Advice Needed: Preserving Painted Plastic Army Men [UPDATED WITH PICTURES]

[Melissa]

This seemed like the best place to post this. If anyone thinks it belongs elsewhere let me know.

I acquired some little plastic army men that were props in a show. They're regular two inch-ish, small plastic army men that kids play with all the time. Smooth plastic. For the show, they were painted with some kind of cheap paint. Maybe acrylic. Not sure. Certainly not meant to last. But *I* want them to last!

The paint is chipping and flaking off big time. Soon it will all flake off. If I spray these with a couple of coats of clear coat "something" do any of you think that'd help? Would it form a kind of solid protective seal that'd keep everything in place? Or do you think it'd just flake off exactly the way the current paint is?

Could it make it worse? Is there something better? All suggestions would be welcomed.

(And please don't tell me it should have been painted with the correct paint to begin with! I KNOW that! :rolleyes I didn't paint them. I'm trying to preserve them!)

 

[Gigatron]

Re: Advice Needed: Preserving Painted Plastic Army Men

Give them a dip in Future Floor wax (though I think it's now sold as Pledge with Future shine). It'll seal them in a touch acrylic shell (though you won't know it's there), then you can hit them with a dull coat to knock down the high gloss finish.

-Fred

 

[Melissa]

Re: Advice Needed: Preserving Painted Plastic Army Men

Thanks Fred. I thought about dipping them in something, but wasn't sure what. I may give this a try with one of them. What's the best way to dip so as much gets coated as possible? Double dip? Once from top, once from bottom?

Any other suggestions folks?

 

[dropshipbob]

Re: Advice Needed: Preserving Painted Plastic Army Men

Do they all have bases? I'd suggest getting some sticky, gum-like material, sticking it to the base, and then push a bit of wodden dowel rod into that and dunk away.

But test it first to see if it all holds when placed upside down, if the figure falls off while being dunked, I can only imagine the insuing freakout.:lol

 

[Gigatron]

Re: Advice Needed: Preserving Painted Plastic Army Men

Thanks Fred. I thought about dipping them in something, but wasn't sure what. I may give this a try with one of them. What's the best way to dip so as much gets coated as possible? Double dip? Once from top, once from bottom?

Any other suggestions folks?

In all honesty, future can be brushed on. It's very watery, so it's self-leveling. Best to brush on several thin coats to avoid runs and pooling.

-Fred

 

[Melissa]

Re: Advice Needed: Preserving Painted Plastic Army Men

Do they all have bases? I'd suggest getting some sticky, gum-like material, sticking it to the base, and then push a bit of wodden dowel rod into that and dunk away.

But test it first to see if it all holds when placed upside down, if the figure falls off while being dunked, I can only imagine the insuing freakout.:lol

They have the little flat basees at the bottom so I can try that. There's a couple that don't but I'll improvise.

In all honesty, future can be brushed on. It's very watery, so it's self-leveling. Best to brush on several thin coats to avoid runs and pooling.

-Fred

I think a brush might cause the paint to flake off and stick to the brush. Even dunking might not work and the weight of the future might pull some paint off. That's why I was originally considering a spray. I'll test on one first. Maybe sometime this weekend or next. I'm waiting for some display cases so I can stick them there when they're done which will keep them from touching other surfaces (or one another) and chipping off more paint. -I received them all in a zip loc.

Normally I'd leave a prop "as is" and not mess with it, but honestly if I do that with these, all the paint *will* flake off and the whole charm of these will be lost. I'll just end up with a bunch of plain plastic army men and a little pile of paint chips!

 

[jts1031]

Re: Advice Needed: Preserving Painted Plastic Army Men

That's why I was originally considering a spray.

If you have an airbrush, future can also be run through that and sprayed on if you'd rather not go the dipping route. But again, I'd be afraid that the air pressure involved in spraying the future might take some of the paint off. I think dipping is the safest route...

 

[Melissa]

Re: Advice Needed: Preserving Painted Plastic Army Men

If you have an airbrush, future can also be run through that and sprayed on if you'd rather not go the dipping route. But again, I'd be afraid that the air pressure involved in spraying the future might take some of the paint off. I think dipping is the safest route...

No airbrush, but good point about the pressure from spraying. I think I'm going to try the dipping route once the display cases arrive.

It looks like everyone's pretty much agreeing on Future. Any other suggestions?

Thank you all for your replies so far! :thumbsup

 

[Gigatron]

Re: Advice Needed: Preserving Painted Plastic Army Men

The only thing other than future that I would try is 3M spray adhesive. But i would check for any interactivity between the adhesive and the paint. There shouldn't be any issues, but hey, you never know.

-Fred

 

[Mike J.]

Re: Advice Needed: Preserving Painted Plastic Army Men

Don't use a 3M spray adhesive, use a spray fixative.

Spray adhesive (like 3M Spray 77) is aresolized glue. Just sticky ish.

Spray fixatives are more of a clear coat / sealant, designed to seal drawings (charcoal).

Can you tell us what these army men are from? Just curious


-Mike

 

[Gigatron]

Re: Advice Needed: Preserving Painted Plastic Army Men

Don't use a 3M spray adhesive, use a spray fixative.

Spray adhesive (like 3M Spray 77) is aresolized glue. Just sticky ish.

Spray fixatives are more of a clear coat / sealant, designed to seal drawings (charcoal).

Can you tell us what these army men are from? Just curious


-Mike

Yup, that's what I meant but couldn't remember the name of the stuff. Weird considering I used to use it all the time when I worked in pastels.

-Fred

 

[dropshipbob]

Re: Advice Needed: Preserving Painted Plastic Army Men

Back in art school, hairspary could be used in a pinch for fixative/sealer.

There is also an acrylic based sealer available in a spraycan, locks stuff in tight like enamel sealer, but you don't have to worry about any reaction between this and the paint.

 

[Melissa]

Re: Advice Needed: Preserving Painted Plastic Army Men

Hi everyone. Thank you again for your suggestions. After all of this, I've decided to see how they do in the cases without sealant for now. I'd really prefer to leave these untouched if possible, so we'll see how they do. If they continue to flake even though they're no longer touching each other, I will probably do something like a "Future dip." (Or dropshipbob, I may try to find the product you're talking about.) A reminder, these were sent to me in zip loc bags, and there were already paint chips in the bags that had flaked off during storage.

Here they are. Not easy to see. These are some of Felger's army men from the diorama he had in his apartment in Avenger 2.0. (SG-1) Unfortunately, I think I primarily have backup ones because some key ones are missing from my set.

I've affixed them to the display bases with a special type of wax that's used for securing miniature models in displays. I don't know if it's usually used for army men but we'll see how it holds.

I've put the "flakiest ones" together in one display (with a couple of non-flakey ones just because there wasn't room for all of them in the other display.) That's not camouflage in the lower pictures. Thats "flesh colored" army men with black, green, and silver paint flaking off.

Thank you all again for your suggestions! I may still decide to use some kind of sealant on them, but for now I'll see how this works first.

* For those of you unfamiliar with the episode, Felger is a stereotypical "nerd scientist" at the SGC facility (Earth's secret Stargate headquarters) who idolizes the SG-1 team and fantasizes about going on missions with them and being a hero. In one scene, his apartment is shown and he's set up an elaborate diorama with army men that he's painstakingly re-painted to resemble members of the Stargate teams and invading aliens.