Working with pewter miniatures.

[seadude]

I have the following pewter miniature vehicles from GHQ Wargaming that I'll be using for my hospital/humanitarian ship project. Since this is my first time working with pewter miniatures, I need to know the following:
a) Should they be "cleaned" first with soapy water to remove grease and/or other mold release agents?
b) Should pewter miniatures be primed before painting?
c) Anything else I need to know about working with pewter miniatures?

[jcf]

a & b: generally speaking, yes, although if well cleaned most paints adhere ok, priming
is a good idea if they're to be handled regularly, as in gaming.

c: flash/mould-lines, can be trimmed with a sharp scalpel blade like plastic and the
material is easily filed/sanded. It also polishes up nicely, so one can have shiny
'real metal' finish and when painted over with transparent paints you get a candy
paint effect. Tamiya clear acrylics work well for this as do transparent nail varnishes.

[Dizzyfugu]

Second that, and before you paint them a coat of acrylic primer is recommended. This also reveals surface flaws which can normally be easily mended with a sharp knife or sand paper.

[The Wooksta!]

Ta.  I'll remember that when I come to paint my Federation Troopers.

[zenrat]

Pewter = White Metal yes?

I use an etching primer on white metal figures rather than he "normal" primer I use on plastic.  I feel it adheres better to the metal although I have nothing objective to back this up.

Those vehicles look good Seadude, you done any cleaning up on them or is that how they came?

[Dizzyfugu]

When I painted and customized tabletop miniatures many moons ago I used thinned casein paint (either pure white or with soke added black for a neutral gray) as an ersatz primer, since using a rattle can on 28mm figures was rather ineffective. Worked fine.

[NARSES2]

Pewter = White Metal yes?

Yes, but grades can really vary

[dadlamassu]

I have painted many thousands of white metal miniatures.  The method I use is to clean up any mould lines and remove any "flash" with a sharp knife or file.  Wash the figure in warm soapy water, rinse thoroughly and allow to dry.  Fix the figure to a suitable mount with blu-tak - an old wooden ruler or strip of hardwood, old paint pot is useful.  This keeps the model free of finger grease and handling from the next stage on.  Now spray the models with a suitable primer.  I use artists acrylic white primer though I've had goo results with black, grey and white motor car primers too.  Now paint your figures.

Note that I use white primer as I have found that now I'm getting on a bit my eyesight cannot see the details on a black undercoated figure.