Miracle Dip, Thy Name is Priming

I have experimented in the past with literally dipping figures in a primer. Because I paint almost entirely between 10pm and 2 am, and inside, spray primer is out of the question. Since I paint in small batches priming with a brush just makes the most sense. Typically I have 3 or 4 projects of 10-20 figures each going and as I finish one, I start the next.

An entire 6 mm army, however, strikes me as an ideal use of this technique. Moreover, as the miniatures themselves are so small, I think I’ll be able to do this quite quickly.

Preparation

Having removed the flash, the entire army was given a gentle washing to remove any residue or oils. Perhaps unnecessary, but it’s part of my ritual. The figures were lined up and I was ready for the primer. Following the advice in the accompanying painting guide I will prime black. I use Ceramcoat black, thinned about 1:1 with a mix of water and Slo-Dri. It gives me a wash effect - this helps the colors pop a bit more, while providing shading and black lining on the cheap.

So here we go. Grab a pair of tweezers, pick up a likely cavalry unit and dunk. I use a take-out sauce cup when I mix larger amounts of paint (after I prime this army I have 50 or so others to prime afterwards). Tilted on an angle, the paint is deep enough for a dunk. My first attempt shows the paint to be too thick. Easily fixed. Immediately dunk the unit in the water dish and shake. Remove to paper towel and pat dry. Thin the primer a bit more and start over with a new cavalry unit. It’s still very thick, so I decide to test the mix on a 15 mm figure.

I take one of the ACW figures awaiting priming and apply a moderate amount of paint with a brush. It’s actually a bit thinner than I normally like, but passable. I reexamine the strips of figures. At this size, the gaps between detail are small enough that the surface tension of the paint traps it there. So I get a new dish of clean water. Now it’s a two stage process, dip in primer, rinse very quickly, blow dry.

This actually gives a pretty good result. The paint settles in the crevices and leaves only the thinnest of layers on the raised surfaces. However, it is no quicker than brushing the primer on and one hell of a lot messier. So I abandon my dip technique and break out the big cheap brush. I crank up my new Velvet Revolver CD and get busy priming up my WSS army and ACW figures. The WSS priming takes me 10 minutes, including the time to redo my first (now dry) cavalry unit.

Total time spent so far on the WSS project: cleaning flash and gluing to popsicle sticks: 20 minutes. Priming: 10 minutes. Writing this web page: priceless.

The tally so far: 30 minutes.

Next up: Basecoats!

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