Recently, I watched youtube video How to dry oil paint QUICKLY! Miniature heated box from Marco Frisoni. It is well known tip among oil painters that warm dry weather forcing oil paint cure quickly. FYI, unlike acrylic paints, oil paints go two step for the drying. First, drying step. This is where any solvent you applied vapor into the air. Depending the thickness of the paints and solvent you applied, the actual time will vary, but it usually take an hour to a day. The next step is curing step. Oil paint itself does not dry, but rather oxidize which means that the oil meets with oxygen in the air, and slowly harden itself. This will take days to months sometimes for oil painted canvas, but will take days to a week as we usually apply oil extremely thinly on miniatures. FYI, water mixable oil paints are not so different in regarding to the curing process. If you used water to dilute them, perhaps the first drying step would be quick enough, however, since they are basically oil, so they must go through the curing step as well.

I found that there is a portable, electric food (lunch) warmer, and recognized that it could serve the heat box to speed up the curing time of the oil. Here's a screenshot of it. In my region, it costs around between $30 and $40, which is not that expensive. It would be nicer, if this device has temperature control feature, but it isn't. But most of this type of product are safe to use with plastic containers, so I guess that it will be okay.

Some resin miniatures (e.g. Arcadia Quest) are turned very mellow, so I'm not quite sure whether it is safe to use on them. However, once it is cooled, it hardened quickly, so I guess it's okay to use on them. Since the heat itself generated from the bottom plate, miniatures will receive the heat from the bottom, I added porcelain cup, to generate radiant heat from the side as well. Also, I placed wooden base so that not too much heat goes to the miniature directly.

How much is it faster than curing miniatures in room temperature? It's hard to say depending on the size of the miniature, the thickness of the oil paint applied, and humidity. Definitely, it makes the curing process faster. Usually, I wait at least 3-7 days, but I was able to cure one tiny miniature couple of hours in this heat box. (Actually, I let the miniature one additional day in my room.)

UPDATE: PVC miniatures are very sensitive to the heat, and turn to very malleable in the heat box. Although it will harden, I wouldn't recommend using heat box on PVC miniatures.

UPDATE: When heating metal (pewter) miniature, depending on the type of the glue you used, excessive heating may break the bond due to the difference thermal expansion of the glue and the metal.