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All my gameboxes get stored away in a dressing, no direct sunlight or radiator near it.

Mine weren't stored with heat, either. I had also tried putting little dessicant packs in with them to help remove moisture, to no avail.

Ok... the problem lies in the combination of the plastic and the varnish used. Don't blame the plastic. Plastics gas off... that's the plasticy smell you get from opening a box of plastic figures. This gas will have an effect on some varnishes and keep them from going off.. ie the gas acts like a solvent. In my experience it tends to soften oil based varnishes more then acylic. Had the most problems with plactic wotc D&D figures. Now days I always do a test paint/varnish on plastics.

Regarding the original post on BGG. Probably a bit unfair since I've never seem FF suggest the figures shoud be painted. Actually he blames "ridiculously porous, moisture-rich plastic or something" when in fact it's his own inexperience painting plastics

Not that my minis take a beating when we use them but I actually used Elmer's White Glue diluted with water, painted right over the mini for a nice matt finish, no colour change and no tackiness.

I think I will not varnish my new batch of soon to be painted figures.
It's a real bummer to see the paint chip of each time I pull the figures from eachother.
Truely sad.

Yup, they still stick to this day.

The new metal zombiefigures I have, those I will varnish. My other metal figures (bloodbowl, Warmachine) don't stick.

Let's bury this 'problem' with the figs.
I believe that the original models that came with LNOE were possibly not suitable for painting straight off, unless they'd been cleaned up properly. This could be my ignorance but I have been painting 22 years and I could well be wrong. I think they were probably produced in the vein that they would be played with unpainted. Let's face it a lot of games would have their figures on the back fully painted saying 'figures supplied unpainted'

As for the new models. I have Hero pack one and zombies with grave weapons seem to me to be made of a more robost kind of plastic without the 'bendy' feel I think FFP have took note. My advice wash 'em, give 'em a good undercoat and varnish 'em. I can't see you having a problem. End of.

I did wash the figures Trev. As I always do with my figures. But like said, it probably will be something with the plastic.
For now...I decided not to varnish the new ones. Did you varnish the Hero Pack and Zombie WGW ones?
If yes and they don't stick, what varnish did you use?

Also do you keep your figures together or seperatly? When kept seperatly there is no problem here....well the only problem is that I don't have to proper case to keep them seperate...and just displaying them in my livingroom would probably not work with the misses hehehe

Personaly I'm not sure why we should bury this topic. Maybe someone will come up with a good solution one day?
I don't see this as FFP bashing or something. They couldn't have known that this would happen.

Hi Emp
No I haven't painted HP1 or the zombies WGW yet. But just by handling them it's clear they are made from a different kind of plastic. I will report back once I have painted them.

I realise this is an important concern to people about thier figures being sticky. I just hope it's not putting people off painting them, because I believe more people should get into the painting and modeling side. It's a very rewarding hobby. Like I said earlier if the models are cleaned in warm soapy water and undercoated (black GW) and varnished (matt GW) there should not be a problem. When you first get the figures out of the box they do feel a bit sticky but with this painting process this should be remedied.

Another matter is what do you do if you've alredy painted them and they're still sticky? I don't have a solution I'm afraid. Apart from minimising the damage by storing them seperatly in a display cabinet (after permission is obtained) or carry case. (although both of these ideas cost money). You could probably make something out of an old games box with dividers inside made from card. For next to nothing. I can imagine it must be very disappointing to have your models getting damaged after all the hard work and patience spent on them.

I can only surmise about the causes of this stickyness. It has to be the plastic they are made of which when used with certain paints or varnish a reaction occurs which produces this sticky feel. This is compounded when the sticky figures are put together as the figures react with each other (a bit like a chemical version of toy story without the heartwarming fun).

I hope this helps

That is why I decided not to varnish them. I think the acryl paints should hold and it's not like we foundle the figs every day.
We'll see what happens. It is like you said very dissapointing to see that shit happening to the figs and that is also the main reason why I stopped painting them.
But now with the new clown figures coming I got that urge again to paint...wich is gooooooooood

Hey, all. When i was at a game store, it had some old Clear Gloss and Clear Flat (1995 Monogram Pro-modeler, water based, 88-0046 for the Gloss), and since I was looking for a way to just add bits of gloos or flat over the spray-can Coating, it was cheap and so am I, i bought the little plastic jars (<$1).

I was having some trouble with the tacky situation (I use water-based, scrubbed them and primed them). But...no more! A quick coat of that stuff, and it dried to no tacky. Another coating and it definately no tacky.

I think that Revell/Monogram no longer does paints or clears, but Testors does....anyone want to try it out?
http://www.testors.com/category/136694/Clears