Yeah, um, alcohol does the job, like rubbing alcohol, but it takes a while, and does not melt the plastic last time I checked, just make sure you use an old stiff toothbrush or something to scrape the paint off, as it will only weaken the paints bond, but if you've used the Krylon stuff like I have, good luck removing that because it forms a molecular seal around it. I'll ask my buddy in Auto Collision if theres anyway to remove paint from plastic really quickly but safely.
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"When in doubt, Empty the clip"- Imperial Guard Commisar
Hey whoever it was that needed the paint taken off, my auto collision buddy said use lacker, I don't know how to spell it Lacher?? something like that, wont' melt your plastic, and its really good at removing paint.
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"When in doubt, Empty the clip"- Imperial Guard Commisar
Lacquer thinner will not only melt plastic, it'll turn it into a big puddle before you realize what's happening.
Storytime:
Was once taking the paint off of a ton of Battlefleet Gothic models from ebay, somebody went and painted all 40 or so of them jet black. Painted isn't really the term I want, dipped is more like it. It seems like they just dipped them in thick paint. Naturally, I wanted that slop off, and I had two options available to me - Lacquer thinner and something else, to be honest, I can't remember for the life of me what it was, I think it was just plain old paint thinner. I split the models into two piles, put them in glass jars, and filled one up with paint thinner, which was a liquid. The other I filled with the lacquer thinner, which was a gel (looks more like jarful of fat really). I shook both up, let them sit for 10 minutes, and took them to the sink.
The jar with the paint thinner had a very tough time removing the paint, would have taken me an hour to strip a model the size of a quarter using running water and a stiff nylon brush. I fished a model out of the lacquer thinner and 95% of the paint just falls off in running water. Hot damn, I struck paydirt with this stuff, I'll be done all of these in an hour! I pour out half of the lacquer thinner from the jar into a plastic cup, because really, if it just obliterates the paint off of these models, who KNOWS what the hell it will do to my hands if I'm groping about in there. Job's going great, paint's coming off, and out of the corner of my eye I see the plastic cup fall over. Ah damn, I look over, and the cup didn't fall over, it liquefied. What used to be a red solo cup was now a red solo puddle! I grabbed some paper towels and the first vessel I found, a styrofoam bowl, I threw a handful of the lacquer into the bowl, and to be honest, I don't even think it ever touched the bowl, burned the bottom of it RIGHT OUT! Big mess, lots of cleanup and melted plastic.
Moral of the story - Lacquer thinner is hungry for plastic, if it's a plastic body you're stripping, and you value it at all, keep it away.
Dude, Solo cups might as well have been made out of plastic wrap, I asked a guy from my AUTO COLLISION TECHNOLOGY CLASS!!!! he said lacquer won't melt your plastic, so i'd trust his opinion, seeing as how his class deals directly with painting cars and removing paint right now.
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"When in doubt, Empty the clip"- Imperial Guard Commisar
Yeah but when was the last time the car was made out of plastic?
Nowadays, you'd be surprised. Anyway, you can't make broad general statements when dealing with plastics and solvents. What destroys one plastic doesn't harm another. Trust me, this is my job.
I guess its time to add to this thread. A lot of my experience comes from model building and airbrushing. I have also become very familiar with paint properties since I worked on a hazmat team at work (paint is a very popular spill at work.) I do have access to allot of references in case anyone has specific problems. It has been said before but I would like to reiterate 90% of painting is prep. A new AEG is going to have filth, oil, silcone, mold release, dust and a previous finish. All of which can be detrimental to your painted finish you are trying to achieve. To this end. clean your project. Warm soap and water works well. let it dry completely, try to keep it covered to keep dust off it. Really shiny surfaces may need roughed up with fine (800 to 1000 grit) sandpaper to give your paint something to adhere to.
