Whether you are a beginner or an old hand at war games, there are always some troops you'll wish to convert. paint, or repair. You'll find it very handy to know how to use a soldering iron. for despite the most careful handling, you're bound to have a few casualties amongst your figures, and you'll want to repair them. Converting and repairing Mainly the tools you will need are an X-acto knife (with No. I I blade), an electric soldering iron (Unger Electric Iron), and a small bench vise. These tools are all available at hobby shops. A good set of files is handy also, and we recommend the small Swiss clock makers type for general use with soldiers. (Most of the tools essential to converting are available from Bob Bard.) Conversion means simply that you convert a commercial figure you have purchased into something else - either to a new position, or to a different type of soldier. Thus, you can convert a Union soldier of the Civil War into a British foot soldier of Waterloo, or, by cutting off one foot from a stand and bending the leg, you can convert an advancing infantryman to a charging soldier Soldering is the simplest, fastest, and strongest method of repairing or converting. It takes some experience to do a good job, but remember, the more you do, the better yhou get, so don't give it up for a bad job if you have troubles at first. There are some basic points to remember in soldering: 1. Always have a hot iron, a clean and a sharp point, 2. Use a good soldering past or acid. 3. Use solid core solder, not acid or resin core. 4. Always apply the solder in tiny lots, not huge blobs. 5. Keep a good file handy to keep your point sharp and clean, and to file off the roughness after a soldering job. 6. Read thoroughly the section in Bob Bard's book on soldering, for he covers it thoroughly. (Chapter 6 of Making and Collecting Military Miniature .) The biggest "secret" about successful soldering is knowing how to use your soldering iron. Never hold the iron in one hand and the solder in the other and apply it this way. Instead, dip your hot iron in the soldering paste, pick up a tiny dab of solder on the sharp end of the iron, and apply this bit of solder to the joint you are putting together. The soldering paste holds the solder to the iron, which transfers it to the part you are soldering. Thus, in soldering an arm to a torso, you may need to "dip and transfer" several times before enough solder is there to fill the foint. This is better, however, than huge gobs of solder suddenly falling upon a joint from a roll of solder, and much easier to file down and smooth up afterwardsl You can use this "dip and transfer" method in repairing figures also. If you break the gun off a soldier, for example, merely clean the paint off right at the break and solder the gun back, or substitute a piece of wire about the same size. A repaint job, and you'll never know it was broken. Solder is also excellent for building up soldiers, for example, new equipment or perhaps a change in headgear, and after experience, you should be able to completely change any commercial figures to special troops for your war game table. At places on a soldier where strength is not too necessary, glue will often do the job quickly and efficiently. I have found the best and strongest glues, as well as being quick drying, are Ambroid and Duco glues. Knapsacks, bags, and even riders glued to horses are better glued than soldered in most cases. Painting Whether you buy painted or unpainted figures, you'll at one time or another want to paint war game soldiers. There is one thing to remember about war game soldiers, especially the 30mm and smaller sizes. Detail is not too important, the overall effect is what counts. One can never inspect a war game soldier closely without a slight shudder, but on the table, in regimental formation, they look swell. And after all, that is what counts for you're not painting a competition piece or collector's item, but a soldier you're going to fight with and which will ge roughly handled. What kind of paint is best for the war game figure? I think I have tried them all - flat paint, oils, airplane model dope, silkscreen, Flo-paque, water paints, and Pactra Namels. They are all good, and my suggestion is that you use inexpensive, easy to purchase paints that you can find in your local hobby store. But no matter what type of paint you do use, the main factor in preserving you paint job is what you do after its painted. After you paint the soldier you should use a colorless spray varnish of some type to cover the figure with a protective film. This film of varnish will protect the paint for years. It really doesn't matter if the varnish is glossy or dull, it will soon dull down from handling. With a film of varnish over them, you'll even be able to wash your soldiers in water and soap without harm, and you'll be amazed at their brightness and new appearance after each such washing. The painting of a war game soldier is