Miniature figure painting
For the painting of miniature portraits, see miniature painting
The hobby of painting miniature three-dimensional figures may have its roots in the painting of "toy soldiers" by or for children, or by more serious wargamers who used appropriately painted miniatures to re-enact historical battles. It has been influenced by the painting of model cars, ships, trains and airplanes as well.
With the explosion of wargaming and role-playing gaming as hobbies in the 1970s and 1980s, a new type of miniature painting developed. Gaming companies issued small scale miniatures, usually cast in lead, to represent individual characters or vehicles within the game. Hobbyists painted the figures to be able to differentiate characters or units on a gaming surface (terrain, battle mat, or table). Although many gamers (then and now) are indifferent to the quality of the paint job, for some the skillful painting of miniature figures soon became a hobby in itself.
One of the most popular scales is 1/25, resulting in a miniature of a human being only an inch or two high. Sculptors can pack an incredible amount of detail into these figures, and they must be painted with extremely small-gauge brushes (0, 00, even 00000). Acrylic paint is the most common medium. It is a difficult, exacting, time-consuming process, but the results can be quite amazing.
In the early 1990s, concerns over the safety of lead in miniatures led game companies to switch over to various pewter alloys.
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