Painting Plastic Toy Soldiers With Oil Paints?

Question

So I'm getting some plastic samurai in about 2 days. 2 days ago, I asked a question about painting them with acrylic paints. That idea has now been thrown out the 2nd story window. The new and improved question is:

How well will oil paints hold on the plastic?

yes, I thought I might give oil a try. I found an unopened box of oil paints in my basement and I read somewhere that oil should work better than acrylic. Before I open and possibly waste some perfectly good paint, I wanted to check this out with the good people of Yahoo! Answers.

All help is appreciated and thanks for answering!

Answer 1

I would *really* recommend acrylic. My boyfriend has models that he has painted and acrylic is my preferred method of painting on canvas. I painted a metal D and D model once for fun using my artists acrylics. The only thing I had to do differently with those paints was make sure they were watered down because artists acrylic is a lot thicker (at least what I have) then the normal model acrylic.

You can probably find some kind of sealant to spray on top to prevent chipping. Also, you should use primer before you paint, otherwise chipping will be inevitable. My model is metal and I don't mess with it too much, so I haven't had too much trouble myself.

In theory, acrylic is meant to be layered over and over again, so it's a lot easier to work with than oil, especially on a small model. Also, acrylic dries quick an sticks pretty well. Oil smells bad, is expensive, and takes overnight to dry (at least on canvas). Also, you will get "brighter" colors with acrylic, whereas I see oils as more of the dark and rich colors like forest green and burgundy. Acrylics will have all of those colors and the really pretty lights blues and bright yellows etc.

Anyway, if you want to see how my model turned out with acrylic, let me know. But I do know that most model builders use acrylic paint.