Painting figures

Currently I am unable to do too much scenery or heavy work on the layout due to just having a knee operation from Football, so have decided today to put off the inevitable. Yes painting figures. I have always struggled with the part of the work until the treasurer of our model railway club put me onto a good thing.

It has always been hard to avoid touching the figures when one colour is trying to dry and spoiling the look. By glueing them to a balsa stick (in this case I have used kebab sticks from your local supermarket -$2 a pack) you avoid too much man handling of the little person. I used a latex glue and let them set for about 10 minutes. Latex glue is better because it doesn't eat into the plastic and it is flexible.

I find that the odd figure comes loose, but the reglueing is worth it.


I tend to do one colour at a time therefore I might be working on a number of figures at once. The beauty of using the skewer sticks is that they are pointed at one end and can easily be poked into a peice of polystyrene as you wait to paint other figures and it is good for allowing them to dry.


The finished product is definately better than if I had tried to hold onto them with my hands.

Thanks Trevor.