Painting soft plastic (was Re: [FT] Basing Fighters)

>Jerry:
>***
>I don't know where these are available; but you can get pizzas here in
>Canada with little plastic things in the middle to keep the slices
separated.
>Order lots of pizza (the best part (8-) ), and invert the plastic
things.
>Glue a washer on the bottom to prevent it from being too top heavy,
paint
>black, and glue the fighters on the three posts.
>***
>
>Actually, these keep the box from crushing the pizza, but that's my
normal
>quibbling. Some just have three legs that bend inward and meet at the
center,
>some with a disk from which the legs rise. Plenty available amongst
your
>barbaric neighbors to the south. ;->=
>
>My only problem with these is that they are the soft plastic that can
be
>hard to get paint to hold.
 
We call them "pizza spiders".
 
I keep a small can of sand handy for use with soft plastic
things (pizza spiders, cheap "toy" figures, halloween bugs,
etc.) that I need to paint. The can is about 2/3 full of sand,
and has a tight-fitting lid (mandatory!).  Drop the item in the
can, put on the lid, and shake for a couple of minutes. Roughs
up the surface nicely, so your primer will adhere much better.
I usually do a number of items at once (several figures, a
gross of bugs, whatever) at once.
   Then remove the items from the can (pouring the can's
contents through a screen into a box works nicely), wash
them (to remove any remaining dust and oils), let dry, and
primer.
 
- Sam
________________________________________
Samuel Reynolds
Spinward Stars: http://www.spinwardstars.com/
Reynolds Virtual Workshop: http://www.primenet.com/~reynol
reynol@primenet.com
samuel_reynolds@csgsystems.com