13 replies to this topic

[chipchuck]

I had the chaotic pleasure of speed painting at RC12 this year, and wanted to share some thoughts on Bones (as we were given in Speed Painting)

There has been talk that you can go primer-less with them. That's a yes and no. As speed painting began I mixed my paint and thinned to my normal consistency to find that the paint beaded up on the unprimed bone. Using straight out of the bottle MSP did cover though.

Talking with Micheal Proctor in his Shading Metallics class (Take this class if you can, AMAZING!) he recommended giving it a light spray of Dullcoat to help the paint adhere. Probably good advice.

Still, the price point makes this line a dream for the battlemat GM that needs 120 kobolds to run the old Dragon Mountain adventure box!

Oh, and my mini came down to the final two that needed an extra judge. I got beat by a girl, but I'm okay with that. :)

[nytflyr]

There has been talk that you can go primer-less with them. That's a yes and no. As speed painting began I mixed my paint and thinned to my normal consistency to find that the paint beaded up on the unprimed bone. Using straight out of the bottle MSP did cover though.

that was my experience as well, both the paint issues and being beat by a girl :P

unfortunately, being a speed paint and the use of such a tiny figure (the kobold) made it really difficult to come up with any kind of conclusive opinion concerning the bones

[Inarah]

I found that straight out of the bottle the paint did go on pretty well, but it was much more likely to rub off with the lightest handling. Like other plastic figures I will probably be giving these a light shot of primer before I paint.

[parvusmachina]

I am working on a troll right now and here is what I am experiencing.

I washed the mini with warm water and soap and let dry over night.

I then used brush on primer and noticed the primer beading at some spots.

Even after priming, it rubs off with minor handling during painting. To be fair, my hands do tend to sweat a little and I have this issue on other minis as well. I remedy this by wearing a rubber glove on my handling hand.

I did attempt to apply a straight wash to a bare bones mini and had similar pooling issues.

For the price point, I really like the bones minis for a quick RPG setup. Nothing like fielding a squad of 20+ skeleton spearmen for under 15 bucks!

[DixonGrfx]

Don't handle the mini with your fingers. Home Depot or Lowe's sell a yellow or blue tack adhesive for hanging posters and other thing like that on walls. (Think chewing gum, only without the saliva) It works great for holding your mini in place to some kind of base large enough to use as a handle while you paint it. Some folks use a paint pot, I use a chessex dice box as my handle. Got that tip from some of the pros that paint at the Reaper paint club. That should help keep the oils from your fingers transferring to your mini and prevent your fingers from rubbing off paint. That may help with your paint pooling issue, but couldn't say for sure. The other thing may be that your paint is too thin to paint strait on. I haven't tried the paint on primmer with the bones line. But the MSP worked great for me strait out of the bottle without beading up.

[Mclimbin]

I found (painting the troll) that the paint does bead a little as you first apply it, but when you apply the second coat it evens out and completely stops beading. I always paint with a painting rig (I use double sided tape instead of blue tack) and didn't have any problems with the paint coming off. Used it in a game afterwards and the paint didn't come off (after a shot of dullcote and some gloss varnish for the raw parts).

It seems like it's going to be a problem as you apply your first coat but once that first coat is done it's not a problem at all.

[TheBucklandBrewer]

To avoid paint beading up or turning into little pools that leave a dry concentrated trace on it's surface (typical problem with washes) it usually helps adding a drop of soapy water (empty paintpot filled with water and a drop of detergent), or wet your brush with the soapy water... The detergent breaks the surface-tension of your paint-mixture so your wash with spread allover the surface you apply it to.

I often basecoat mini's with just regular brush-on paint, adding a small drop of the soapy water and it seems to help on metal and several resins...

If I plan to paint for display-purpose only, I pin the mini's on a cork (a reason to empty a bottle of wine ;-) ) or use blue-tac (well, some other local brand called 'Pritt') depending on what plans I have with the base. It helps a lot for turning around the mini to all sides without rubbing off paint with my fingers.

