Painting Plasticine

[Neil McGrath]

Here is an interesting conundrum. One of our junior members wanted to reproduce the sculptures of Americn presidents on Mount Rushmore for his layout. However, rather than just stop at the original founding fathers he has recreated an image of all 45 presidents in plasticine. We have fixed the heads to the foam cliff using PVA but I am not sure how we will paint them to match the general colour of the rockface. Any ideas?

[robert17649]

back in the year dot my father built model warships from plasticine.

 

The thing to do was to coat the plasticine with banana oil which was left to dry.

 

Then overpainting with ordinary humbrol paints was fairly straightforward.

 

This presents a number of problems now.

 

The formula pf Plasticine has changed.

 

the formula of Humbrol paints has changed.

 

I have no idea where to get banana oil, in the 50,s and early 60.s it was easily found in you friendly neighbourhood hardware shop, but now who knows.

 

I do know that painting directly onto plasticine is not good, some funny oils make humbrol paints skin over  the top dries but underneath does not, acrylics go all crinkly and soggy never really drying.

 

doesnt really help but thats all I know

 

 

best of luck

 

Robert

[Neil McGrath]

Thanks for the insight Robert. I think I will need a barrier layer of some description as you described. I did wonder if the paint used for damp patches in walls would work.

 

Neil 

[F-UnitMad]

If you've managed to glue the plasticene heads with PVA, then a dilute coat of PVA all over, and left to dry, might give paint something to stick to?

 

I cannot begin to imagine what sort of layout has a mountain capable of portraying 45 US Presidents on it... we need photos, please!!

[Neil McGrath]

If you've managed to glue the plasticene heads with PVA, then a dilute coat of PVA all over, and left to dry, might give paint something to stick to?

 

I cannot begin to imagine what sort of layout has a mountain capable of portraying 45 US Presidents on it... we need photos, please!!

I checked the layout last night and the PVA heads seem to be well stuck to the mountain. I will give the dilute PVA a go and then see if I can paint them.

Thanks for the suggestion.

 

Neil

[BlackRat]

Spray with grey primer, works on damp body filler!

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

If they were not in situ already, I'd say use the whole summer to 'bake' them thoroughly outdoors. I used plasticine to make tuns and other loads and then dried them before humbrol paint was applied, and it was fine. Admittedly this was with 1960's formulation plasticine, but I wasn't aware it had changed.

[The Johnster]

My instinct would be to go for the dilute pva as a sealant/barrier.  I suspect plasticene, current or former formula, is oil based and could react with any sort of paint directly applied to it; mind, I'm not a chemist and this is instinct/guesswork.

 

If Humbrol goes wrinkly, wouldn't that be a good thing to represent the skin of presidents...

[bgman]

It might be worth giving the manufacturer a telephone call or e-mail.

[polybear]

Banana oil:

 

http://www.inwoodmodels.com/index.php?id_category=105&controller=category

 

(The model aircraft boys use it as a very low shrinkage coating for lightweight model aeroplane structures ( and similar ) its main use is for use in covering model aeroplanes with coverings such as tissue, starspan, silk, nylon)

 

A very useful site:

 

https://davidneat.wordpress.com/tag/strengthening-plasticine/

 

- which includes the following:

 

"Importantly though, plasticine will accept coats of Pva wood glue, which toughen the surface and allow it to be painted. Pva wood glue contracts a great deal as it dries so there is usually no danger of losing detail in the modelling, even after more than one coat."

 

HTH

Brian