Paint Guide

[Blaze]

Found this awhile ago and just thought of now to post it. It's a basic painting guide for painting TF figures, but the same applies to zoids. He talks about how you should always use model paints, but this is really only a must for TFs since they have a lot of parts that slide and brush up against each other to cause regular acrylic to chip off. Don't really have that problem with zoids.

www.angelfire.com/mech/jinsaotome/WorkspaceSetup/TransformersPaint.html

[GhostLiger]

Good thing to have ^^ Thanks SB!

[Blaze]

No probs! He uses the same techniques as I do, so I know it works XD

[GhostLiger]

Sweet! Now I just need a guide for removing it... Or should I say, removing Chrome! XD

[Blaze]

Oct 3, 2010 12:46:53 GMT -5 Daft Punksworth said:

Say, how do you get a nice even coat of paint? o.o Out of curiousity

So Celtic asked me this and I gave a long explanation about how I water down or thin down paint. The easiest way to get it smooth is airbrush or spray paint.

There's no set way of doing things and most of the times I use a combination of all different kinds of paint. Each seems to have its own pros and cons given a certain situation. So here's a little guide I thought I'd whip up to help understand the different paints.


Spray Paints


Probably the easiest way of repainting a new zoid. Like this! <-is a link

Pros: Quick, easy, and should always give you a smooth, even coat! Range of types such as gloss, flat, satin, metallic.

Cons: Limited color palette and can't use it for details. Since you usually have to use it outside, weather can effect when you can use it (though I've used it in 20 degrees F before hur hur) and wind can cause it to do weird things.

Best to use for: Larges areas for the first step to a repaint


Weird things I've found out how to do with spray paint:

Crystallizing effect: Found that this happens when you're spraying a colored gloss when the wind blows really hard.
riskybiznez.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d231mpo

Frost effect: This happened quite strangely. It was about 50 out and started to sprinkle. Whatever coolness and wet air the rain brought made the spray paint dry with a frosted kind of look. If the sprinkles didn't leave big ugly holes, I woulda kept it.



Testors Enamels


Flat enamel colors and the tinted gloss enamels.

Flat Enamel:
Pros: Goes on smooth and has good color

Cons: Can be scratched off if something rubs against it, needs paint thinner to be thinned down and to clean your brushes, fumes

Best to use for: Details


Tinted Gloss Enamel
Pros: Absolutely fantastic and beautiful color (looks like the shiny paint on the revoltechs), very professional looking

Cons: Must be airbrushed to come out smooth unless you're just using it for every small details (like I did on the Braslte), needs paint thinner to be thinned down and to clean your brushes, fumes

Best to use for: Airbrushed large areas


Boyd Enamels and Testors Acrylics

These are probably my favorites to use out of the model paints.

Boyd Enamels
Pros: Can be brushed on when thinned down, great color

cons: needs paint thinner to be thinned down and to clean your brushes, fumes

Best to use for: Basically everything. Large areas if airbrushed.


Testors Acrylics
Pros: Water based, non toxic, very durable and doesn't scratch off, already watered down to perfect consistency to brush on or airbrush, good color

Cons: Hard to find in store and usually only hobby stores carry it. Usually have to order online.

Best to use for: Basically everything. Panel lining is tough because it dries too quick.


Craft Acrylics


Pros: Cheap and easy to find, water based, non toxic, huge variety of colors and types to choose from

Cons: Scratches off easy (some more than others), needs to be watered down to come out smooth (sometimes this will cause it not to want to stick to the plastic at all)

Best to use for: Panel lining, small details

[Daft Punksworth]

Sweet, thanks SB!

[Blaze]

No probs! Figured I'd share since I've had lots of experience with all. I wish I knew some of this stuff when I started. I say for starting out, model acrylic and spray paint is the best. Even though I have an airbrush, if I can spray paint it I will! Airbrushes are just annoying to clean XD

[Daft Punksworth]

Decided if I can find my white spray paint I'll use that. X3

[Blaze]

lol I just bought a can of white gloss for my King Liger and new HMM Command Wolf X3

[La Volpe]

Lol... my entire Molga is entirely painted with Folkart/Jo Sonja. Discovered the hard way that a tiny little watering down helps. I controlled the scratch-off problem with Satin Acrylic spray. Just tested it, and it really resolves that problem and gives the paint that nice matte metal look And I ALWAYS wear gloves, keeps my nail sheathed from the paint (or try keeping your nails really short). Just take care with really long paint brushes.

To successfully use watered down Folkart/Jo Sonja paint, you only need to grab a small brush, quickly dip it in your water cup, get a little excess out if needed and stir it thru the paint on your palette until you get a mix of mildly watered down paint and still maintain that good paint texture for use. And I generally use 2-3 layers to complete the Molga and it still looked wonderful. Or attempt to give your Zoid a real light sand to remove the smooth surface for a better application, however I only did that to the CP-07 because it was VERY slippery plastic for the paint.

I'd have done a craft paint tut or vid tut but ah well... I can try doing it next time But using craft paint is wonderful, had a better experience with it than using the Humbrol model paints. And I can paint at night! Or paint any time of the day even if it's raining because of the no-odour.

[Blaze]

Oh yeah I forgot to mention you can use a protective spray to seal the craft paint XD

"Or paint any time of the day even if it's raining because of the no-odour"
Yeah that's exactly why I love the acrylic model paint. It just saves me the extra step of a finish spray X3

Enamels definitely take awhile and practice to get used to.

[S-K-night]

Whats a good kind of masking tape? I always have issues with bleeding paints. >.>;; Its why I stopped using spray.

[Comrade kitsunefyn]

Excellent review Shadow! I've been meaning to try those Testor's Acrylics because I'm getting tired of buying so much thinner and having it stink up my room.

To add to the review of sorts...

Another paint option is Game's Workshop paints. They're a little expensive but they're water based acrylics and don't scratch off. Just you CAN NOT add water to them, it breaks down the paint immensely, as in it starts to pill into droplets. They offer a wide variety of color, pretty much every shade imaginable.

I would probably not buy them because they're upwards of 3-4 usd for a small bottle but my bro used to paint Warhammer so we have tons laying around the house so better to use than buy more paint. And it is really nice paint... >.>

Also there paint names are amusing, why use Blue when you can use Enchanted Blue??? XD

[La Volpe]

Oct 3, 2010 21:37:12 GMT -5 S-K-night said:

Whats a good kind of masking tape? I always have issues with bleeding paints. >.>;; Its why I stopped using spray.

Any masking tape... I used some random roll of masking tape from mum's craft box to give my Stealth Molga's cannonry a clean job.

@risky: I have model acrylic and it reeks.... ._.;

[GhostLiger]

Oct 3, 2010 22:17:44 GMT -5 Comrade kitsunefyn said:

Another paint option is Game's Workshop paints. They're a little expensive but they're water based acrylics and don't scratch off. Just you CAN NOT add water to them, it breaks down the paint immensely, as in it starts to pill into droplets. They offer a wide variety of color, pretty much every shade imaginable.

I would probably not buy them because they're upwards of 3-4 usd for a small bottle but my bro used to paint Warhammer so we have tons laying around the house so better to use than buy more paint. And it is really nice paint... >.>

Also there paint names are amusing, why use Blue when you can use Enchanted Blue??? XD

I adore Gamesworkshop, but yeah they are pricey. I once paid almost a fiver for on tub of Chaos Black once because I couldn't wait to go into town and didn't anticipate the VAT and high postal charges that come with ordering directly from Gamesworkshop's website. Guess you really need to buy a bundle if ordering from there.

And lol, my favourite names are Red Gore, Lich Purple, and Vomit Brown XD