How to Prep Your Micro Mini
An EquinArt Creations Exclusive "How to Article"

How to Prep Your Pewter Micro Mini for
Painting
By Katrina Michaels

Prepping pewter micro mini’s isn’t hard, in fact they are faster than some
other kinds since you don’t have nearly as big of area to work on than
some other scales.  The trick is getting at some of those teensy areas to
make it nice and smooth!  Having the right supplies can make all the
difference.

Supplies

Rustoleum Painter’s Touch White Sandable Primer
This is by far the best primer I’ve found so far, and I use it for priming all
my horses.   It lies down smoothly, can be sprayed in light coats, and
gives a really nice surface for pastelling!  It also sands very easily, which
makes it ideal for prepping.  The only place I’ve found in my area that
carries this product is Home Depot.  You might check other places that
carry Rustoleum products as well.  For me, it is worth the 45 min. drive to
go get it and I keep a good stock at home ;)

Bondo Glazing and Spot Putty
This stuff is GREAT for filling in little dents and crevasses that tend to pop
up in pewter models (it works just as well on resins and plastics too).  As
you can tell, I use it a lot!  Wal-Mart carries it in their automotive section
with the touch-up spray paints and other bodywork supplies.  

Flat Toothpicks
These work great for applying the spot putty!  They’re disposable, and
small enough to reach in those tight spots to fill up a hole.  I get the kind
of toothpicks that are rounded and flat on one end.

Sandpaper of Various Grits
My favorite kind is the black wet or dry type of sandpaper.  This is made
specifically for auto bodywork, and it holds up well to model horse use.  I
wet sand sometimes, and dry sand others!  My favorite grits are 320 and
400.  Look for it at a body shop supply store, such as PPG.

Sanding Sticks
These sticks are great for sanding these tiny horses.  I can’t get along
without them!  They come in packages of various grits, and I end up using
them all, depending on what I’m trying to sand away.  I use to be able to
get them for $.99 at Hobby Lobby in their model car section, but my Hobby
Lobby quit carrying them recently, so I had to find another supplier.  I
bought a couple packages of them from Burbank’s House of Hobbies
online, and I definitely recommend them!  It was less than $2 a package,
they had decent shipping prices and they shipped very quickly.  Here’s the
link http://www.houseofhobbies.com/stasswstsa2.html  

Needle Files
These aren’t absolutely necessary, but they do make life easier!  I just
recently ordered them from Hobby Linc  (http://www.hobbylinc.
com/htm/k+s/k+s430.htm) which is a good supplier and I have been
using them ever since on the little guys!  They are a good investment if
you plan on prepping a lot of them.  They come in all different shapes and
sizes, which can really help getting some of those tricky seams.

Rubber gloves
I use the cheap doctor’s variety that can be bought at Wal-Mart, the dollar
store, and other places fairly inexpensively.   Spraying primer can make a
mess of your hands!  (Believe me, been there, done that  :shock:)

Last but not least, an unpainted, unprepped pewter micro mini!  In my
example here, I am using the Spanish Walk style Andalusian by Maggie
Bennett, sold exclusively through Equine Art Creations.  Click here to
purchase this model or other micro minis from EquinArt Creations.

The Process
The first thing that needs doing before anything else when getting a
pewter micro mini, is to check the legs, and make sure non have been
bent during shipping.  Now this particular little model had a rough time of
it!  I had been eyeing Maggie’s site for several months DROOLING over
the in progress pictures of him, and as soon as I found out they were
going to be at Breyerfest, I asked a couple of friends to pick some up for
me and send them to me as soon as they got back.   Well, the package
got incorrectly addressed and got “lost” in 100* F weather for several
weeks!  Finally the package made it back, and was sent to me.  Well,
being that hot for that long warped the one leg, as you can see in this
picture.  This is the absolute worst case of bowed-in legs I have seen so
far! Poor thing couldn’t even stand up straight!

