Had the soft plastic soldier manufacturers produced packs like this from the beginning, I doubt we would ever have moved to metal. These are great little gaming figures.
My prep and sealing process for these is pretty foolproof. I've not had any flake since I started this. I wash the figures in liquid dish soap to remove the grease from them. I prime with a rattle-can grey or white plastic primer from Rustoleum. Once they are painted, I brush on Varathane "Ultimate Polyurethane" clear gloss interior and let it cure for three days. After all the basing is done, I seal with Testor's Dullcote from a rattle-can.
Now they need to start producing good cavalry figures too. I cannot find anything in soft plastic that looks great ranked up for gaming.
Nice job. If only we'd had acrylic paints fifty years ago, I'd never have painted my Airfix napoleonics with Humbrol enamels that flaked off in no time. As you say, that didn't work, so the best answer for decades was to switch to metals.
ReplyDeleteYes, it was Testors enamels for me back in the 80s and 90s, and the result was the same: flaky.
DeleteMe too!
DeleteDo you really think that we not have been tempted to switch to metals if the plastic poses were suitable? Hmm. I wonder.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure I would have stuck with plastics. I have always like the proportions better.
DeleteThat is as fine a job as I have ever seen on soft plastics, HaT produce many fine figures in a lot of ranges but maybe too late for me to change.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Donnie! I wish they would make cavalry figures suitable for gaming.
DeleteWonderful and yes I quite agree on the not changing if these were available years ago! :)
ReplyDeleteThey just look right to me. I imagine it's the plastic allowing for more slender proprtions.
DeleteI left the hobby doing metals and enamels and returned briefly during the 15mm surge - have the painted figures but don’t game them, then properly returned during the peak of the plastic fantastic era in the late 2000’s. For the prices (even now 10 quid gets you 50 figures) it allowed me to indulge several periods and of course acrylics was liberating. I still game with my 20/25mm metals alongside their plastic brethren. And you can still get matching metallics such as Newline Miniatures and even SHQ from Grubby tanks. I even have super sharp resin prints matching in 20 and 25mm. Boy are they fragile compared to the injection plastics.
ReplyDeleteAgreed on the resin figures. HaT sent me some pre-release sculpts in resins a couple of years ago, and they had shattered in the mail.
DeleteI'll have to check out Newline and SHQ for some cavalry sculpts!