I have a little army of skeletons done, where I barely used a brush for the bones...
They were however basecoated with a white primer...
My bones were done by filling an old coffee-cup with first a good amount of green paint and water down (to milky concentrate) till I had enough to be able to baptise the mini completely under the paint-water. (or use a dropper to give them a shower). In 10 minutes I had done about 40 skeletons.
Next I repeated with a brown paint, dipped them all again for a second wash.
In a third stage I watered down a sepia-kinda ink and used a large brush to wash em all.
The final dip (in a cup) was black.
Once all that was dry, I went over to brushworks with drybrushing a bone-coloured paint and ending with white.

All that was left was painting weapons and cloths... (oh, aswell as I had to clean the floor and table of all the spilled paint-water...) but the preparations were done in only a couple of hours (including drying-times) for 40 skeletons.

Wether the paint sticks good enough to play with them or not, I can't tell since I've never battled with them so far... but they look nice enough to fill the shelf ;-)

[TGP]

I recently tried painting the Bones version of Bloodmane (the gnoll) by first giving the whole figure a dark wash. I had mixed brown ink, msp brown liner, and msp black with water. Ratio was probably something like 1:1:1:3.

The wash beaded up and made a dripping mess. I ended up dunking the whole figure in the water cup ... everything rinsed off.

I also got to paint a kobold during one of the speedpaint games. Had better luck with it but the basecoat was glopped on undiluted.

Has anybody tried basecoating a bones figure with PVA (Elmer's et al.) glue?

[Sergeant_Crunch]

I would think that base coating with PVA would remove whatever tooth you would have had.

[TGP]

The PVA coating was a technique I read about being used by some historical gamers. They were using it on those tiny, 1/72, plastic figures that are [were?] produced by the likes of Revell and Airfix.

Their issue was that paint tended to peel away from wobbly bayonets, swords, spears on figures that small but the PVA undercoat was supposed to solve it.

I have never tried it on anything --- just wondered if anybody had tried it on these bones figs . . . those kobolds are about the size of Airfix Napoleonics.

[TheBucklandBrewer]

I think painting over PVA can be tricky...
I used PVA in the past to create a kinda wood-grain effect on carton (with a toothbrush-kinda-sturdy brush) since I had run out of balsawood.
When I painted over the PVA once dry and hardened, the paint kinda clogged together causing small cracks into the paint-coat.
Of course, for an old battered woodeffect, this technique was ace (the woodgrain and the cracks)! But for the use on miniatures I'm not sure.
I guess PVA still has a constant elasticity once turned solid.

[herzogbrian]

Yeah, you gotta go 'old school' plastics painter on the bones. After washing with a serious soap (Dawn or dilute Tide), allow to dry over night. (Old tooth brushes are still good for something.)

Then spray with a light coat of lacquer (dull coat/Krylon/&c. ..even had a buddy that used cheap White Rain Hairspray!!). This seals the plastic so it does not leach and lift the paint.

I have plastic Airfix Napoleonics that still have their paint 30 yrs after they were painted!!!!!

[haldir]

After tossing my minty green kobold into my backpack for the return trip I will attest to the MSPs sticking to Bones quite well .

I experienced the pooling issues but it went away after I applied a coat of paint & let it dry. Granted in a speed paint, not much time for that, still thou I was impressed with Bones. Will I give up my metal for them, nahhh but they are a nice alternative thou + I WILL be getting those 2 Bones only releases that are upcoming.

RM

[mustardgreens]

Don't handle the mini with your fingers. Home Depot or Lowe's sell a yellow or blue tack adhesive for hanging posters and other thing like that on walls. (Think chewing gum, only without the saliva) It works great for holding your mini in place to some kind of base large enough to use as a handle while you paint it.

You can also use Babybel red cheese wax if you're desperate. Rolling it between your palms will heat it up and make it pliable, and when it cools it will set and harden. It's a good light adhesive in a pinch.