Hand Painting Plastic?

[Pezz]

Heya Guys n' Gals,

I am interested in mixing my two passions. I am an artist at heart but gosh do I love to play ice and roller hockey. Goalies tradtionally have painted masks, and team players do not, but since I just play in a beer and pretzels type of pick-up league I was thinking of painting my Bauer 1500 Helmet (If USA hockey mandates solid colors I'll get a nicer helmet for those functions).

It'd be a really neat portfolio piece, too, to have a custom painted hockey hemlet. 3D Canvas and all.

How would I go about hand painting something like a plastic helmet? (I'd have to take the cage out for sure if I prime it..)

[Not Pink]

I do a lot of plastic painting as I custom paint game consoles, controllers, etc. the best thing I would tell you to do is go to an auto body store and specifically ask for "Vinyl-Dye Spray Can" they usually don't sell it to a costumer who they think won't know how to use it, and it's not on the shelves. it actually seeps into the plastic and dyes it, making it so if it gets scratched, the color will still be there.

or just pick up some Auto body paint or even Krylon fusion, they work well for what it's worth, but you'll need a couple layers of clear-coat over top it to keep em protected; the dye wont need it, but it's nice to layer the gloss on to that to give it a sheen.

either way, for detailing, you'll need an air brush. you can try to hand paint something on there with model paint (or *shudder*... acrylic). the problem with hand paints is that it's not flat (3 dimensionally) and will be more pron to chip sticking out even half a millimeter.

Masking tape (or auto detailing tape, its bright green at any auto body shop, better than blue tape, and MUCH better than masking tape), can be used for masking off areas you don't wanna paint.

so put down a base coat (or primer if your using Auto body/krylon), mask, paint, mask, paint, repeat, detail, clear coat.

EDIT: ooohh also, when spraying, get the can warm before hand (warm water, armpit, etc.) spray on a warm day (coming soon, depending where you are) and keep the can as far away as you can with just barely getting it on the plastic, and spray it on in a lot of very thin layers, giving a lot of time to dry between.

[Pezz]

or just pick up some Auto body paint or even Krylon fusion, they work well for what it's worth, but you'll need a couple layers of clear-coat over top it to keep em protected; the dye wont need it, but it's nice to layer the gloss on to that to give it a sheen.



Will the plastic take primer straight away? I don't think vinyl dye will work, simply because the helmet is black to begin with.



either way, for detailing, you'll need an air brush. you can try to hand paint something on there with model paint (or *shudder*... acrylic). the problem with hand paints is that it's not flat (3 dimensionally) and will be more pron to chip sticking out even half a millimeter.

Masking tape (or auto detailing tape, its bright green at any auto body shop, better than blue tape, and MUCH better than masking tape), can be used for masking off areas you don't wanna paint.


I use really thin multiple layers of acrylic paint for my models. Acrylic paint, utilizing a good clear suspension medium to thin it out, works great on figs and worked on the side of my computer - that was just metal.

I was planning on putting lots of 3M clearcoat on it in multiple layers and possibly buffing each couple of layers out to a shine.


EDIT: ooohh also, when spraying, get the can warm before hand (warm water, armpit, etc.) spray on a warm day (coming soon, depending where you are) and keep the can as far away as you can with just barely getting it on the plastic, and spray it on in a lot of very thin layers, giving a lot of time to dry between.

Priceless advice, I think. I never thought of that; and I was wondering why my Warhammer miniatures were repelling paint! Must be freezing in my crawlspace. Thank you! = )

This is a 39.99 helmet that I get for 30% off. I can always get another one to play with and just pop this on a foam head for display but I think I'll play-test it after I'm done.

[Not Pink]

I good rule of thumb for painting any plastic is to get a washcloth (or better yet a microfiber if you have one) splash some paint thinner on it and wipe the whole spay area down. it takes off any extra paint you might now have known was even there, plus it takes off pretty much every other coating that might be on there, make sure you give it a day or 2 to dray after wiping off all the thinner, or the paint will never hold. using krylon or the like, you should also sand the plastic before using paint thinner, that'l give the surface more friction and hold to the paint, it is optional, but it gives the best results, and make sure that no matter what you do the last step before paint is prime (omit dye).

make sure to test in a small, unnoticeable area first though, I doubt it will melt the tough plastic a mask should be made out of, but you never know.

yeah, I've heard vinyl-dyeing black plastic can be tricky, I've heard some use white first and keep doing it until its somewhat of a light gray then coloring it, but that would seriously weaken a pretty important piece of plastic in front of your face haha. never done it my self though. I've also heard getting a light color will make black this weird dual color shot, like the original zunes, but again, I've never tried it out.

I was planning on putting lots of 3M clearcoat on it in multiple layers and possibly buffing each couple of layers out to a shine.

good plan for a great shine.

oh, and I have no idea about your warhammer minis... the warm thing is just that aerosol cans work better when they're warm, it could be any type of coating really, wax and varnish are usually good at repelling water-based paints like acrylic and spray (which is still somewhat close to acrylics). sand them, prime them, and then paint them, that should really get EVERYTHING to stick.

[Pezz]

One more obnoxious question: What grit of sandpaper should I use before priming? I hope not a really toothy grit.. maybe just a fine grit? This will be the hardest part. I'll have to rip the liners out.

[Not Pink]

you usually want to go from bigger to smaller, the smaller the number on sandpaper, the larger the grit.

the best and cheapest thing to do is that if you look around there are packs of assorted fine grit sand paper, it usually ranges from like 400-800, just start with 400 and work up. don't go farther than 600, 800 is fine, but if you can make a uniform 600 it's usually good, you can use 800 to hit cetain spots if you need to.

also, you don't want to go all the way through it, you're just trying to give it a new surface, not take off varnish. everything just needs to be uniform so it doesn't turn patchy.