Boring chemical stuff
What is paint?, why should I care? This has been touched on so bear with me. Paint composition is important when deciding what kind of paint to use on a specific surface. Generally all paints are made up of four parts. These are Binder (vehicle) Solvent, Pigment, Additives. Binder: is a polymer that forms the final dry film that binds the paint to the surface of the project. Solvent: maximizes evaporation rates, drying time, proper flow and promotes adhesion to polystyrene and other plastic surfaces. Pigments: are organic and inorganic materials, these provide the color in your paint. Additives: Paint manufactures add lots of additives to paint, giving different performance and attributes for different uses. Knowing this is more important with airbrushing paint but all that is necessary is to make sure that these parts are compatible with your surface and other paints that are using in your project and that you are SAFE while using painting products. From my experience cleaning up Hazmat spills, reading countless MSDS. take this to heart. PAINT IS A NASTY CHEMICAL. This is especially true of MILITARY paints that may be surplussed. If you are going to airbrush or spray paint wear gloves, wear a respirator. You can get a half face cartridge APR at home depot for $15. USE IT. Do your painting in a well ventilated, clean preferable temperate environment. Avoid excess temperature or humidity an moisture. This can be detrimental to your finish.
More Boring chemical stuff:
Most hobby type paints fall into these categories: Enamels, lacquers, acrylics. Enamels and lacquers should NEVER be wet mixed together and a good rule of thumb is "never apply lacquers over enamels" Also with a few exceptions Lacquers are not compatible with untreated plastic surfaces. This falls back into my earlier description on the components of paint. Most enamels use thinners or solvents that are based in petroleum distillates. Usually a blend of aliphatic hydrocarbons solvents such as mineral spirits, naptha, stoddards solvents. Occasionally they may also contain small amounts of aromatic hydrocarbons such as toluol or xylol. Lacquers on the other hand contain little if any hydrocarbon solvents, instead they contain ketones such as acetone, MEK or MIBK ester such as isopropyl acetates and butyl acetates sometimes some alcohols (isopropyl alcohol or butyl alcohol. Why the heck did I throw out all these chemical mumbo jumbo. Knowing this tells you what chemicals to use as thinners and whether or not to apply a type of paint or thinner over plastic with out risking melting, crazing or BAD chemical reactions.
Now acrylics are fast becoming more popular than the solvent based paints described above. Acrylics generally have water clean up, are plastic safe and have a durable finish. Acrylic use latex or polymer emulsions as a vehicle or binder along with a water soluble resins to carry the pigments to the surfaces in place of nasty chemicals. This does not mean that you should use any less precautions when using them. I took a whole lot of time to reference and type the above out so that you will all take proper precautions and be able to figure out on your own what to paint to use on specific surfaces, how to thin that paint, how to clean up your tools when you are done.
A quick word on airbrushing which is another topic entirely. All of the above information which I glossed over above is more important when applying paint with a airbrush. Paint is prepared for airbrushing by straining it thinning it and spraying it through a airbrush which atomizing into a fine almost dry mist onto the surface. Airbrush balances air, paint flow and time to produce its results.
A quick tip:
Use Future floor polish to protect your paint job after it dries. Future is a clear acrylic that drys to a gloss hard protective coating that does not in my experience react with a dry painted surfaces. It will prevent chipping. However it is GLOSSY. To fix this it nees to be top coated with a clear matte coat.
errrr - shouldnt the stripes stand up? Like to imitate the vertical blades of grass or trees or shrubs?...
Anyway - its still pretty nice! Congratulations!
actually, the idea is that when your stalking though the woods, a bit panicked, what are you doing? your swiveling your head side-to-side, hoping to spot the enemie. what you you wind up seing with this perpetual swiveling of your head? alot of black and green stripes. thats why the camo pattern goes horizintal, so it blends in with all of the other black and green stripes that your panicked quarry is seeing. thats why tigres in all their orange'ness can actually blend in
Another cool way for tiger stripes ,is cut a stencil out length of area to spray with the tiger stripes. Then spray base color. Then hold stencil over, spray stripes. Then move then stencil over to catch the edge of the last stripes, then spray third color. Like a shadow kinda. Spray back from the stencil so it's shaded like.
