Paintball soldiers never die, they just wash 'n wear.

Paintball, once dismissed as a passing fad, has staked a following among L.A. county residents as diverse and colorful as the paint they shoot at each other.

A kindergarten teacher and self-proclaimed "Paintball Mama from West L.A.," has been driving her 13-year-old son to paintball events around the county for the past two years. Recently she threw a $1,300 paintball birthday party for him and his friends.

An electrical contractor and his wife were recently invited to a local paintball field event. After the initial feeling of "What am I doing?" wore off, he swears he and his wife were hooked.

A salesman in Century City reminisces about paintball games during his college stay in Massachusetts. He says he has been looking for a local playing field since moving to L.A.

According to the San Diego-based International Paintball Players Association, paintball is a sport where teams "go out and capture the other team's flag while protecting their own." Among the many variations on this theme is "football," in which players capture a mid-field flag and take it through enemy territory to the opposition's station for a "touchdown."

Players win by outfoxing the other team and eliminating opposing members by tagging them with paintballs shot from air-powered paintguns. Paintballs are capsules filled with just about every color paint under the sun, except one: red.

The notable exception has been made to ensure that referees can spot someone who has been hurt, an occurrence that the IPPA insists is less likely to happen than if you played golf or tennis.

Referees designate teams, enforce safety guidelines and insure fair play. For instance, a burst of paint that is quarter-sized or larger signifies a clean hit, retiring a person from the game.

Once a team member is "painted," he or she is eliminated from the competition -- unless novice rules are used. Novices can be granted "reincarnation" rights, whereby, for a limited time, they can simply wipe off the paint and rejoin the game.

Games usually last 20 to 45 minutes, depending on the size of the field and number and experience of the players, and can be played on outdoor fields or in indoor facilities.

Paintball teams range in size from four or five players to as many as 500 players per side. Orange County's American Paintball Media, which publishes Paintball Hotline and Paintball Times, is developing singles and doubles tournaments.

According to the paintball bible, Lionel Atwill's "The New Official Survival Game Manual," the first paintball game was played in June 1981 in New Hampshire. Twelve friends, including sportswriter and Vietnam veteran Atwill, plunked down $175 each to cover "the cost of (marking) guns, goggles, and ample food and booze" for the weekend event.

Other guests at that pioneering event included a staff writer for Sports Illustrated, a farmer from Alabama, a New York film producer, a New Hampshire contracting estimator, a forester, a venture capitalist, a stockbroker, a trauma surgeon, a ski shop owner, the author of the body building treatise Pumping Iron, and a stock and options trader. About half the group had hunting experience.

The sport got a national plug a few years ago when an episode of the TV series "L.A. Law" featured a few of its barristers painting down the opposition -- as well as themselves -- in a paintball battle.

By 1990, according to statistics published by Mt. Kisco, New York's Paintball Sports International magazine, the sport had spread to 26 countries, where it was being enjoyed by some seven million players. The magazine's Nov. 1991 issue estimated that paintball revenues were growing at 15 to 20 percent per annum.

As for current revenues, Paintball Sports editor Jerry Braun says, "The best guess is $500 million per annum, worldwide."

Randy Kamiya, editor of Action Pursuit Games magazine, says he believes these numbers "are kind of optimistic" and estimates worldwide revenues at closer to $200 million. Advertising revenues for his Burbank-based publication are "pretty stable," spurting as technological breakthroughs boost the sport's popularity.

In 1985, says Kamiya, a larger air cartridge fanned popularity; in 1990, it was the advent of semi-automatic paintguns.

Kamiya says he expects the entry of traditional outdoor and sporting goods distributors, like Wichita-based Coleman Co., will further boost sales in 1993 and 1994. His six-year-old magazine's circulation has been averaging 71,000 this year, he says.

Kamiya says he believes L.A. county's first commercial paintball field, L.A. Showdown (which no longer exists), opened in Palmdale in about 1983. Today, all of the county's 10 commercial paintball facilities are outdoor fields, except Gardena's Indoor City Paintball.

A day of paintball for a beginner with no equipment costs $45 at one of Close Encounters' two fields in Newhall. For this, competitors get an all-day field admission, a constant-air-pump rifle (which you must pump before firing each paintball), a full-camouflage outfit, full-coverage headgear and 200 paintballs. If you skip the camouflage, replace the headgear with goggles and a face mask, bring your own paintballs and forego the $5 parking fee, a day at the paint fields will cost you $35. An all-day admission fee alone is $25.

According to aficionado Don Miser, a player using a pump rifle can go through 50 to 100 paintballs in a single game. More sophisticated semi-automatic machine gun paint markers will expend 100 to 200 paintballs, and Miser's "60 automag puts away 500-600 rounds easily."

