Frequently Asked Questions
How do I Preparing Resin Castings for Painting
Dragon Forge Bases are pressure cast in urethane resin and should come free of defects on the top surface. An occasional bubble may happen on the bottom surface. This should not effect the look or performance of the base. I try to clean as much flash off each base as possible before shipping but some may need to be cleaned off by you.
1. Remove parts from packaging
2. Remove any flash, mold lines or gates with a hobby knife, hobby file and sandpaper. I like to use sanding sticks to clean up the base edges.
A sanding stick is either a pre made stick with abrasive sheet glued to it or in my case I make my own by gluing sandpaper to a flat stick like a piece of styrene plastic or popsicle/craft stick sold in many hobby shops. In my opinion they last longer, are cheap to make and work well to clean up things like this.
3. I recommend all flat surfaces like the bottoms and edges of my bases to be lightly sanded with a 220-320 grit sandpaper to remove any mold lines and add a slight tooth to the resin surface. This will help paint adhere.
4. I clean all my resin parts and bases with a mild grease cutting dish washing soap like Dawn and rinse them well in warm water as this helps remove any mold release. Completely dry them, I usefully let them air dry.
5. Attach figures to them. I use a 1/32 diameter brass rod/wire and #66 (.0330”/.838MM) drill bit to drill into the feet and into the base and glue with a good CA glue.
Sometimes I will pre-drill everything and glue the figure to the base once painting is done.
6. Probably the most IMPORTANT part is to apply a good primer to the resin parts before painting with acrylic hobby paints. Many primers are available in white, dark gray or black.
Allow the primer to dry a good 24 hours before painting. Yes you can paint in 30 minutes but in my opinion allowing the primer to dry longer increases its strength and durability.
7. Paint with your favorite brand of hobby paints.