Painting figures

[John Busby]

Hi dennyblock

in a word yes.

I have found the best to be acrylic auto grey primer. followed by your favorite brand of acrylic paints Tamiya, Citadel etc from a good hobby shop and finished off with a spray of flat varnish.

The best figure painting books if you are interested will be found in a store that is devoted to war games miniatures

Those war games guy's really go to town painting their personality or character figures and have turned it into an art form I sometimes wonder how they manage it.

regards John

[Dave Farquhar]

Acrylic paints don't stick very well to bare metal. It'll go on, but don't expect it to hold up to much handling.  I find primer makes the whole paint job go a lot more easily. Not only does the paint go on better, but it makes fine details show up better. The shiny surface of the metal obscures some of the detail.

Automotive primer would be better for pewter figures, but I did my last batch with plain old hardware store variety Krylon. 

[dgraham]

While my experience has been primarily with plastic figures, I've found that priming them makes the painting much easier.  A rattle can of gray automotive primer will do a lot of figures and is easily covered by acrylic paint.

[dennyblock]

Do you have to prime peweter figures before painting? Will the cheap water colors talked about in the other post stick to the metal? Thanks