In this short article I hope to inspire a few of you to give plastic figures a try. I think the major knock on plastic soldiers, other than they never have had complete lines, was that they were difficult to paint. Meaning, the paint tended to flake of and not adhere to the plastic surface. I will explain a few techniques, that if followed, will allow you to p~unt your figures without worry a flaking paint.

REMOVING FIGURES FROM THE SPRUE, AND REMOVING FLASH

Let's first start with the first tool required for plastic figure p~unting. As with lead soldiers an X-Acto knife is needed to trim off flash and remove the figures from their sprue. I suggest that you change the blade often to insure you have the sharpest blade at all times. This is an essential point, as a dull blade will have a tendency to 'Hack' up the figures. Also you must be very careful when cleaning up mold lines.

Unlike lead figures that allow you to drag the blade over the mold line several times, without the fear of scraping away too much lead, the plastic will come off in great gobs and ruin the figures if you are careless in this area.

WASHING THE FIGURES TO REMOVE GREASE

The next step, and the most important, is to wash your figures. The reason for this is very simple. Plastic figures are made by injection plastic process, with the molds being made out of hard metal. The insides of the molds are heavily greased to facilitate removal of the figures from the mold. This grease is of course transferred to the surface of the plastic figure.

This is compounded by the oil on your hands when you remove the figures from their sprues. I'm sure everyone knows that grease and paints do not mix. The grease has to me removed in order for the plastic surface to accept paint. I use old Jiffy Peanut Buner plastic jars, with lids, to place my figures in. I then drop in some liquid detergent, I use Dawn, a heavy dose of ammonia, followed by very hot water. I mix this concoction up, put the lid on the jar and let this sit around for a few days.

When you feel that the figures have been in this bath long enough, it is time to remove them. I use a strainer to catch the figures, then give them a good rinse with cold water. Dry the figures off with a towel or air dry, trying to have as lime contact by your bare hands as possible. Once the figures are dry you are ready for step three.

PRIMING FIGURES

The third step in this process is no less critical than the first two. If you want to mount your figures on sticks before priming or leave them loose, depending on your method of painting, it is up to the individual. In this stage you must use acrylic paint of some kind.

I use black spray paint but the bottom line is, it must be acrylic paint. Acrylic paint forms a permanent bond with the plastic figure, shrinking on to the figure as it dries. In essence becoming a second skin. If you prefer a brush make sure it is large and that paint is worked into all surface area of the figure.

After the figures are thoroughly dry I mount them on craft sticks for ease in painting. Remember the priming color does not have to be black but any color that you wish. Some example I have seen is to prime the figure in a shade darker color than the uniform color. As an example British infantry could be primed with an Umber color. This saves a step when drybrushing the uniform.

From here on out you may paint these figures as you would any lead figure. I always use acrylic paints for this anyway' so that is what I stick with.

SEALING THE FIGURES

Once you have completed the paint job on your figure it must be sealed. I use a matte sealer, but any type will do. My advice is to apply a heavy spray sealer coat to encase and protect your plastic figure. This is a must and adds another layer of protection over the plastic keeping the paint in place. It may be beneficial to give the figures two coats of sealer. Over doing it a bit is better than not enough.

SOME ADVISE ON CONVERSION

One of the disadvantages of the plastic lines is that the are generally not very complete. Let's say you want some French lancers, but they are not made for plastics. What now? Well here's were the real fun of plastic figures comes in, conversions. Some simple tools for convasion work are, an X-Acto blade very sharp, 0.3 gauge piano wire, small pliers or wire cutters, and a 25 watt soldering iron with it's tip removed and an X-Acto end screwed in to replace it.

Now back to the French lancer. First off I use the body of a ESCI polish lancer figure and the head of an ESCI Austrian line troop, with helmet. I start off by cutting the heads off of all the Polish lancers and Austrians using the X-Acto knife. I then cut the piano wire into lengths of 10-15mm. Taking the pliers I push the wire into the torso of our Polish lancer. Leave only a short peg sticking out of the top of the plastic torso. The next step is to push the Austrian head onto the peg. Once in place I then use the soldering iron to fuse the head to the body.

PLASTIC VS LEAD FIGURES

Without attempting to start any sort of controversy, I would like to plug plastic figures for a minute. I would like to point out just a couple of advantages of plastic figures. First off I just love the scale. I have armies in both 15mm and 25mm but for reasons I can't fully explain 20mmm seems to strike the perfect balance. 20mm figures are large enough to allow you to paint them up to museum quality standards, but still be able to represent large tactical games because the figures are still small enough to pull it off.

Cost. Plastics are still cheaper than 15mm lead figures and far less expensive than 25mm figures. The figures are much lighter and easier to transport. Plastics are nearly indestructible, and are not likely to be damaged. Plastic figures do not tear up your brushes as much as there lead brethren do. A small point, but brushes are really expensive these days.

In a future article I will talk specifically on the conversion I did to create all the troop types for the 1815 campaign.

1/72nd Scale Plastic Napoleonic Figures