Paint advice...

[Carn]

I bought the Classics Hot Rod sticker sheet from Reprolabels which arrived this morning. Hot Rod (or Rodimus) is along with Voyager Prime my favorite Transformer figure since the G1 days but I felt the paintjob was somehow lacking and a bit dull, hence the sticker buying. Am very happy with the stickers for the chest and arms and everything which give Hot Rod a much more vibrant firey look, but the ones for the spoiler that add a much needed bright yellow to it look a bit too obvious and I was thinking about taking those off again and just painting the spoiler myself as it doesn't look complicated at all.

Question is since I ain't done much painting of figures before, what kinda paint do I use on it? Just looking to buy a small tin of yellow paint and a lil brush and just color in the yellow areas where the stickers are currently. What's the difference between types of paint when using them on toys?

[Minion]

The paint is usually reliant on the surface and type of plastic. Fo rexample when painting a MOTU 2002 figure you can paint right onto the toy with no undercoat and it works a treat. The opposite is Jakks WWE figures which are a pain and even applying undercoat is an arduous task.

Transformer wise I have to admit to doing little painting, but in my experience it usually falls nearer the Jakks catagory. Working in details in small areas (when not doing an entire repaint) is possible but if you really want to do a great job i'd suggest practicing on something similar but expendable first.

Paint wise I usually use my GW ones but I also have a collection of various humbrol and tamiya paints.

Unfortunately painting toys in any form is a real trial and error thing. The good side is that is the Hot Rod plastic is harder to apply paint to then you should be able to quickly wipe it away if you make a mistake.

Hope this helps.

[Carn]

GW is Games Workshop right? I used to do some of those when I was a lil kid but I was never any good with it. My lil chaos marines (i forget what they're properly called now but were part of Khorne is it?) ended up looking very dark and muddy looking compared to the vibrant paintwork shown in the White Dwarf magazine. Which reminds me I actually have several issues of that I found in an old box I gotta clear out.

Anyways... how do I tell which kind of plastic this is? Does anyone else here have Classics Rodimus and can tell me what kind of plastic his spoiler is? And then hopefully next time I go into town I can pick up a lil pot of paint and a lil brush. Either from the art shop or Games Workshop (though last time I wandered into that place I got sorta stuck listening to couple members of staff talking to me about all this stuff I didn't really understand)

[TheMechanic]

Before my current job i worked as a car body sprayer and in doing so i,ve painted a lot of plastic parts (spoilers/trim etc) to get a good finish you need to take the plastic part and key the surfaces with a fine wet & dry paper or believe it or not one of those green square pan scourers to give the paint something to adhere to. Then for the best finish you need to spray it really, i think you can get humbrol in little spray cans, apply 2 or 3 coats depending on the size of the item. All this is dependant on the type of plastic it is if it,s a rigid type this should be fine if it,s the bendable soft type it may need an elastisizer added to make the paint plyable.

[Carn]

Well, the two wing parts of the spoiler can detach without too much trouble but the main secton doesn't seem too. Spray painting sounds a bit costly and messy, I'd have to also cover up all the parts I want to remain orange on the spoiler.

What does 'key the surfaces' mean?

[Devil Soundwave]

switchblade said:

Well, the two wing parts of the spoiler can detach without too much trouble but the main secton doesn't seem too. Spray painting sounds a bit costly and messy, I'd have to also cover up all the parts I want to remain orange on the spoiler.

What does 'key the surfaces' mean?

Keying the surfaces is, essentially, making them rougher to make the paint stick better, as it would flake off shiny plastic easily.

This can be done using solvents (risky and messy) or something like sand-paper. Try a fairly fine grade sandpaper or wet and dry paper to make the shiny parts of the plastic look, well, not so shiny any more.

What you are doing is making microscopic grooves so the paint has more to grip to.

Innit.

[Carn]

Ah that makes sense. Thank you.