Cleaning advice needed

[Sardoo]

Here follows a tale of woe…….

I recently started work on three plastic Star Wars figures and before I primed them I washed them in soapy water.

Next I tried to cover them in GW white paint but the paint simply ran off or “puddled”. Following this I put them in my ultrasonic cleaner with some soapy water. I then tried to undercoat them with a brush and paint with the same poor result.

The next step was to undercoat the figures with a spray paint. Unfortunately, when I started putting on the base colours using GW paints I had the same problems with the paint pooling.

Before I pull out the little hair I have left on my head, can anyone suggest a remedy to miniatures which seem to be coated in Teflon?

[zemjw]

Which manufacturer was it? I've had that problem with cheap plastic toy cars, but not with figures. However, it does sound like the plastic is still leaching chemicals

You could try cleaning them with isopropyl alcohol to see if that has more luck. It may even be worth running them though a paint stripper like detol.

My only primer suggestion would be something like Valspar, which is designed for soft plastic like patio furniture. However, it's an acid etching primer and leaves the surface quite rough. That's not an issue for a conversion of a Poundland vehicle, but I'm not sure what it would do to the detail on a figure.

Just another thought, you could try sealing it with pva before painting/priming, although again, that could cause problems with details

[Cubs]

Was it hot soapy water? That usually does the trick. If it doesn't work, then I usually would do a very light spray undercoat, leave it dry, then do another very light spray, leave it dry etc..

[Sardoo]

Thanks for the advice, folks!

The figures were from the Star Wars Legion range - Yoda, to be precise.

The water was reasonably hot. If I get another figure like this I may resort to dipping it in lava.

I’ll certainly try your suggestions - much obliged!

[Cubs]

Yeah, I use hot (not too hot to put my hands in, but hottish) soapy water and an old toothbrush to scrub at them. It's the Star Wars Legion models I have as well and without doing this, they do retain a lot of grease.