We're Off to Paint the Wizard

I am still in the process of doing the conversions on my little band of Reaper Bones goblins to prepare them for the Blood Bowl pitch. While I am finishing that conversion work, I thought I would make a diversion to paint a test figure. Since I have not had experience painting on Bones plastic before, I thought that it would be prudent to do a quick paint job on another figure in this material to get a feel for how it behaves before diving in and painting my goblins. My first step was to reread the Bones FAQ since one of Reaper's claims with their Bones line is that they are "ready to paint right out of the package." I was curious to know if this claim would hold true. My instinct was to prep them with a spray primer as I do with metal figures, but I had heard multiple reports of spray primers reacting badly with the Bones plastic and did not want to repeat those mistakes.

After looking through my collection of Bones, I decided on a wizard to use as my test subject. I am not much of a fan for integrated bases on miniatures. I like the uniform dimensions of using "standard" size bases and find that it gives figures much more stability. I started the prep on my wizard by gluing him down, integrated base and all, to a 25mm square base. I considered snipping him off of the integrated base and mounting him without it, but I felt like just gluing the whole thing down would be quicker and less bothersome to make sure that he's standing straight. I added a small amount of green stuff around the edges to round things out.

With the prep finished, I started adding paint. With the first brush stroke, the hydrophobic nature of the plastic was evident. If the paint that you use for your base layer is too watery, then the paint will have a slight tendency to bead up. For the base layers, I found it best not to thin my paint very much but instead to use it closer to the consistency straight from the pot. This hydrophobic characteristic makes putting down base coats feel quite different than doing the same on a mini with primer. However, once a base coat is down, the painting experience is pretty much the same. For a very nice review of how paint behaves on Bones plastic, please reference this article: Painting Bones Miniatures: The First Coat is the Difference.

As an additional test for this wizard project, I wanted to test out "the dip" technique. "The dip" is a common speed painting technique that is used to quickly add shading to an entire model. It's not a method that provides instant Golden Demon caliber paint jobs, but it can provide very passable table-top quality results. The fundamental concept for "the dip" is to paint your figure by applying base coats only (usually lighter pigments are better) and then applying a pigmented varnish to the entire model. "The dip" terminology refers to the process of literally dipping the entire model in the varnish and then shaking of the excess. A less messy technique is to use a throw-away brush to brush the varnish onto the figure. This is a more controlled and less messy approach and is the way I'm going to do the application. Army Painter makes a line of Quickshade products that are directly intended for this dipping technique. They also have multiple tutorials in their Galleries that detail this approach with step by step instructions. Another popular product that is used for "the dip" is the Minwax line of PolyShades. Although intended as a wood stain, PolyShades is a similar product to Army Painter's offering and can yield similar results at around a quarter to a third of the price of the Army Painter solution.

Here is my wizard after applying the base coats. I did add a quick bit of basic highlighting before "the dip" since that extra step can help yield even better results.

And, here's the result after using "the dip" on the wizard and letting the varnish set up overnight. The approach that I took was to use a very inexpensive craft brush to apply Minwax PolyShades Antique Walnut satin sheen. The antique walnut sheen is a dark brown shade with a bit of red in it, very similar to Citadel's agrax earthshade. With my cheap brush, I was able to help prevent the varnish from pooling excessively in crevices and I did not have to find an area where I could shake the miniature about with reckless abandon.

The shading really brings out the detail on his cane, makes the pouches across his chest pop out, and adds a pretty good lining effect all over the model where there are creases, such as where folds of clothes meet and the leather bits on his wrists and feet. For many table-top applications, leaving him at this stage would be acceptable, but I would at least recommend applying a matte sealer to knock off some of the shine from the varnish.

To finish the wizard, I touched up a few areas and added some highlights to make the shading pop just a bit more. Finally, I finished the base using a little more of Citadel's texture paint and then sprayed the whole figure with coat of Army Painter's Anti-Shine Matt spray.

I'm satisfied with the results and glad that I took this journey, both to get familiar with the Bones plastic and to see the effectiveness of "the dip" method. The end result is a figure which, with the exception of the base and a few minor touch-ups, was painted in a single evening. Since the Bones plastic is very flexible these figures have the ability to absorb impacts and spring back to shape after being deformed. I think that gives them a leg up in the durability category over resin or metal figures which can break or become disfigured if they're knocked from the table or handled roughly. That kind of impact resistance is not something all gamers need to take into consideration, but between the Bones plastic and the dip varnish I don't feel like I need to worry about this figure breaking or the paint job getting chipped. To close out, here are some pros and cons about Bones and "the dip" that I identified during this project.

Bones Advantages:

• Cheap!
• Durable and can stand up to some rough handling.
• No need to use primer before painting.

Bones Disadvantages:

• Prep is difficult. It is hard to clean mold lines because of the elastic nature of the plastic.
• Figures often have warped bits out of the package that require reshaping.
• When painting over the white plastic, it is sometimes hard to see detail on the figure.
• Not as easy to convert as resin or more rigid plastics.

Dip Advantages:

• Quick way to add shade to an entire figure.
• Seals and shades with a single application.
• Provides a very durable seal after drying.

Dip Disadvantages:

• Do not have full control of what the shading will look like.
• Paint thinner is required for clean up. If brushing on, may wish to consider using throw-away brushes.
• Stripping the miniature if you want to repaint it is tougher.
• Takes a while to fully dry.
• Leaves a high-shine finish. Easily resolved by spraying with a matte sealer one fully dry.