The second unit was originally painted as Confederate infantry, but they had been varnished, which had turned brown. My only option was to drop them into the paint stripper and return them to bare metal. I have painted them as a Federal infantry unit:
The final unit is made up of Union Zouaves. These figures were nicely painted and being blue, had not been affected by the varnish, but they were a bit worn with paint chips. These figures were restored by adding paint to the earlier work:
Good looking units. The old Minifigs do present a pleasing figure when cleaned up.
ReplyDeleteI agree that once painted they do look rather nice.
DeleteI do like these Minifigs , they have a lot of character.
ReplyDeleteThanks, I think the moulding is always very consistent too. Other companies tend to grow in height over time.
DeleteI love Minifigs... en masse they are lovely
ReplyDeleteThey seem to lose that over chubby look once painted and based and deployed in a group.
DeleteI think S range look better, but I enjoy painting the chubby later figures.
ReplyDeleteHi Collector.
ReplyDeleteI am not keen on using gloss varnish as over time it often goes yellow. Besides, if you use gloss paints then there is no need to varnish. I put on just one undercoat.. I use motor trade primer, such as Halfords white, black or grey. For horses I often use red oxide primer.
Overall, I prefer white primer as the colours are more vibrant, but if I was painting a really dark colour, such as rifle green I may use black primer.
Humbrol matt would work well, however, car primer is very quick to apply being a spray paint and it provides a very smooth surface to paint on. I have had no problems with paint 'sticking' when painting metal figures.
ReplyDeleteI think the choice of undercoat or primer depends upon the final colour of the figure. Grey is a good neutral option though.
ReplyDeleteI stopped flocking my figures as, apart from liking the simple look, it makes it much easier if you later decide to change the basing arrangement.
Unfortunately I do not have that book, but it sounds interesting.
ReplyDeleteRegarding primers, I agree.
ReplyDelete