hey folks,
i bought a “kit” of modern NATO figures, and instead of about 6 injection molded guys, there were almost 50 soft plastic ones. i’ve heard that painting these kind of figures can be a problem. what do u suggest i use to paint these guys ?
thx,
frosty[:)]
They are kind of hard to clean up as well… You’ll need a VERY sharp knife to remove the mold line.
Hi Frosty, sorry about the late reply (i don’t look on armour very often). use a detergent to clean up the figures to get rid of the molding grease and i use automotive aerosol primer to give a base coat. this gives the enamel something to grip to. i don’t know what it’ll be like with acrilic paints cos i don’t us them. hope i’m not too late to be of help…Greg
Hi Frosty For the mold lines you have to cut them off with a new #11 blade, if you try to scrape the line you will just end up with a mess. Then degrease in warm water and detergent. Then I undercoat with white glue ( Elmers). White glue dries with a little flex to it. And the paint won’t flake off as easily. Then I paint the figures in acrylic.
Hey Frosty! If the green army men are too soft to work with, stick them in the freezer before you try to clean the seams. Pull them out as you’re working on them and they’ll be much harder and sandable too. As far as painting goes, try some Vellejo Acrylics. I just started using them and they brush on beautifully. Best paint I’ve ever used on a brush!!
Eric
Once you’ve cleaned them and primed them, it should be fairly easy to use whatever paint you like. I know Eric’s been happy with the vallejo (and I’, going to pick some up myself and give 'em a try) but Tamiya or any of the other acrylics should be ok over the primer.
One of the back issues of Military Modeling did a great article on painting and converting these soft plastic figures (they did a Napoleonic artillery gun, limber and crew complete with horses) with great success. I’ll see if I can find the issue for you and you may be able to look it up somewhere.
Mike
Is there a guy that carries a rocket in his back??? I am looking for this guy.
Frosty, keep us posted. “Little green men”. Attention getter!
I had a friend who bought these, made RTV molds from them and redid them in white metal, then used those for his diaramas, keeping the little flexible ones for patterns. Never tried that myself, looked like a lot of work.
Ron.
gregers: better late than never ! and ur reply brought this thread back to where a bunch of other folks chimed in, so thanx to u i have some more answers … and speaking of being really late,
here’s a happy birthday wish to u ! (well, i’m early for next year, at least !)[;)]
thyamis: i checked the box of figures (still unpainted) … sorry, no rocket man; i’d have been thrilled at the chance to help. and they r 1/72 scale anyhow. i’m not sure if ur looking for 1/35 …
good luck with ur search !
and to everyone else who answered, thank u all !
frosty[:)]
The Rocket man is in the Nato ground Crew set.
Frosty, I just learned alot from this post. I usually used to just wash them in detergent to remove the release agent, then I painted with Testor’s enamels. Yeah, they flaked a little, but for the most part, they’ve stayed painted. I’ve got about 1900 of the 1/72 scale “little green men” painted, but I’m going to start using some of these techniques what I paint some more.
Good luck on those guys! 
Hi Frosty, I clean them with warm saopy water first than paint, than spray with an overcoat