Cure for the "permanent stickies"?

[gloriousbattle]

Ever get the "permanent stickies" on your minis?  You paint and then coat a figure, and, for some reason, it mever completely dries, remaining somewhat tacky even months later.  This occasionally happens to me, most often on plastic figures, and more often on soft plastic ones.

Curious if anyone has found out:

1. What causes this.

2. How to avoid it.

3. How to cure it, if it does happen.

Thanks

[phreedh]

I don't know exactly why this happens, but I've have it happen to me with soft plastic miniatures (board game pieces). I think it's related to when you apply the dull coat over the gloss coat. I don't think I waited long enough between the coats, and the gloss coat didn't set completely. Just speculation though...

Would be interested to hear of a cure as my Mordor forces from War of The Ring (FFG) stick together in one big ball of orcyness in their bag.

/Mattias

[Hammers]

Perhaps you should not paint your miniatures with tar?  

[former user]

soft plastic (and even "hard plastic") contains a softener that evaporates continuously

it probably prevents the coat from drying entirely.

Can't give any advice on that - once the softener is completey gone, the plastic becomes extremely brittle, but this takes a long time

what undercoat du You use?

[phreedh]

what undercoat du You use?

For me, GW spray...

[Mr. Peabody]

I had this happen -one time only- to Pegasus plastic minis (the '65 US Marines). They were primed with gesso, painted with a variety of acrylics and then got hit with Krylon Matte. Only the Krylon came out gloss & never dried completely... It really seemed to be the fault of the Krylon spray not being shook enough despite a 3 minute rattling.

I've tried to top-coat these with more Krylon with no success.

I also tried Future with Tamiya Flat Base added and that helped somewhat; it took away the shine but not all of the sticky.

Help!

[Silent Invader]

Not sure if this will help or not but how about a coat of PoundShop/EuroMart/DollarStore very thin superglue?

I use this on soft plastics before painting, to firm up the plastic so that later it is less likely to flex and then crack the acrylic paint.  After painting I seal with Humbrol gloss then matt and haven't had any problems with residual stickiness.

[former user]

sounds like a good idea, that superglue

GW is acrylic I guess
try enamel primer

[gloriousbattle]

sounds like a good idea, that superglue

GW is acrylic I guess
try enamel primer

Tried that, and seems to have no effect.

Again, though, it seems fairly random.  One time I run into this problem, and another I don't.

[gloriousbattle]

what undercoat du You use?

I have used a variety of things.  I am one of those who will not undercoat a plastic figures if I think that the color can be worked into the color of the finished minis.  I have, for example, some orcs made of green plastic that were never undercoated.

I have also used enamel and acrylic undercoats.

Very occasionally, I have had this problem with metal figures, but that seems to arise only when they were subjected to many undercoats of enamels and/or acrylics.

[Supercollider]

In my experience the 'stickies' occur if I spray in high humidity... the only solution I have found is a few light coats of Testors clear coat.