Figure preparation HELL

[ravenflight]

Hi All,

I'm having HEAPS of problems with my figure preparation of late.

Now, I'm an experienced painter and people say that I do a good job, so please keep this in mind, I've prep'd MANY figures in my day, probably tens of thousands so prepping isn't a new experience, but THIS problem is a new experience for me.

I'm having no end of trouble getting my paint figures to accept the paint. The undercoat keeps pulling away from the figure. Here's the prep method I use:

1 - scrub the figures with a toothbrush and detergent in water.
2 - dry the figures thoroughly
3 - trim off excess flash and sculpt poor or damaged areas
4 - drill out hands
5 - scrub the figures again with a toothbrush and detergent in water.
6 - dry figures with a hairdrier
7 - base the figures on my painting platform
8 - undercoat figures in watered down black artist acrylics (Atelier).


At point 8 above, I'm having great difficulty in not getting pinpoints of white metal showing through, and in some cases a several mm wide circle!

I've even subsequent to undercoating gone back and hit those spots with full strength Valejo black! Even THAT doesn't seem to have worked!! The rejected area gets smaller and smaller, but come on - it's taking me hours just to undercoat my damned figures!

I'm at a loss as to what to do. Any thoughts?

[madaxeman]

At a guess, spots of detergent are drying on the figures....your detergent mix may be too strong, or the hairdryer treatment may be concentrating excess detergent somehow?

Maybe do a rinse in clean water step after step 5, or just rinse in water at step 5 instead - or dry in a less harsh way?

Just some guesses from someone who used spray car paint to undercoat and does no other prepping other than removing flash and adding drilled out spears sometimes..

[thefrenchjester]

Hi All,

I'm having HEAPS of problems with my figure preparation of late.

Now, I'm an experienced painter and people say that I do a good job, so please keep this in mind, I've prep'd MANY figures in my day, probably tens of thousands so prepping isn't a new experience, but THIS problem is a new experience for me.

I'm having no end of trouble getting my paint figures to accept the paint. The undercoat keeps pulling away from the figure. Here's the prep method I use:

1 - scrub the figures with a toothbrush and detergent in water.
2 - dry the figures thoroughly
3 - trim off excess flash and sculpt poor or damaged areas
4 - drill out hands
5 - scrub the figures again with a toothbrush and detergent in water.
6 - dry figures with a hairdrier
7 - base the figures on my painting platform
8 - undercoat figures in watered down black artist acrylics (Atelier).


At point 8 above, I'm having great difficulty in not getting pinpoints of white metal showing through, and in some cases a several mm wide circle!

I've even subsequent to undercoating gone back and hit those spots with full strength Valejo black! Even THAT doesn't seem to have worked!! The rejected area gets smaller and smaller, but come on - it's taking me hours just to undercoat my damned figures!

I'm at a loss as to what to do. Any thoughts?

Hi Ravenflight,

the Madaxeman is right , you must rinse your figures with clear water;
and you must change the paint you use to undercoat, the watered down artist paints aren't good for undercoating (not enough pigments in it), doing micro bubbles when mixed with water or mediums, the better solution apart using sprays( that's what I do ), is to use thinned oil based paint " white or black " depending of what you prefer;
if you thin it with distilled turpentine or white spirit it will dry very fast, cover well and don't hide details on the figures;

best regards

thefrenchjester

[yar68]

Not sure your going to get any better answers than the guys above had already given.

[mbsparta]

If I prepped like that I would die of old age before I got a chance to paint the little fellas.

Mike B