much different than painting a shelf soldier you wish to show. You can use a mass production method, and should line up from 10 to 20 soldiers at a time, painting one color on them all before going on to the next color. Don't attempt to paint one soldier completely at a time - you'll be painting forever and never will get a war game in! After painting thousands of war game figures (for myself) I've found two secrets about painting them. One is a technique that might be called the "sloppy undercoat and careful overcoat" method. The other is to use various types of paint that will not mix and run together when applied one over the other. Let's take the latter secret first. In order to keep paint from running through from a bottom coat of paint, it is best to use a different type of paint for the overcoat layer. For example, you have painted on a blue coat on a soldier and need to put the white cross belts on him. The blue is apt to run through the white and discolor it badly. It is best then to use a different type of white paint than the blue. Let us say the blue paint was a silk-screen paint. Therefore, use a white oil or white water case in paint for the cross belts. They will not mix nor run together. Colors that are compatible, say blue and black, need not be different types of paint, for even if they run together, it won't show. But yellow over blue, white over black, or any light color painted over a dark color will probably not do well. This is the point where you bring in another type of paint. The color white is always a problem and I suggest you use a flat white enamel undercoat paint, obtainable at any paint store. This generally dries flat, dries quickly, and seldom runs with any other undercoat paint. My sloppy undercoat, careful overcoat method of painting starts with the largest area on the figure, and applying the paint freely and without regard for belts, straps, or uniform lines, such as coat lines or cuff lines. For example, taking the blue coat above, you slop the blue on the coat, covering everything on the coat (belts, knapsacks, etc.) and even slopping over on the pants, neck, or hands without regard. All the soldiers are painted the one color and generally are dry by the time you get ready to start another coat of paint. A step-by-step account may help in explaining my technique of painting, We have painted the blue coat and now need gray pants. Since the blue may run with the gray, it is best here to change types of paint. Now this new color, gray, will be neatly applied at the line where the coat and the pants meet (neat overcoat) but from that point downwards on the figure you may again slop the paint on. Eventually, when you paint the shoes, you'll paint a neat line where the pants cuff meets the shoes, then cover the shoes thoroughly, even painting a part of the stand in the process. When the stand is painted green, you'll make the edge of the shoes neat and slap the paint on the rest of the stand without regard. I believe this explains the sloppy undercoat, neat overcoat method. You'll find it is a fast and efficient way of painting war game figures. They look horrible during the process of painting, but you'll be more than happy when the figure is finished, provided you have painted on the neat overcoat paint neatly. I've found the best paint for finishing off the details on war game figures are oil paints Other paints tend to dull down when applied over a coat of undercoat paint, but oils kept their true colors. Thus, on a Napoleonic Grenadier, oil-painted red epaulettes look RED- while a Flopaque or silk screen red will turn rust colored. Also, the oil paint's turpentine or linseed oil will not dry up during the process of painting a stripe down a pant leg. By using Japan Drier with the oils you'll find it dries quite fast also. One important tool you'll need in painting is a spring-loaded clothes pin Whittle the points down and use the clothes pin to hold the figure by the stand while you're painting it Remember, the less you handle the soldier while painting it, the better, and the clothes pin helps a lot to do this. You may want to outline belts, or put on facial details. If so, try a pen and India ink It works very well, The best general brush for the "sloppy" painting is the square tipped type, rather than the pointed type. For finish work I recommend the Windsor-New1on Series 12 miniature brushes, sizes 00 and 000, And I also recommend the spray cans of paint on the market for soldiers in solid colored uniforms. This is a fast, effective, and neat way of applying paint to war games soldiers. More All About Wargames Chapter 1: Introduction Chapter 2: Troops Chapter 3: Converting and Painting Chapter 4: Wargame Set Up Chapter 5: Army Organization Chapter 6: Basic Rules Chapter 7: Campaigns Back to MWAN #106 Table of Contents Back to MWAN List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 2000 Hal Thinglum This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com