Cheap WWII Plastic; The Pacific, p.2 - the U.S.

X-acto blades & Band-aids...

...two great things that go great together - unfortunately.

Pushing forward with this project quickly, I cleaned the U.S. Army figs with an x-acto blade, occasionally rubbing bits off with my thumbnail, Steps 1 and 2 below. It took about 10 minutes per fig with these hard-er plastics. Of course, I got one shallow cut from the back swing of the X-acto blade; this insured that I managed a jagged cut with one of the sharpest blades around which is PURE GENIUS!!!

These figs are still softer than the styrene in the high quality wargame plastics like Perry Brothers, Warlord, etc, but harder and much easier to work with than AIP. In the Bucket of Army Men, they cost about 10 cents a fig! 

The process I'm following is modified from a previous post on soft plastic painting techniques [CLICK]:

1. Gentle-scrape mold lines with X-Xacto, cut obtrusive plastic bits, etc
2. Rub or scrape with fingernail flaky little bits of plastic
3. Soak in [hot water, dish soap], scrub w' toothbrush, warm water rinse, air dry
4. Dupli-Color vinyl [grey, black, tan?]
5. Spray with the basic color [or close tone] of the uniform.
6. PVC glue / water mix against areas of visible mold lines, etc to soften contrast.
7. [Black wash - if strong shadowing desired]
8. Block paint [the highlights if using step 7]
9. Miracle-dip shaded or clear gloss / satin coat, depending on desired finish. Gloss = more toy Soldier look, flat is more realistic, etc.

This is largely derived from the ubiquitous and always useful to read "Dervel" at TMP.

Dervel:

My process learned from a master of painting flexible plastic figures is:

1. Wash with soapy water.
2. Spray with flexible plastic like Dupli-Color vinyl and fabric spray (from Autozone).
3. Paint with my usual water based acrylics.
4. Spray with Plasti-dip clear.
5. Testors Dullcote to reduce the shine.

In Step 3. I used the common dish soap we had in the house, figuring that is is made to cut grease, so should work on the mold residue oils or whatever.

I use these plastic containers from a favorite Chinese food place to store and transport lots of my 15mm WWII figs / tanks. They are free and stack pretty well, altho they aren't the ideal shape. I usually use a clean cotton rag to cushion them. Here, you can put hot water and dishoap in them, seal them up and shake briskly to get the initial cleaning done.

I then scrub with a soft toohbrush, but a medium or hard might work a bit better depending on the job. Be certain to support any weak bits of the model with your fingers soasnotto break them, e.g. the M2 barrel below:


Step 4, I'm still trying out the Dupli-color vinyl spray recommended by Dervel. It is not cheap, at about $8 a can, but I do like the way it goes on - not too wet. Note that I'm spraying "down" the model towards the base. The base would shadow some of the spray otherwise. 

I then go along the row in both directions. It is best to wait about 15-30 minutes for an initial drying of each coat. More thin coats are supposed to be stronger than one wet one.

After an hour or more, I flip and do the other side. It is also possible to stand them up to spray them, BUT you would almost certainly have to lightly glue them to the cardboard as the power of the spray itself will usually knock them over. As I do other tasks around the house between coats, I'm not really in a hurry, so flipping them is fine with me.

Note that the angling down the row in both directions gets most of the side, but not "up" the fig from the bottom [below]:

...which does require a light coat "up" the figure. I also think it's good to prime the bottom of the figs base as it will help it be glued to any base for continued ease of handling during the painting process.

For Step 5, I used what was laying around the house, a spray can of Testors #1265 Flat Olive Drab, which seems like a good medium tone to use - not too dark or too light.

This turns out to be a bit wet, and there's some pooling underneath the models where they touch the cardboard:

View of wet splotch on the elbow to right - will dry looking bad:

Wiped off the blotches of excess spray paint with alcohol and a clean rag, and they're looking pretty good...

...and with the flash. Below is a 1.5x2" base I'll be using.
...and in the laundry room - driest room in the house thanks to the gas furnace. They can cure all night as long as Home 6 doesn't tear into the room and toss them everywhere putting in the laundry - another hazardous duty for them!

Next day, they are well dried, and here's their status:

Color and mold lines are OK. Unfortunately, I missed the subtler injection circles on them. On both torsos: 

and on legs:

They will be more noticeable after painting / dipping. Only way I can see to hide them is with Green Stuff. This is a bit annoying as I haven't worked with it in years, but I think it's going to be a requirement for working with these fellows.

More on this, and the basing, soon!