Painting Miniatures 1: Cleaning

This is the first in a series of posts about how I paint miniature game pieces for tabletop fantasy roleplaying games.  I expect it will have application to other miniature projects, like airplane models, or scale model train sets.  You probably won't win awards for painting as per my directions, but if you ever wanted to paint a miniature game piece, or if you were ever disappointed by an attempt to paint a scale model, or even if you just wanted to customize a My Little Pony figurine, you may find some of my advice helpful in getting you started, improving your results, or reducing your time requirements.  I invite you to come learn with me.

These are the stages I use in painting miniatures:
1. Cleaning
2. Assembling
3. Priming
4. Painting
5. Washing and Dipping
6. Lacquering

Wow!  That's a lot of stages!  Seems like a lot of tedium just for a little statue.  The trick is to do this in batches, so you aren't cleaning 1 miniature at a time, priming 1 miniature at a time, etc.  I usually do these miniatures a dozen at a time in order to reduce overhead and minimize effort per miniature.

1. Cleaning

a. How was the miniature made?

You have no doubt heard old folks refer to tin soldiers or lead soldiers.  Most toys today are made of plastic, but tin and tin alloys are still used today to cast tiny combatants for fantasy games (ad copy may refer to "white metal alloy," which we can assume is either a tin alloy or something similar).  You may have heard a metal soda can or a steel soup can referred to as a tin can, but tin is actually a genuine element on the periodic table.  It is the main ingredient in pewter, and a major component of bronze and solder.  Tin is heavy with a relatively low melting point, and reasonable corrosion resistance.  Gravity naturally pulls molten tin into the corners and details of a mold, providing highly detailed casted miniatures with low-tech equipment.  Tin is flexible enough to be bent out of molds somewhat without snapping.

Lead and lead alloys have been used for miniatures in the past (no doubt since antiquity) for similar reasons (low melting point, heavy, flexible, cheap), but today most manufacturers have abandoned lead because of the risks of lead exposure, costs of disposal, and because many governmental bodies ban the sale of lead toys.  And good riddance to lead, I say!  I can (literally) breathe easier with less lead in my air.

Miniatures manufacturers are starting to move to cast plastic.  The costs of all metals have increased tremendously over the past decade; it was first noticeable with gold, but tin and copper rapidly tripled.  This was devastating to miniatures hobbyists, as the miniatures industry had to respond by raising prices proportionally or by closing their doors.  Reaper Miniatures has started to modify their sculpts to work with plastic casting techniques and equipment; presently they cast in a white rubbery vinyl material that looks a bit like Ivory Soap, and (because it is lighter than tin) must be forced into molds rather than simply poured.  The flexible vinyl has advantages that more complex regions can be cast and stretched out of molds than can stiffer tin alloys.  The vinyl also melts at even lower temperatures than tin.  Purists may complain, but Reaper's vinyl miniatures retail at a fraction of what comparable metal miniatures cost.

The newest miniature materials on the block come from 3D printers.  I have never worked with 3D printed miniatures, but I plan to soon, and I have researched 3D printing technology.  3D printers exist for numerous materials; typically miniatures are printed in plastics such as acrylic and nylon, because of the detail these materials provide.  The advantage of 3D printing is that your miniature can be completely customized for your needs and theoretically unique.  There is no casting in a traditional sense.  The disadvantage is that 3D printing is expensive and takes a long time, and you must first generate a 3D model data file to feed into the printer.  3D printing continues to evolve, so future 3D printers may provide cheaper, faster, and/or more detailed output.  Also, projects are afoot to create 3D model data files with something of a "paper doll" user interface, such that a user might choose body A with armor B and weapon C in pose D.  As a result, 3D printing may have a more prominent role in the future of miniatures.

b. Manufacture can affect cleaning

If the miniature was cast from a mold, the mold probably had a mold release.  'Mold release' is a general term for whatever you use to keep the liquid casting material from sticking to the mold.

A century ago, this mold release might have been soot on a metal mold.  Modern tin casters might use talcum powder on a silicone mold, which isn't too difficult to remove.  But plastic casters can use a sprayed-on film of oil, which can be a challenge to get off your miniature.

3D printers may leave a powdered form of the model's material on the surface, depending on the technology of that particular 3D printer.  Again, I have not worked with these, personally.

Whatever the case, anything which can affect paint adhesion should be removed, even your own greasy fingerprints.

c. The process

At one time, you might have needed to use a toothbrush to scrub off your metal mini (remember what I said about soot?), but those days are (I hope) gone.

Today, I put my miniatures in a plastic bucket (remember, I do a batch of 12 at a time).  I boil some water.   I pour the boiling water on the miniatures.  I squirt in some grease-cutting dish soap.  I swish it around real well.  I let it sit for a little while, to let the soap do its work.  And then I rinse.  Make sure you rinse ALL the soap off.  Use lots of water, until the suds disappear.  Now strain out the miniatures and dry them.