Temporarily Painting Minis?

[TarionzCousin]

What's a good way to paint minis temporarily? As in, I want to wash this off eventually.

Longer version: I have a "Bluespawn Godslayer" miniature. It's blue and somewhat over three inches tall. I want it to temporarily be black for my current campaign. What paint/ink/other could I use to dye it black?

I'll be handling it, so I want something that doesn't rub off easily.

And if it's not just watercolor paint, I can use rubbing alcohol or some other paint remover after--but will it leave the original blue color on the plastic?

 

[Clint_L]

It's already painted, so you want to temporarily paint it black but then remove that paint and go back to the original paint job? Is that correct? Because that is really hard to do, especially since you want something that won't rub off easily. Almost anything you use will be very hard to remove without damaging the original paint, and leaving some behind in the cracks (though on this miniature, that would probably look pretty good).

I don't recommend this. I suppose if I had to try I would first put a matte varnish on the original to protect the paint, then use a diluted black wash which, given how dark the miniature already is, should basically make it look like black with highlights. Then I would scrub it off with warm soapy water. Rubbing alcohol or paint thinners will be very hard to control so that they don't damage the original paint.

It seems like a lot of work, and I don't think your miniature will be returned to exactly its original appearance.

 

[Cruentus]

I’ll suggest a couple of options, but I make no guarantees that this will work or that it might not eventually hurt or damage the model.

1) the first thing you could try would be to just use a black wash (many available from multiple paint manufacturers - Games Workshop, Vallejo, Army Painter, Reaper, etc). Doing a couple of rounds of straight wash over the miniature will darken it enough (and black should really be a dark blue, so the blue minis helps here). When you are done, a short bath in LA Totally Awesome cleaner (found in DIY stores or dollar stores) will easily remove the black wash, but might also remove the blue paint. Actually, any paint remover is likely to also remove the blue.

2) paint the model with acrylic black paint (any kind, even craft store) to get the look you want, and then, same as above, soak it in a degreaser or paint remover and scrub it off. Without a primer coat under it, it shouldn’t really adhere too much, and should survive handling in play.

the caveat is that there are lots of different ‘plastic’ materials out there, and they may all react differently to LA Totally Awesome, Simple Green, or Purple Power, which are all removers I’ve used on all kinds of plastics and resins; and the other side are the paint thinner/removers, baths in straight Pine Sol, or scrubbing with rubbing alcohol, which I’ll use for metal models, but not any kind of plastics.

Hope those help. With anything, doing a test model to see how it works never goes wrong. I’ve created several puddles of plastic after putting a plastic model in a paint stripper that was, I realized after, way too strong.

 

[soviet]

The cheapest and easiest solution is probably to just buy a second copy.

 

[TarionzCousin]

The cheapest and easiest solution is probably to just buy a second copy.

I want this to be a test run.

I have several blue drain minis, but this campaign has black dragons.

 

[aco175]

I was thinking that you might be able to put on some Elmer's glue to form a layer of peelable paint after you are done. Might need to apply some oil to the base mini first. You might be able to even add black paint to the glue. I would try it on a junk mini first though. Not sure if the glue would peel the base paint or not.

 

[iPwnedMSCS]

If I were to try something along these lines, I'd put down an acrylic satin varnish first and then use a black oil wash. When you're ready to go back, mineral spirits to remove the oil paint and then a matte varnish. There will likely still be some darkening that you won't be able to remove.

Honestly, it would probably be better to pick one of the several blue dragons and just dedicate it to being a black dragon from here on out.

 

[aramis erak]

One idea - the Staedtler black barreled markers, labeled permanent, are not - the ink remains alcohol soluble for years. If the existing paint isn't alcohol soluble, nor soluble with the Staedtler base, then it can be used to darken and/or alter the shades dramatically.
The grey barreled ones are water soluble, and my preferred overhead pen.

 

[MGibster]

I'm a miniatures collector/painter myself, and while I love finding the perfect figure for a game, you've got to temper your expectations with reality. Anything you do to alter the color of your miniature runs a serious risk of ruining the original paint job. Even if you find something effective to strop off the new paint while preserving the original, it's going to be a pain in the rear scrubbing every nook & cranny of your miniatures to get it back to its original condition.

1. Assuming you're in the United States, LA's Totally Awesome is a cleaning product you can find at places like Dollar General or Dollar Tree and I've yet to find a product as good at stripping paint off a miniature without damaging it. Be warned, it may strip the original paint job.

2. Inks and washes will probably stain your miniature beyond restoration. (You could always have it repainted blue but I suspect the original will be damaged.)

3. Liquid Mask: You could purchase liquid mask and slather it all over the mini, paint over that, and when done peel it off. The miniature will likely look terrible.

My advice is to simply accept that your miniatures are blue and run with it. As I said, I love having the perfect miniature, but that's not practical. The other day I used a Games Workshop giant as a proxy for a Behemoth in the Fallout game I'm running. It worked well and the players didn't mind.