Painting plastic miniatures has been a sticking point with me for years. Though I have thousands of the little guys, the few I have attempted to paint have proceeded to shed their paint rather quickly. Recently, I have become aware of a number of websites where techniques for painting these soft plastic soldiers are discussed.

I have not yet started painting them but I will summarize below the basic techniques discussed on the websites listed below.

1. Wash the figure in warm water and detergent. Rinse thoroughly.

2. Undercoat the figure with PVA (Elmer's) glue, being careful not to allow the glue to obscure detail. Some writers suggest watering down the glue.

3. Spray the figure with your normal undercoat (white, gray, or black).

4. Paint as normal.

5. At this point you have two options. You can either use the oft-discussed dipping technique where one paints a thin layer of Minwax stain onto the figure or apply another coat of PVA.

6. Finally a coat of your favorite overcoat -- gloss or dull -- should finish the job.

I will let everyone know how these techniques work out for me.

Plastic miniatures web sites

• De Bellis Ludis cum Homunculis Mollibus - DBx Wargaming with 20mm Soft Plastic Figures: http://www.geocities.com/dbplastic/
• The 1/72nd Scale Plastic Figures and Low Cost Wargaming Site: http://www.geocities.com/PaddyShoesmith/
• Miniature Zone: http://www.multimania.com/miniaturezone/index.htm
• MacPhee's Military Modeling Site: http://www.angelfire.com/id/macp/modeling.html.