Re: [DL] Newbie question: miniatures

[matt ryan <mrr15@cornell.edu>]

Morning Everyone,

While I'm new at Deadlands I am not new painting miniature figures. I 
thought I might toss in my two-bits worth and see if it helps anyone.

I glue my figures to a square piece of stiff artist board first. I use 
pretty conventional sized: 3/4" square for most standing figures and 1" 
square for horsemen, critters and bigger things. Then, I only handle the 
figure using the square.

I tried gluing the figures to a stick. For me this was cumbersome and 
necessitated removing and re-gluing the figure later. By gluing it to a 
square base I could handle the figure without touching its surface. I would 
then paint and decorate this base, making it part of the finished figure. 
The beauty of this was that I never had to really touch the figure once it 
was cemented to the base.

When it was finished, I would blast the hell out of it with some sort of 
artist fixer. I would buy a spray can of non-gloss finisher (I can't 
remember exactly what this is called other than "fixer"). A nice, even coat 
would protect the finished model from wearing off its paint with casual 
handling, without blocking or bulking over any of the detail.

I never noticed a big difference washing a figure before I painted it. That 
is only my experience; I don't wish to nay say anyone who does this and has 
success with it. Then again, I did most of my painting during the late 80's 
and early 90's, when the figures were 100% lead. I don't know if today's 
figures are still made entirely of lead. I can not insist how important 
priming the figure is, though.

Matt