Painting Soft Plastic

I don't paint figures much, but I do have some skill in that area.  Most of my figures are plastic.  Some plastics are so dense that they don't hold paint well, so it is important that you wash off the mold release.  Normal warm water and dishwashing soap is fine for this duty.  Paint likes a rough surface to adhere to and a dense smooth plastic won't hold paint well.  There are three things to try.

Once you paint your figures spray them with a coat of Dullcote.  Dullcote is the easiest method to try and the least effective. But sometimes it works.  White glue, Elmers glue, watered down a bit, with about 75% glue, 25% water can be brush painted on the troops and will dry clear. It can be used to hold the paint on.  It works pretty well.

Minwax, the stuff to stain wood, can be used too, you simply dip the figures into the can and allow it to dry. It comes in many colors. Find an almost clear color, or use it as a technique to weather the figures. I have even posted that weathering technique on Bunker Talk in the past as a way to weather unpainted figures. Twilight Creations Zombies! were dipped in two different shades, a few years ago with good results. It acts like a shading or a wash to fill in the folds with a bit of color, it also seals the model to hold on the paint.

Both the glue and Minwax can obscure very fine detail so a careful inspection and brushing out with an expendable brush are recommended while they are still wet.

http://www.minwax.com/

Try these techniques on a bit of sprue if you still have any, but make sure it is the same brand and same figures, so the plastic is the same. If you don't have any sprue left, try it on a couple figures and see how you like each technique.

You can also prepare your figures in advance by using a plastic primer spray paint.  Rustoleum and other companies make them, they are sold in hardware stores, like OSH and others.  They work pretty well too, and when combined with these finishing techniques make the paint stay on reasonably well.

Them! There! Ants!

What good are giant ants and eggs and such?  They work for this brain bug from Starship Troopers.

Place them in a small town and you have all kinds of miniature havoc.

Bugs go from nuisance to menace when they are a million times bigger.

Imagine this at your front door!

Japanese soldiers attack with a lunge mine.

I used Japanese troops because of their long experience of fighting giant monsters.

Ant Life Cycle Stages

They finally opened a Hobby Lobby store near me; I headed down there with two 40% off coupons and MRS Bunkermeister.

I purchased this product that teaches children about ants.

If you have seen the movie Them! then you know all you need to know about the ant life cycle.

You get a big ant, a collection of eggs, larvae and pupae.

Put a couple sets together and you have a respectable ant colony.  I only got two sets because they only had two sets.

New York in the Thirties

As any pulp gamer will tell you, there is nothing like New York City in the 1930's.

This book, NEW YORK IN THE THIRTIES was originally published just before World War Two.  It is a collection of photographs of the buildings of New York City in the late 1930's.  There are excellent photos of cars and people too, to give you a better idea of the type of vehicles and people you might find on a city street.  No King Kong, however.

I liked the range of places this book covered.  Big impressive buildings, but also everyday and working buildings too.  They even had an airport for seaplanes!  Very cool. 

If you play pulp wargames, this is a great reference book for a great city.