Greg Liska sent some photos of what he has done with the Thomas Toys Romans he recently purchased. I will let Greg explain.
Here’s what I’ve been doing with the Thomas Toy Romans. Also; I came into a huge lot of HK copy Britains Greeks. They had never been painted, cast in white, yellow, blue and green. I think they look better like this.
Leave it to MAJ Liska to come up with imaginative ways to greatly improve already great figures. Looks like these Greek/Trojan Herald knockoffs are cast in pewter or fine bronze!
look at the archer marching !!.great Idea, in fact realistic, roman painting show roman archers march with bow in that position.
the timpo shield are perfect than those original from Marx/else. The HK Trojans are better in those colors. I saw the lot at eBay, want to bid ,but was beaten by Greg , he got a heck of deal as the lot was big and figures are awesome. The won end number was a bargain.
The building are as before posted great!?
Once again Greg go with simple no over painting detail a great work using simple very good match sets/figures conversion tec
Thanks, guys. I’m glad you noticed the archer. He was a swordsman that had no crest on his helmet, for some reason. There was another figure in the lot that was missing his sword, so I took ”Legionair Crestless’ ” sword away and gave it to him. The bow was in an Ebay lot and I think it’s a Playmobile piece or something like that. I’d like to make 3 more archers, so if anyone comes up with some 60mm(+) scale bows, I’d be interested.
Also on with the Greeks are a few China copies of the Stevens Hobbies Greeks. I added shields and bases to them and painted them. They were really terrible before that! I have about 20 of those and now about 60 HK copy Britains mixed with about 15 Mx Gladiators converted to be Greeks.
I’m impressed with the whole thing, but I have a question: Did you paint the Herald Greeks and Trojans with a spray paint? Or did you use a brush — or some other technique? Did you wash the figures prior to painting, and did you use a primer? I ask because with my own attempts to spray paint in the past I’ve had difficulty getting good, uniform coverage, but yours look pretty good.
Don, I don’t know what way Greg did ,but he does it very well and will answer soon, I had done same works and my tips are these:
wash figures before ,then primer with light color first, then spray using spray hobby gun with enough space(use correct mask, ventilation)for fume as we know this is dangerous. Silver and gold will cover well but are metallic colors, very toxic.
the way I spray mine is I use self double Velcro in the base so figures stay positioned with out move. like setting 6 or 10 figures in a piece of 2 x 10″ wood. Spacing then enough to let spray gun tip work around enough. Like always do not let over drip run on paint. Any small part not cover use a small brush to finish touch it with same color as over spraying will kill detail on areas already done after. Hope you can understand my tips but sure GREG will have his better..
Best..
Well, thanks for the compliments. I used to do a lot of models, so painting one solid color is pretty easy. I no longer have a great airbrush (The Evil X threw out my tools etc, while I was in Iraq) so it is just plain old out-of-the-can spray. Anyhow, here’s what I do: 1) I DO wash the figures first by soaking them in water with some dishwashing liquid, then going over them with a tooth brush. Let them dry for a day.
2) I lay figures out on a plastic board that I have sprayed with textured stuff called ‘Fleckstone’. It keeps them from moving when you spray. I do one side, let sit for at least 4 hours, then turn them over and do the other side. After both sides are dry, I stand them up to inspect. touch up as necessary.
3) Spraying – It’s all in the technique. Go for thin coats. If it doesn’t cover, then wait 30 min and give another light coat on the now tacky applied coat. Don’t move in real close, you’ll get run spots. If you’re too far away, it’ll waste a lot of paint and come out looking blotchy.
4) Type of paint- The Duron Fusion for plastics is a great primer. It’s being phased out because most of the new paints are already plastic-friendly. The bronze and silver paints used here are some of the new Duron paints. So far, the results are amazing. Forget model paints that cost 3X as much unless you want that particular color as a top coat.
5) On areas that are very flexible – I swear this works; paint the rifle tip, spear, whatever, with contact cement. This takes some practice because it’s sticky and drippy. Let it get tacky (not dry) then spray that area. The paint stays flexible. It seems to soak into the glue and turn it that color. I’ve stripped paint off of figures years after and all the paint came off EXCEPT where the contact cement was used. I had to scratch and peel it off. You will not lose any detail if you ensure you applied the contact cement thin, free of drips.
That’s all there is to it. The rest is just practice.
Thanks for all the tips. I can now see why my earlier efforts in spray painting plastic figures were not as successful as I had hoped. Like everything else, it’s a matter of putting in a little planning, preparation, and extra effort.
I actually ran off a hard copy of both Greg and Ervin’s posts to save for future reference. Thanks again.