SonBae's Joy of Painting (Miniatures)--- Preparation

Not REALLY one of the official steps, but something that needs to be done nonetheless.

The first part of Prepare is to clean your models.  If you have plastic or resin figures you need to wash the parts with warm, soapy water to remove any protective coating from the molding process that could remain on the model. If you don't, the primer might not stick to the model and you would have defeated the purpose of a priming.  If you have metal figures/parts I recommend washing them too. They use protective coating for the metals molds too and it should come off before you paint. To be honest though, I don't do this ALL the time, but do try to do it MOST of the time.  If I have figure that has a lot of white dust on it...rest assured I wash that sucker.

 

The second part of "Prepare" is to remove all the mold and flash lines. These are those little pieces of plastic/resin/metal that hang off the model...usually in the bends and angle of the model.  They are caused during the molding process from where the 2 halves of the mold come together.  A sharp knife a "Needle" file are your best friends here and make short work of these buggers.  Be careful when filing resin as the dust is hazardous if breathed in.

 

The third part of "Prepare" is to make sure the bases are flat and the figure can stand on its own.  You want to do all this before start to paint.  This way the figure will stand up straight and tall (or at least flat) when you mount it for painting.

 

The last step of "Prepare" is to mount the figure for painting (Some of you need to get your minds OUT of the gutter...I'm just sayin is all).  You don't want to hold the figure/model in your bare hands while you paint.  The oils from your skin can get on the model and either remove paint that's not fully dry or get on dry paint and make the next layer not adhere "just" right.  If you are painting individual figures you can stick them on nails (what I do); on paint jar tops; on Popsicle sticks; etc...All these methods keep your fingers OFF the model.  If you are painting a team on the stand you can hold the stand and keep your fingers off the models...but you have one more step in that case.  You need to also apply your 1st step of the basing process.  Here you need to apply your Spackle/pumice/glued sand/etc... on the base so you don't have to apply it later.  Getting the 1st level of ground applied now allows you to not have to do it after all the figures are painted and risk getting some on your paint job (something that happens at least once with every team when I paint them individually and mount them to the base at the end).

The next installment will talk about the actual process I use and then we will get into the techniques.  This allows me to have time to actually make the videos I HOPE to be able to post showing these different steps.