IF JASON CAN PAINT, SO CAN YOU. A TUTORIAL (1 OF 3): PRIMING

I'm about half way finished painting the 205 pieces for War of the Ring and I thought it would be good for me to quickly paint something else over the weekend. I also wanted to take the opportunity to encourage you out there, Mr. or Mrs. Neverpaintedanythingbeforeandkindofscaredtotry, that for very little investment ($10 or so), you can probably pull off something pretty good. Pictured above are Alvin and Dexter, an expansion well worth getting for the game Ticket to Ride. Here you see them how they come... interesting, but blah.   This is where the list of STUFF you will need, comes in. For the beginner I suggest, a shoe box (used for storage and as a workbench), several nails with flat heads on them, some poster tack stuff that you used as a kid (sort of like thick silly puddy found in the tape and glue isle), a can of primer (though I'm partial to Krylon Camouflage Black, as long as it is flat black it should work fine), a cheap craft acryilic paint set, some small beginner brushes (the smaller the better), and a can of clear gloss lacquer. 
  Now follow along- board game piece is smashed carefully into a small wad of poster tack (preferably completely under the base of the piece) which is mashed on top of nail head with the nail pushed through the shoe box top. Once you have all your pieces mounted like this (as pictured above), check the humidity outside! Anything over 65% is too humid. Once the weather is nice and dry, take the box top with the mounted figures and head outside with your primer. The box top acts not only as a holder for the pieces, but also as a shield for your hand as you pitch and move the whole thing to get at hard to spray places.

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Once you are nowhere near a vehicle, the house, the dog, or cement, CHECK FOR THE BREEZE! You don't want to be covered with this stuff either. Toss a few blades of grass into the air and stand upwind. Now the golden rule to priming: spraying several thin coats is always better than just pouring it on. If it begins to look wet, just get your finger off the trigger for a few seconds. Too much too fast, and you will lose details. Here you see Alvin and Dexter with their first coat. And you can still see the details of the buildings and such. Make sure to get into sneaky areas like mouths, spaceship seats, tunnels, in between legs, etc. Keep doing this while twisting and turning the nails from under the box top to get better angles, until the pieces are completely coated. 

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Here we are back inside after 3, maybe 4, thin coats. You can see the rivets on the spaceship still, and though my photo doesn't show it very well, the scaly skin is still crisp and full of detail. You probably could start painting in about 15-30 minutes, but a tip I have for you is to wait overnight. This will give it a chance to completely dry and give you a chance to figure out things like color schemes and finding tricky spots to remember to paint (like deep inside the mouth of Dexter).

Next time, Painting! Part 2 Here!

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