One of those projects is slapping some paint on a Bones miniature to see how things work out. Word from Reaper is that primer is not needed for good results on Bones. The vinyl material, once cleaned with soap and water, is supposed to bond effectively with undiluted acrylic paint.
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| Before painting. Kind of hard to see the details on the miniature. |
I tried that awhile back. After leaving the paint to dry for a couple of days, a close inspection revealed some patchy spots in the paint. A few light scratches with my thumbnail and the paint came right off.
I wouldn't call that a success. Although I now know that Simple Green works as well as it does when stripping a metal miniature.
These are the results of my second attempt. Clean miniature. No primer. This time I was using craft paint. It was a little thick, so I did use some flow improver in it.
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| First basecoat. Note how the paint brought out the details and the lack of paint on the raised areas. |
The first basecoat flowed nicely over the miniature. Note the details that are difficult to see when the miniature is still unpainted. Unfortunately, the paint acted more like a thick wash than a basecoat. The paint
flowed off the raised areas, leaving them lightly stained or white.
I mixed the second basecoat thicker than the first. The coverage was better, but not even.
The worst was when I returned to the miniature a day later. I noticed some patchy areas similar to my first attempt to paint the figure. Some light scratching confirmed my suspicion - the paint came off easily. See the white area on the ear? It's not a reflection, it's where the paint came off. The paint job would not have survived normal storage, much less wear and tear on the tabletop.
Looks like the werewolf will be getting another bath in Simple Green. Next time, I'm hitting it
with some spray primer and going from there.
flowed off the raised areas, leaving them lightly stained or white.
I mixed the second basecoat thicker than the first. The coverage was better, but not even.
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| Second basecoat. The coverage is better, but there are uneven patches not obvious from the photo. |
The worst was when I returned to the miniature a day later. I noticed some patchy areas similar to my first attempt to paint the figure. Some light scratching confirmed my suspicion - the paint came off easily. See the white area on the ear? It's not a reflection, it's where the paint came off. The paint job would not have survived normal storage, much less wear and tear on the tabletop.
Looks like the werewolf will be getting another bath in Simple Green. Next time, I'm hitting it
with some spray primer and going from there.