ElastoWit First Paintjobs And Undercoating
Here are my first ElastoWit paint jobs and a couple of my older figures for size comparison. You will notice that the Kelly gang figure has a raised base which adds to his already imposing stature, further emphasized by the helmet. I'm not a fan of raised bases as it can make tall figures look enormous when placed next to other slightly smaller figures.
The Kelly figure is one of a set and this is not the Ned Kelly figure who has a removable helmet. The Kelly figures have excellent detail and great undercutting - there are no wedges of plastic between arms and body. This is true of all the ElastoWit figures I have seen. This one even even depicts a metal consumer good can as an ammunition box on his belt. I can't remember if it was tobacco, spice or something else. It might or might not have been red but I added some metal bits where paint chipped away. Speaking of detail, the bushranger even has hobnails under his raised shoe. I didn't paint them, but it is good to know there is such dedication to authenticity.
The bushrangers, and most West European men of this period wore mostly somber colors with the occasional bright colored shirt or neckerchief. Browns, blacks and greys were predominant. Dark Blues were another color, not rare although most common in police and military uniforms. (An exception was in some military uniforms such as the red coats of British soldiers about to give way to khaki and the French soldiers' red trousers). I gave this Kelly dark blue pants, although probably less likely than the greys and browns.
The other figures are The Rocketeer (Colonel Cody) from the old black and white serial, Flash Gordon and an alien from the old black and white movie, 'Earth versus the Flying Saucers'. He also has a removeable helmet which I have not, as yet, painted. The colors are influenced by movie posters. Flash Gordon had a lot of depictions in comics and there was the modern film adaptation. Red top and dark blue or black pants with yellow stripes were common versions of his clothing. The alien 'mutant' has a corpse like skin color and yellow eyes. For the armor I mixed a favorite blue with silver paint to give a more other worldly look. The Rocketeer's trouser leg need retouching where I place a finger when it was still wet.
UNDERCOATING:
I usually undercoat soft plastic figures with a clear spray undercoat used for plastic parts in cars. I then use Games Workshop white or black spray undercoat. I ignored my usual rule to experiment on a single figure first and undercoated thirty or so figures. they remained somewhat, sticky!
These figures are polyurethane based and the suggested Vallejo undercoat (which i did not initially use) is a mix of polyurethane and acrylic.
The Moorlock statue was one of these I undercoated with my usual car undercoat and GW undecoat) and I just proceeded to paint the greys over the top. It was still sticky. I next coated it with PVA, The stickiness stopped.
The other figures I stripped the undercoat by soaking for a day and night in turpentine followed by detergent and water. The bulk of the undercoat came off with a light scrub from a toothbrush. (At least I assume so as the first coat was invisible). I still have half to finish removing the undercoats. I could have left them and just remedied with PVA overcoat, but I decided on taking a different path.
Some figures that I had not yet undercoated (The ones shown in the pictures) I undercoated with the recommended Vallejo white undercoat, Apparently, only the brush on is practical with the spray not coating well. This brush on one dried well and covered fairly well but when I painted with acrylics, over this they again remained a bit tacky! Actually, after a few hours this reduced significantly but the metal paint remained, still a little tacky. Next step was to try an overcoat of PVA on the mutant. It worked! Other painters used mat acrylic varnishes and had success. The key is to experiment with a single figure first.
My next variation is to use the PVA as an undercoat. I used to do this quite a lot with plastic figures before turning to the car undercoat sprays. Another variation is Modge Podge which is actually PVA plus a varnish. It is possibly a bit tougher than straight PVA but instructions say not to paint over it for four weeks! I have done so previously in much less time and without, apparent mishap. Another con is it is more expensive than bulk bought PVA.
The thing with these coats is to coat it thinly and not let it pool too much otherwise you can get unsightly minute but numerous bubbles looking like someone spat on the figures! With PVA I add a small drop of detergent to aid in its even spread.
In any case I might be getting ahead of myself yet as I have not finished using the PVA on the ElastoWit figures. The undercoat had dried well and I am yet to paint over it. I am going to see if my GW spray is without issues when used over the PVA and if it has any problems just use a paintbrush over the top.
I generally us an artist spray fixative over the top of the PVA or Modge Podge, so again, I'll try one figure first.
CONCLUSION
The ElastoWit figures are very interesting and unique and the effort with the right undercoat and overcoat are well worth it. I am looking forward to painting the rest of my purchases so expect to see some more paintjobs and reports in the near future. I'll let you know how the PVA undercoat went after painting over it.
However, the Vallejo undercoat was probably, on balance, okay anyway, but was aided by an overcoat,
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