not such a good idea for command groups.)

'Block and Shade'

After the white undercoat is dry, 'block' paint the figure's jacket and trousers in a slightly darker shade of the colour you wish these to end up as. Don't worry about painting over straps and packs.

•  Now block paint straps, packs, weapons and hands/faces with appropriate colours. For face and hands this will range from brown to black, depending on the colour of skin required.

•  Now for the tricky bit with this technique! Mix lighter shades of each base colour in turn and painted raised detail to create highlights. This should leave natural lining around equipment and darker creases in uniforms etc.

•  Faces should be painted with your desired flesh colour leaving dark lines of the undercoat for eyes, facial creases, mouths etc. Then highlight again as for the 'Wash and Line' figures.

The completed figures look good in close up, but can seem a little dark when viewed at a distance on the wargames table.

Ultimately the choice is yours. I use both these methods, depending on the type of figure and my own whims and, of course, there are other ways of painting figures. Check out manufacturers' websites for more tips (such as the AB Figures link from this site - their figures are metal, but have the same level of detail as the best plastic figures).

I won't go into camouflage painting here, but remember that in this scale you want to create the impression of a particular pattern: don't get too hung up on detail. There are some useful tips on the back of the Pegasus box, which brings me to.

Pegasus Figures

Currently consisting of only one box of circa 1943 SS Infantry (with a second box to come), these new figures are superbly detailed and animated, but this has been achieved by using a very soft plastic and moulding the majority of the figures without bases. This creates far more work for the wargamer, but I think it's going to be worth it.

I haven't finished painting any of these figures yet, but to prepare them follow these instructions:

•  Cut the figures free leaving little 'pegs' of sprue sticking from the bottom of each standing figure's feet.

•  Wash them thoroughly and then, when dry, assemble any separate parts (these include entrenching tools and heads on some figures) using superglue.

•  Roughen the locating pegs on each part slightly to help the glue 'key' into the socket. Mix a small blob of Milliput modeling compound, stick it on a thin ply base and then embed the 'pegs' on the figure's feet into the putty and let it dry.

•  The figure will need supporting while the putty 'goes off'. Figures with one foot off the ground should have this supported with a raised bump of Milliput. When the putty has dried, reinforce with a dab of superglue around (but not over) each foot.

•  Proceed with painting as for other figures.

Converting Plastic

It can be done! The traditional way is to cut the pointed end off dressmaking pins and, with pliers, push the blunt end into the bit you're adding to and stick the new bit (a head, a torso, a weapon) onto it - reinforced with some glue: either UHU or (nowadays) superglue. It helps to cut some grooves into the surfaces to be joined o help provide a key for the glue.

However, things have moved on and if you go to the Plastic Review website mentioned at the beginning of this guide you'll find all sorts of techniques and new glues that enthusiasts have discovered over the years.

This is a simple conversion I've just completed with superglue. I cut the rifle off this Pegasus figure and added a hard plastic MG 42 from the Hasegawa 251 APC kit, giving me a running LMG gunner. You can also try adding metal heads and even Milliput packs and greatcoats. Just remember to score or roughen any part you're going to apply glue or putty to.

'Revell's British Infantry set contains figures that can be simply converted (by cutting away weapons) to serve as a reasonable 3" mortar crew. The mortar was simply scratchbuilt from some plastic tube, a small piece of plastic card (for the base) and the mortar legs from the Hasegawa US half track mortar carrier.



So, what are you waiting for?

Plastic figures are cheap and you can paint them just as effectively as their metal equivalents. If you game on a budget they're ideal and even if you don't they can add some interesting poses and troop types to what's on offer metallically. Why not give them a try!

Richard Marsh