17 replies to this topic

[zoroaster100]

I was wondering if anyone has suggestions or a link to a tutorial on painting up translucent plastic miniatures? When the Bones Fire It Up and ghost miniatures arrive I hope to add a little paint to portions of the minis while still preserving a lot of the translucent quality for most of the miniature. In the meantime, I ordered some cheap transluscent blue plastic water elementals that I can use to practice. But I was hoping to find some inspiration and ideas from what other folks have done with translucent minis.

[CashWiley]

Just pulling this out of my butt, since Bones vinyl doesn't take washes well, maybe Dullcote then wash?

[ThornDJL7]

Dullcote on clear stuff has a weird effect. I noticed it when I was using my dice thingy for a holding majigger.

https://lh5.googleus...33/IMG_3212.JPG

[ced1106]

Would clear gesso work? I have the same question as OP!

[Frankthedm]

Test paint a smooth out of the way section of the mini. Let it dry, Then rub the paint off. If the paint holds well enough, test a drybrushing then a wash.

[ObsidianCrane]

Inks work very well on translucent plastic.

Simply clean the models before you paint.

My experiments with the flaming skeletons from the Ravenloft Boardgame worked out nicely;

[Pingo]

Just a guess, but I'm willing to bet that blue ink is based on Phthalo Blue, a completely transparent intense slightly greenish blue pigment.

If you have artists' acrylics, any of the transparent, really strong, brilliant colors should also work well: phthalo blue and phthalo green, all of the quinacridones (red, magenta, violet, and gold), and dioxazine violet. There may be more, but that's off the top of my head.

[CashWiley]

Inks work very well on translucent plastic.

But are those minis made of vinyl? The Bones translucents, iirc.

[ObsidianCrane]

The material WotC uses for the Ravenloft boardgame minis (and their prepaints) is very similar to the Bones plastic. However they actually take paint worse than Bones unless you clean them first. :)

[ub3r_n3rd]

I'm painting my Ravenloft mini's right now actually. I primered them all first after washing them to make sure the paint sticks to them and am having pretty decent results (I think - as a first time painter).

[bloodydrake]

I recently painted the Ravenloft set as well. What I ended up doing for the Burning Skeletons was using brush on primer for the bones section. then painted them a creme color and a basic texture paint for the base.
I then used quick-shade strong tone to dip them and after it was dried for about 48hrs dull coated them.(I think Dark tone would be better but didn't have any)
They turned out well with the dip shading the transparent flames without losing the translucence. I preferred the dull-coat to having them shiny afterwards

I took a picture with a white/blue Led behind one, and a Red Led behind another as well as one with ambient lighting


Heres with normal lighting

[ced1106]

Was the Quick Shade the stuff in the minwax can, or the stuff in the eye dropper?

Thanks and GREAT job!!!

[bloodydrake]

It was army Painters Quickshade Strong tone..

I've heard you can get comparable results with minwax for cheaper..
but then I've also heard that its not as consistent to use...so I stuck with the official stuff since I was just starting out and wanted to get use to dipping before experimenting with other products.

[psyberwolfe1]

I've actually done tests with Minwax vs. Army Painter. Minwax has more stain in while Quickshade has less which enhances the "Wash" effect.

[CashWiley]

I use Zar for staining wood, which would be way too thick if Minwax is more pigmented. Zar is even more pigmented than Minwax, and a lot thicker (which I love for application to wood, but probably not great for a mini).

Still, with the Bones invasion, maybe I should do a test run for the heck of it. Like I'll remember in six months... :)