Close Encounters charges $8 for 100 paintballs, $35 for 500 paintballs and $130 for a case of 2,500. Players bringing their own paint guns can fill up their paintball propelling carbon dioxide cartridges or air tanks for a nominal fee.

After players pay up and sign a liability waiver for injuries incurred by not following field guidelines, they line up to be "chrono'ed" and "taped" by one of the field's referees. "Chrono'ing up" involves calibrating the paintgun's firepower. Guns emitting paintballs faster than 280 feet per second must be adjusted downward and remeasured until they meet the field's 280 foot maximum standard. Qualified players then are "taped" with one, two or three armbands of colored tape signifying rookie, seasoned player or professional.

Mike Schwartz, proprietor of Close Encounters, claims he is the "largest (paintball field) operator in California." He opened Close Encounters in Malibu three years ago to attract new players to the sport. He eventually uprooted the operation to Newhall, where he found the political climate more hospitable to his enterprise (his Malibu neighbors disliked having a paintball field nearby, and sought ways to close it down).

Before Close Encounters, he says, "the only way you could play was knowing someone on a team. You had to be invited; there was no way for the beginner to enter the field."

Schwartz estimates that the two Close Encounters fields in Newhall can attract as many as 200 players on a Saturday or Sunday. A second Close Encounters site recently opened in Thousand Oaks.

Schwartz got his start in paintball in "bandit" fields that, unlike Close Encounters, were not safety-certified by the IPPA. A friend had invited him to an event after discovering paintball through another friend who owns an executive recruiting firm in Thousand Oaks. The friend of the friend, said Schwartz, had been introduced to paintball through his church.

Schwartz moved up the sport's ladder to become a player on the "Sudden Death" team sponsored by St. Petersburg, Florida-based R.P. Scherer North America, which, he says, is the largest manufacturer of paintballs in the U.S.

"We went all over the country playing other teams," Schwartz notes, where he says top prizes between 1987 and 1990 paid $50,000. Top prizes today have been advertised at $100,000. However, says Action Pursuit Game's editor Kamiya, the top prize actually paid to date has been $88,000 in cash and merchandise for an entire event (as opposed to for a single competition).

"Generally," says Kamiya, "the purse is paid for by entry fees and a major sponsor like R.P. Scherer."

Beyond the adventure and money-making aspects of the sport, Schwartz says that at his Thousand Oaks property, he works with a non-profit corporation sponsored by Rebuild L.A. called Adolescent Creative Transitional Training. It teaches teamwork concepts to inner-city youth, he says.

Schwartz notes that many other groups also ascribe to the philosophy that paintball recreation fosters teamwork. Included among Close Encounters' customers are the Asian Students College Federation, Walt Disney Co., Universal Studios Hollywood, Pirate Radio (the former staff at Culver City's now defunct KQLZ-FM), and the U.S. Army.

The Army got interested in the games when Schwartz promoted the activity to the military in an effort to show his support for operation Desert Storm. An outfit in Oxnard which handles young recruits agrees that it's a great way for rookies to learn how to work together.

"We bring 100 to 150 people, two to three times a year," says U.S. Army Capt. Pat Nary. "The soldiers pay for themselves, the Army provides transportation and meals."

Close Encounters also benefits tangential businesses. Jack Harris, a self-professed "old '60s hippie" who distributes a line of paintball camouflage, says, "Monthly swap meets are encouraged so new players can acquire older gear from more experienced players."

Clay Clement, who has played paintball for years, sells $3 hotdogs, "the best chili dog anywhere," muffins, Snapple, Gatorade and soda to famished civilians on the weekends.

Off-field businesses around the county are also making money from paintball. Action Pursuit Game's editor Kamiya says about 18 stores in L.A. County specialize in selling paintball equipment. Among them are General Joe's Paintball & Surplus stores in Rosemead, Bellflower and Glendora, I&I Sports Supply in Gardena and West Los Angeles, and Skirmish The Store in Hawthorne and Reseda.

California Magnum has been manufacturing paintballs in Chatsworth plant since 1988. Spokesman Jeff Cole estimates that the five companies (three American, one European, one Canadian) that dominate worldwide paintball production together had revenues of $20 million last year. "And that's conservative," Cole insists.

Unfortunately, California Magnum's plants were closed for much of 1992 due to an extensive retooling. Cole would not reveal his company's 1993 sales, but says business is booming for the renovated Chatsworth facility and a new Canadian plant. Ninety percent of the company's business comes from sales to specialty stores around the world, says Cole. Ten percent comes from sales to sporting goods stores and other sources.

Several local companies manufacture paintguns. Among them are Worr Game Products of Santa Fe Springs, one of the world's largest paintgun manufacturers, and Carter Machine, which makes custom paintguns in Hawthorne. TASO in Bellflower and Wintec Manufacturing Corp. in Woodland Hills also manufacture paintguns locally.