21st Century Philosopher: How to Paint Plastic Zombies

Board games these days come with plastic miniatures that way they can charge more money for a game than one with cardboard pieces. I sometimes buy these games just to get the miniatures so I can use them in other RPGs.

I bought Last Night on Earth and Mansions of Madness which have horror related miniatures.

The plastic miniatures come in two varieties: hard and soft plastic.

I used to paint lead and pewter miniatures for D&D and used enamel paints. I found out that the soft plastic may melt (become sticky) with enamel paints (oil based) and it's best to use acrylic (water based paints). The acrylic paints are non-toxic and easy to clean with just water.

I found some wonderful pictures and tips online:
https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/448494/last-night-earth-zombies-painted-day
https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/687047/painting-plastic-minis-how-guide-beginners-warning

Here are my steps, pictures, and tips:

1. Wash minis in warm sudsy water to remove any mold release residue on the plastic. Manufactures use a mold release spray to help the plastic come out of the injection mold, this may affect your paint as the mold release chemical is non-stick. Dry off your minis.

2. If the mini isn't quite straight, such as swords and weapons are crooked or even the mini doesn't stand properly, you can fix this by just boiling some water, put the water into a cup, and then drop the mini into the hot water. The plastic will just snap back to the original shape. You can then fish the mini out of the hot water and then drop it into a cup of cold water to harden, or bend the mini to the position you want before dropping it into cold water.

3. Clean off excess plastic with an X-ACTO knife.

4. Priming
If you prime your plastic, the chances of the paint cracking and peeling off is reduced. Also it helps the paint stick to the slick plastic.

Use a primer that binds to plastic. I used "ultra flat" white primer. This was $6 before tax from my local auto store for fixing your car. I saw some cheaper primer at the HomeDepot for $4.

Prime miniatures with a white primer if you want brighter colors or a black primer if you want darker colors. Do this outside and away from anything you care about as the primer will blow around and stick to things. Read the directions carefully. I held the spray about 12" from the miniatures and lightly coated them, 1 or 2 passes. You just need to have the primer stick with a light coating, not coat them completely. If you spray too much, you'll erase the nice details the plastic held. Best to be able to still see the original plastic color.

After priming, some details may show up and you might want to remove more excess plastic you might have missed. This primer did seem to make the red plastic miniatures a bit sticky, maybe a slightly different formulation for the plastic that reacts to the primer. Not sure why, but other people noticed the same thing.

Let primer dry overnight.

The primer is oil based, so you should make sure that it's completely dry before painting with acrylics.

5. Painting
Hobby paint is about $4 for 1/4 oz of paint. For a whole range of colors, that's a lot of money.
Instead, I bought cheap Satin Acrylic craft paint from Michaels Craft Store that cost about $1.50 to $0.50 a 2 oz bottle. There was also a variety pack for about $8 for 12 colors. I found "Flesh" and metallic gold and silver. Needed some brushes and palettes too. Paint was $10 total. Other stuff, $12. You can keep the cost down by finding the online Michaels coupon. Get either Satin or "flat" paint. Everything will get shiny when you dip the miniatures. Synthetic brushes are cheaper than natural bristles like camel hair, but you can only use the synthetic brushes with acrylics. The synthetic brushes will melt with enamel, thinner, or the dip. The acrylic paint is non-toxic, so you can do your painting inside.

The trick with painting is to paint inside-out. You start with skin, then hair, then underwear, then pants, coats, hats, etc. You can do ornaments like rings, watches, afterwards. This way, if the paint is strong enough, you can paint over mistakes from the lower layers. Also you can use a wet brush to clean off excess or wait for the paint to dry and do some touch up.

Zombie skin layer only.

Close up of final paint, bases not painted yet.

Final paint. Yeah, it looks pretty ugly because everything is flat and there's no detail. The primary colors are a bit bright, but not to worry. Wait until you see what it looks like after the dip process.

Let the paint dry overnight.

6. Dip
Called dipping because originally, the whole miniature was dipped into the paint can and excess was shuck/spun/flicked off. That's pretty messy, contaminates your dip can, and is a waste of dip. I use a brush instead which gives you better control of how much stain to to apply and lets you brush dip off of areas that get too dark.

Get MinWax PolyShades "Dark Walnut". This is a stain combined with a Polyurethane sealer.
This was $13. You'll also need Thinner to clean your brushes, unless you plan on throwing out your brush that you use for dipping. Thinner was $8.

I used a brush to brush the MinWax onto the painted miniatures. I just slopped it on. Don't worry about bubbles, they'll disappear. With a brush you can control the amount of shading that you use. Do not use a synthetic brush, the MinWax and Thinner will damage the bristles. I dip just inside my garage for adequate ventilation and left the miniatures there to dry as the fumes are toxic and I didn't want dirt particles blowing around and sticking to the miniatures.

Also, since the MinWax is oil based, you really need to make sure the acrylic paint on the miniatures are completely dry before dipping. Oil and Water does not mix.

Let the dip dry overnight.

Dipped and dried.

You can see highlights and shading that the dip creates without having to paint a base color, highlight, and shade color. The highlights and shading look more natural with a minimum of work. The details of the miniature stand out too. So, don't use too much primer or you'll wipe out the details.