Trumpter KV-2 Russian tank (top), Italeri Russian infantry in winter dress, box and sprues x3 (bottom)
One session of Blitzkrieg Commander with the West Tokyo Wargamers (see a battle report in three parts here (1), here (2), and here (3)) was enough to convince me how fun a WWII game could be. But it was not until the eve of our second session last Sunday that I decided to take the plunge and start a 1/72 scale WWII army. Believe me when I say that no one was more surprised about this than me.
I’ve heard lots of stories about how the slick plastics used to make many of these models are resistant to most conventional painting methods. I did some searching, and found that prior to applying paint, most people 1) wash the models in warm soapy water, 2) coat the models with either straight PVA (white) glue or matt varnish, and 3) prime with a plastic spray primer. These are the same steps used for resins, metals, and conventional modeling plastics, but the initial layer of PVA glue or varnish prior to priming is new to me. Also, I don’t use spray primer of any kind; I prefer gesso for a number of reasons I’ll spare you for now.
Last evening I tested this method (replacing the spray primer with gesso) on one model, and so far it looks like a success. Way better, in fact, than I expected. The gesso is holding up so well on the base, to which I did not apply an initial varnish coat, that I’m tempted to try one model sans varnish. The gesso is fully cured now, and over the next hour I’m going to paint up one model with a very simple palette. Expect a full report soon, and hopefully 15 stands of infantry + one tank in about five weeks. Here we go!
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