My subject was discovered by my mother in the late 1970s, in a flower bed of the family home in a suburb of Quebec City, Canada, of all places! I can only guess how it got there. (It wasn't me.) Given a scrub to get rid of any soil, it was almost as good as new. At some point it ended up in my toolbox and travelled with me to Montreal, and ended up in the U.K. in the early 1990s.
Coincidentally, I owned this very same set of figures -- I think I still have it packed away somewhere, in company with German Infantry and British Commandos. The Commandos set reminded me of youthful enthusiasm in the mid-1970s, when I attempted to paint a couple of these figures with Airfix Enamels. Alas, I soon discovered that this combination of paint and plastic did not mix, and the coat of brittle paint cracked and then flaked off to my dismay. Many years later, I learnt that the trick is to coat the figure with diluted white glue (PVA) first and let it dry before applying any paint...
More recently, I came across the idea of using quick-drying wood stain rather than dilute PVA; so having a couple of tins of the former, I though I would give it a try. I started by scraping off any flash I could find with a small, sharp craft knife. Then the figure was scrubbed with an old toothbrush in warm water and shower gel, and left 24 hours to dry. The second photo shows the paratrooper after a coat of Ronseal Satin Dark Oak quick-drying wood stain. Hoping to save a bit of time, I dipped the figure head-first into the stain up to his knees. However, after removing excess stain, I think it would have been quicker to apply the stain with a small brush! Hopefully, future blog posts will show whether this method is a success, and document progress using my glazing technique for miniature figures...
