Village Games' Blog

A NEW APPROACH TO AN OLD FRIEND        

Recently, I have been reading a lot about the merits of painting and gaming with 1/72 scale figures. Cost savings, more manufacturers and lines available than ever before, ease of painting and durability of the figures. Well, having started my gaming career oh-so-many years ago with those same 1/72 figures and still having a soft spot in my heart for them, I decided to give them another try.

Armed with all the modeling and painting experience of my adult life, and decked out with far more sophisticated tools and paints than I ever had as a kid, I bought a pack of Italeri 1/72 WWII British Paratroopers and prepared to dive in.

The Set - One of Two Sprues in the Box

WHY PLASTICS?

First I should explain why I even decided this experiment was worth trying. I love miniature gaming in a variety of scales and time periods. As with most gamers I have what we call around the shop my “Primary Games” (e.g WWII 6mm & 15mm miniatures) and my “Quick Games” (e.g Cosmic Cow, Pirates’ Dice, etc.). What I would like to do is broaden my selection of “Secondary Games” – those games/time periods that I have more than a passing interest in, but do not want to devote a large chunk of money or time to prepping and painting. For me some examples of this would be American Revolutionary War skirmish gaming, WWII North African skirmish gaming, Modern infantry combat at the platoon or company level, DBA at a larger scale than 10mm or 15mm, etc.

What the 1/72 figures offer is the chance to delve into these areas with a minimum of cost and effort. Usually the figures come 30-50 to a box for $9-$14. They are typically the equivalent of 24mm-25mm figures, though they tend to be more slender in their proportions (which some would argue to be more realistic for soldiers on campaign).  Now while the detail on these figures is usually quite good, they usually do not have an overabundance which one feels obligated to highlight in detail. This, coupled with their slender size, makes them perfect candidates for the “Magic Dip” process of painting.

With all of this in mind I decided to set two goals for myself in this test to see if it would be worth it to pursue the scale further:

1)      I would use some advanced techniques of figure prep to see if the old difficulty of the flexible plastic can be overcome.

2)      I would speed paint these by doing nothing more than blocking in the base colors and giving them a heavy wash of the Magic Dip (if you aren’t familiar with the “magic dip” do some searches on the web for it; there are many excellent articles on the technique and dip concoctions).

THE TEST

Well, I set out with just three of the figures for my test. Starting with cutting them from the sprue I timed the whole process. Bear in mind also, that while I was working on these three I was also watching the shop, so I had more than a few interruptions to help customers and stuff.

I performed the following steps in painting the figures:

1)      Cut the figures from the sprue, and trimmed flash. A rough trim, I didn’t want to have to spend a real long time on this step. I mounted the figures to a popsicle stick for ease of handling.

2)      Gave the figures a light wash of watered down wood glue – had to be careful to dab at the recesses while they dried to make sure the runny glue didn’t build up in them and ruin the detail. I then put them in front of a fan to dry.

3)      A light white primer coat and back in front of the fan.

4)      Blocked in the basic colors. Not too careful here; I was counting on the wash to hide areas where the primer was showing. Back in front of the fan.

5)      Magic Dip/Wash (Black ink, Vallejo Smoke, Water and a generous amount of acrylic floor wax). Back in front of the fan.

6)      Sprayed with Testors Dullcote and back to the fan.

THE RESULTS

Bad Shot, But Gives an Idea...

All told, with drying time, the three figures took me just shy of an hour. And I could have finished a lot more without much more time if they had been on the stick too! The quality of the paint job far exceeded my expectations – I had even given them the camouflaged Denison smocks worn by the Brits! Unfortunately, my camera isn’t really capable of taking the best close in pictures so all I can post are some rather suspect ones. It does give you some idea of how they turned out though. And as for the durabilty issue with the flexible plastic, it appears that with the wood glue wash and the floor polish finish they are going to be plenty sturdy (dropping them more than once accidently helped prove this).

Again, at least it gives an idea...

So give the time involved, the effort and cost, as well as the look and durability of the final product, I would have to say the test was a rousing success! I later went on to pain the rest of a 12 man section in less than three hours, again with numerous interruptions as I was working at the time.

Armed with new techniques and an old friend I have now set my sights on a host of new armies and time periods to dabble in. In fact Carl and I have decided to bring in a sizeable stock of the 1/72 in a variety of time periods for us…er, I mean our customers, to choose from. I am truely excited about the potential with this!

If you would like to get a closer look at the finished product, or ask more specific questions about how I did anything, please feel free to stop by the shop and I would be glad to answer them.

Well, until next time, enjoy…

Cheers!

Dan