Most of your models won’t be that bad, but you always want to check and
make sure everything is nice and straight, with all leg bones aligned nice
and straight (no jelly legs!)  To straighten the leg back out, take and firmly
pinch the leg with two fingers, and very gently and slowly ease it back to
the correct position.  Pewter can break if stressed too much or tried to
move to fast, so just take it slow and easy.  Sometimes I can hear faint
popping noises, but that’s OK.  Here is our boy after the straightening-hey;
he can even stand up now!

Now comes the more obvious part of prepping-seam removal!  There
aren’t all that many seams in one of these, but a few inevitably pop up.  
Here I use a combination of needle files and sanding sticks to smooth
those out.  The part I love about the micros is the beautiful “chrome-like”
finish left after sanding!

Now this particular model tends to have a very small seam running along
the ridge of the neck in the hair.  This is where my needle files come in
handy.  This particular file is triangle shaped, and the point fits perfectly in
the grooves of the mane.  A few back and forth sawing motions in each
groove will quickly eliminate that seam!

Make sure to get all the seams on the legs smoothed and sanded off!!

Once I have most of my major seams all smoothed out, I take a piece of
sandpaper and smooth out all the major “open” areas of the body to give
it that satiny-smooth finish that is the best for painting, especially when
using pastels.  Some micros have a little texture to them, and this gets rid
of that.  (The newer models are made of a different type of pewter and are
much smoother textured, but still need some sanding like this)

Once you think you’ve gotten all the seams and removed most of the
major body area texturing, it’s time to put on that first layer of primer!  Here
I am spraying it on.  For the first primer spray, we want only a very light
coat, just enough to show the spots we missed, and make the divots that
will need spot putty and extra sanding stand out.  This is called a guide
coat.  Multiple thick coats of primer can easily eliminate all the precious
detail in these models.  Be sure and wear your gloves, primer fingers can
be a mess!  

Now set your horse aside carefully (don’t let him tip over!) and let him dry
overnight.  For some reason primer dries much slower on pewter models
and can remain tacky for quite some time, so it’s best to let it dry a good
long while before working further.  And here he is, after thoroughly drying.  
You can still see the metal in spots, and you can definitely see some
spots that need fixing!

Now it is time to get out that Bondo Spot Putty.  I dip a little out of the tube
with my toothpick, and smear it into divots, and on rougher spots and
crevasses that shouldn’t be there.  

And here he is wearing his spot putty.  As you can tell, he looks very much
worse for the wear!  Let the spot putty dry really well, at least for a couple
of hours before doing anything more with it.

Once your spot putty is dry (won’t indent when pressed with a fingernail) it
is time to dig out that sandpaper and those sanding sticks!  Be sure and
sand the puttied areas really well, you want to pretty much sand it all off,
until all you can see is the putty in the shape of the area you originally
filled with it.  Be sure that it is nice and smooth, especially in areas where
it needs to feather in with the rest of the horse.  


As you can see, there isn’t much primer left now!  I wasn’t satisfied with
his overall body smoothness, so went over him again after sanding down
the spot putty.  The primer sticks in all the low spots, and can be
especially helpful in showing rough areas I’ve missed.  Be especially
careful to try to get him perfectly smooth.  Double check everything once
you think you’ve got it, then it is time to prime again!  This time you want to
put on a thicker coat and get him a more solid white.  Be careful not to get
it too thick though; that can make your primer run!  Let the primer dry very
thoroughly, preferably overnight to 24 hours.  (Even if your primer can says
it dries in 20 minutes to 1hr. like mine does, it still seems to take longer
on pewter for some reason.  I have no idea why!)

Once it is good and dry, check over your horse once again.  Hopefully you
should have a nice smooth white horse, all ready for paint!  Occasionally, I’
ll find a spot I missed getting primer on, or one that needs a bit more
attention with a sanding stick or some more putty.  (Here I missed
sanding down some spot putty on his rear hamstring area, and some
rough spots in his lower mane)  If it needed a bit more work, you will need
to give it one more light coat of primer, and Ta-Da! You now have a
beautifully smooth, prepped micro mini; now ready for the magic of paint!

The author’s example model, “Sogni Passati”, painted as a historic
Spanish Jennet