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7 Best Ways to Protect Painted Miniatures
You spent countless hours working on your miniatures and models. Tabletop wargamer? Scale Modeler? Collector? We work hard to express our creativity and bring these characters and worlds to life. Whichever category you might fall under, protecting your miniature investment is a must.
In this article, we share 7 ways to help you protect your painted miniatures and make sure they last for years to come. While not all inclusive, taking these tips into account will help you keep your investment safe and sound!
- Use a suitable primer
- Varnish and clear coat your painted models
- Paint with high quality hobby acrylic paints
- Use a good miniature painting handle
- Transport your miniatures in a travel case
- Avoid excess exposure to sunlight and heat
- Be careful of moisture
Read on for more details about how to protect your hard work, creativity, and investment.
Use a suitable primer
All painted miniatures should start with a good surface primer. A primer helps to provide a better surface texture and adhesion for your paints. For miniatures constructed of plastic, resin, or metal, a good hobby primer lays the foundation for overlying paint colors. Primers such as Vallejo surface primer fill-in microscopic gaps and holes on a miniature, reduces porosity (i.e., decreases water intrusion) of the model’s surface, and helps overlying paint stick. In the latter, a good primer application will prevent paint chipping, peeling, and other avoidable painting pitfalls. For best results apply 1-3 layers of primer until your entire model’s surface is covered in a very thin layer of the foundation primer coat. Choose a primer that is specifically designed for miniatures—avoid using spray paints from DIY stores as these may contain chemicals that can damage plastic or metal models.
Varnish and clear coat your painted models
Similar to a good primer coat, a varnish is the final step in protecting your model after your paint job. A varnish acts like an invisible shield that will protect your paint job from dust, dirt, fingerprints, and other environmental damage. Many varnishes come in matt (non-shiny) or gloss (shiny) finish to suit any desired look. Applying a couple layers of varnish also helps to preserve your model’s colors over time.
There is no trick to applying a varnish except to make sure you use very thin layers. If you spray your varnish, make sure you do so in an environment with low humidity and with an ambient temperature as close to room temperature as possible (~25C or 72F). This will help prevent frosting, air bubbles, or other nasty artifacts from appearing over your paint job.
Protection Against Weathering
You can’t completely stop or reverse the weathering of exterior wood, but you can slow the process dramatically by using the right type of finish.
There are two basic types of finishes used to protect wood surfaces from weathering – those that form a film or coating on the wood and those that penetrate the wood surface and leave no distinct layer. Film-forming materials include paints and varnishes. Penetrating finishes include water repellents, preservatives and pigmented semitransparent stains.
When selecting an exterior finish, consider appearance, durability, cost, surface type, ease of application, and maintenance.
Paints
Of all finishes, paints provide the most protection for wood against ultraviolet degradation and simple erosion. A painted surface retards the penetration of exterior moisture, blocks out damaging ultraviolet rays, and seals into the wood the natural resins and other oils that can otherwise be weathered out.
It’s generally accepted today that a good acrylic latex exterior house paint will perform as well as or even outlast a good oil-base house paint. The fact that latex paints are more porous and can breath slightly – while still shedding water – may contribute to their longevity. In addition, oil-base paints tend to become brittle while latex paints retain their flexibility.
In general, painting is best done on a fairly smooth and stable surface, such as low-density, vertical-grain and edge-grain woods that resist shrinking and swelling.
Varnishes
What makes clear varnish finishes popular is that they accent and enhance the grain and color of the wood surface. Unfortunately, all types of varnishes – oil-base, alkyd, urethane and acrylic – require frequent maintenance. Ultraviolet light from the sun eventually breaks down the varnish. To avoid frequent scraping and recoating, the best approach to using varnish for exterior surfaces is to provide reliable shade, such as recessed openings, roofs and overhangs.
Penetrating finishes are designed to be absorbed into the wood, saturating the surface fibers and partially or completely filling the surface pores. Many finishes contain water repellents and wood preservatives. The preservatives control the growth of mildew and other fungi, and some even discourage insect infestation.
When inorganic pigments are added to clear penetrating finishes, the mixture is classified as a semitransparent penetrating stain. The pigment in the stain greatly increases the durability of the finish by absorbing much of the ultraviolet light. However, it’s the total mix of pigment, resin, preservative and water repellent that ultimately determines the durability of any stain system.
The protective qualities of penetrating stains are best used on rough-sawn, weathered or coarse-textured woods – the very type of surface that won’t take paint well, including siding, trim, exposed decking, fences and roof shingles.
