My First Micro Mini Hates Me

Maggie Bennett's early 2019 release, Viking, the Fjord horse.

I guess it's only appropriate that Maggie Bennett's most feisty creation, a fighting fjord pony, is also what fights my attempts to learn how to prep pewter micros.

For starters, I know these guys are very delicate. It's largely why I opted for the pewter as my first micro instead of resin, which was more likely to snap under my finders (at least the pewter bends a little before it does that). Being a rearing horse, if you accidentally bend Viking's hind legs even the tiniest amount, he falls flat on his face. This is especially not fun when his primer is wet. 

This guy's primer went on so smoothly that I thought I wouldn't have to sand, until he toppled over and rubbed his sides. Ughhhh, hello sandpaper.

But the most frustrating thing was when his primer was "finished," or so I thought, until a chunk of it peeled off with my glove. Well that's not good. Poor primer adhesion is usually a sign of either 1) the wrong primer, or 2) poor surface prep.

After internet research that did indeed confirm there is nothing wrong with using Duplicolor Sandable Primer for pewter minis, it suddenly hit me. I used hand-soap instead of Dawn dish soap to wash him. Always, always use dish soap to wash your models for priming. Hand-soap more often than not has moisturizers, oils and fragrances that can leave a residue your primer will not adhere too. Hand-soap was within reach, and I paid the price for the convenience.

Even we hobbyists who have been customizing for years have our "whoopsie" moments, and that's what stripping is for. This guy had a bath in Purple Power today and got the royal treatment of washing; a bath with Dawn scrubbed all over him, baking soda scrubbed all over him (I'm using an old toothbrush, by the way), a scrubbing with rubbing alcohol (then set to dry) and finally, scrubbed with Windex. Also, if any of you repeat these steps to make sure your horse is ultimately clean of any residue, make sure you rinse of the Windex instead of letting it air dry. Windex has a chemical in it that will etch into your model if you do not rinse it properly. 

With any luck, his miss-behaving days are behind him and he won't give me this much trouble when I paint him. But I have a feeling he has plenty of fight in him yet.