Zombicide Quickie
Taking a break from work to knock out a few Zombicide survivors:
It's commission crunch time, so I haven't been able to work on any personal projects or post much. I didn't want to let February pass by without posting anything, so I took a couple hours to paint these three survivors from my Zombicide game– Not John McClaine, Not Machete, and Not The Dork From Big Bang Theory.
These get me a little closer to completing my set. I still have one tray of zombies to paint, and I'll likely knock them out in the coming months. You can see the rest of my set and my speed-painting process for the zombies, as well as my thoughts on the game in this post: Zombicide!
Something I noticed, when taking out the figures, is that the ones I've painted are a little sticky, or tacky. I wonder it that's due to the PVC plastic that the figures are made of, or something else. Has anyone else experienced this? I'll hit them with a layer of Tamiya Flat Clear spray, and see if that fixes it. Hmmm...
'Til next time!
Great stuff as always! Yes, tackyness is from paint or clearcoat reacting to the PVC material. A lot of spray paints have harsh solvents that react poorly with PVC, absolutely avoid lacquers especially as the primer and many enamels can be problematic. Look for anything that says it's safe on vinyl. For my Zombicide Black Plague set I used a vinyl based primer, regular acrylics and then sealed with Rustoleum's Universal Dead Flat and they still remain un-tackied even after a few years.
ReplyDeleteThe old Floquil primers reacted VERY poorly with PVC and sometimes even styrene plastic, I occasionally even got tacky Warhammer models and nearly ruined a Castle Ravenloft Dracolich, which was still tacky over 3 years later. Found some old modeling forums that recommended a coat of PVA glue and that did the trick, no more tacky undead dragon. No idea how Tamiya clear will react, I'd do a test on a spare Zombicide piece before trying as it might make the models worse, but in my experience it's usually the primer that causes the tackyness
Thanks for the info! I tried a coat of PVA glue (actually Matte Mod Podge) on one of the zombies, and that seems to have done the trick! Not tacky anymore. Maybe I'll try a spray of Tamiya Flat Clear over the Mod Podge and see how that holds up.
DeleteBut this just further puts me off buying any models that are made from "soft plastic" or "restic" or whatever other made-up term they use to disguise what is essentially cheap dollar-store-dinosaur plastic.
I've had the same tackiness problem with Reaper Bones models and matt varnish spray. Oddly, painting on matt varnish from a pot sorted the problem out. I like the survivors, especially Not-Machete!
ReplyDeleteI quite liked Zombicide but I found Black Plague to be a bit more refined rules-wise, and I preferred the setting. It's not bad though.
Ah, I was wondering about Reaper Bones– They feel like they're made out of this same kind of plastic. I have one of their plastic bat swarms that I use as a counter with my Terrorgheist. Just checked it, and it's not as tacky as the Zombicide figures are, but it certainly feels slightly "off." I did spray it with Dull Cote, so maybe that's containing the stickiness a bit. At least I know that I can Mod Podge it if I have to.
DeleteThanks! I bookmarked the Black Plague rules pdf on the Zombicide site; I'll have to give it a read and see how it compares!