How to paint plastic?

[Yair]

Help me out here, I'm totaly clueless: how to paint plastic miniatures?
The only thing I ever painted was walls, so I really am clueless. What colors does one use? Acrylic? I've heard you need a primer, tha's true? Any help would be highly appreciated.
All that I want is to touch up a WotC plastic mini with some paint to better represent my character, but I want it to hold, and I have no idea how to do it properly.

 

[Desdichado]

It's not really any different than painting other minis. Primer is good, but not necessary if you're touching up already painted minis. I use acrylic "craft paint" or mini paint (although lately, almost exclusively "craft paint" which is an acrylic available at any craft store, and many Wal-Mart type stores, for that matter.

 

[Gregor]

Hey Yair,

If you are planning on just touching up an already painted mini, such as changing his sword from silver to gold or his pants from brown to blue, my suggestion would be to paint the area in question over with either white or black. Use black if the color you want to paint the area is dark - such as a brown, dark green etc. Use white if color you want to paint the area is light - such as a red, yellow, orange, light blue etc. However, this process is only needed if you are going to use a water based paint (which I recommend for plastic minis, since you can control the consistency and depth of color more accurately than an acrylic) since water based paints tend to thin out with only one coat and you may see the orginal color through the new coat. With the use of a white or black prime over the area you wont have that problem.

Anyway, I realized I rambled quite a bit there and I hope it helps. Games Workshop sells really good water-based paints for plastic minis.

Cheers,

 

[diaglo]

you might want to try the minis painting forum:

http://www.enworld.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=55


but Joshua Dyal has it right as far as i'm concerned.

 

[Painfully]

That forum has always been more of a gallery than an advice forum for minis.

Use a paint primer and acrylic paints. I prefer paints from Vallejo, but if those are not available in your area you can usually find Games Workshop paints or Reaper paints in any hobby store that sells minis.

Point your browser to CMON and visit their forums for more info.

 

[JesterPoet]

I highly recommend using primer... Just like painting a wall, you really can't go wrong with priming something before you paint it. But don't go spending $15 for a can of primer from GamesWorkshop (Citadel) that you could get in the hardware store for $1.50. Primer is primer more or less, and rust-o-leum works great.

I also second the suggestion of Vallejo paints. They are beautiful looking, won't dry out as fast as Citadel, and the eye-dropper format is great for mixing colors.

 

[Quasqueton]

I've glued together several plastic minis. Will spraying them with primer help hold them together?

Quasqueton

 

[Desdichado]

I've glued together several plastic minis. Will spraying them with primer help hold them together?

No, that's what the glue was for. What kind of "glue" did you use? I prefer plastic cement for plastic miniatures.

 

[Quasqueton]

Testor's for plastic. But sometimes a head or arm comes off in handling.

Quasqueton

 

[Desdichado]

Well, primer doesn't do too much to hold parts together, if you're already having problems with that, you'll likely continue to have the same problems. I really like my Testor's plastic, though -- I haven't had problems with it. Are you talking about the new D&D minis, or something else? 'Coz in general, there's not much surface there for the glue to grip.