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"First you get the money, then you get the power, then you get the girls" <Tony Montana>
Any suggestions as to brand names of paint for airsoft bodies? My M4a1 is crying to be black rather than gray however, Ive tried several cans out (such as Fusion) and they don't meet my approval. Most are sticky or very fragile(as in easily scratched and chipped) or...worst of all, just plain old bad quality (i.e, paint clumps or runs). Ive practiced on some of my old guns, so you cant say its me every time. I shake the can for 5 minutes straight.
Thanks
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Last edited by Sithmstr92 : 02-27-2008 at 10:33 PM.
Get some Krylon CAMO spraypaint with FUSION... comes in super flat colors and I still havent been able to chip it off of my flashhiders.
What you should do is scuff the paint on the body up (if its metal), then just give it a few coats of this KRYLON camo spraypaint... its a really fine finish... tough as paint will get.
Yeah, I tried krylon fusion, but the paint ran real bad...maybe I just had a dud can. In addition, it seemed kind of sticky and was very fragile as listed above... it must have been a dud.
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Last edited by Sithmstr92 : 02-27-2008 at 10:51 PM.
the paint ran bad because you put too much on, the point in painting is to take your time, clean and sand the product than you need a primer than a base coat but for this application the base coat is all that is needed, a flat black should work just make sure to get the right primer for the right paint(buy what is suggested on can) i've done alot of painting and without the preperation it just looks awful and doesnt hold up. On the other hand you can always blue your body with a diy kit from a sporting goods store.
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Spray painting is sensitive to how close you were to the subject, wind and humidity.
How close were you to the subject and where were you painting. How fast were you moving your hand. How parallel were you relative to the path of painting?
Pardon the pun, but spray painting, simple as it is - you cant just spray n' pray.
Forming droplets indicate you're too near the subject.
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"...The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he did not exist. And like that... he is gone..." Verbal Kint
Oo, broke several spraying rules there. I did it outside on a cold day (now that I think about it, that was stupid)
I sprayed in small bursts about 1ft away from the gun, however, when the paint got on, it gathered together in clumps and and I only sprayed 2 small bursts.
As for ooticamitica, the paint I used said that no primer was needed, I did however, sand the body down with some steel wool.
awesome, I helped start something
So, do you guys have any suggestions as to what I did wrong? I mean, I still think the can was a dud, but isn't 1ft a decent range? And how many sprays would you suggest before stopping and letting it dry?
Well... in my understanding, if it forms droplets its not adhering to the surface... so if you do have a plastic body, and are using fusion paint (which is made for plastic), then I dont know what to say besides you have a dud. If the reciever is metal, then I wouldnt be using fusion paint because my experience with that combination was not a good one. The paint DID form droplets in certain areas of the frame that I was painting.
Try to get your hands on some of the KRYLON CAMO spraypaint, I have never had any of these problems with that stuff, even if the material is plastic or metal. Just use uniform strokes and keep painting about 1 foot away from the object you are painting. Ill make you a video of how to properly paint an object if you would like, because Im going to paint my BAR-10 stock soon.
Also make sure the gun is clean. Oil from your hands and dirt can cause it to not stick well and/or make droplets.
A magazine I got, Barrett Tactical Weapons :Combat Rifle, had a complete painting guide used for painting real guns..and they recommend spraying the gun with spray brake cleaner. After that, wipe it down then spray a very very very light coat of paint. Check the paint for bubbling,cracking...etc. ( if there is, it means you didnt clean the gun correctly) Then when you have a even light coat..you can finish with the rest of the painting
dont use break cleaner, when I paint I always use alcohol wipes(someone that does auto body work told me that) and also guys dont paint outdoors, put some tarps down in your garage or basement with alot of ventilation, also try to avoid painting now unless in a heated environment, most paints say dont pay under 60-70 degrees farenheit. As for a method of spraying you have to take your time, dont be too close and you want to make semi fast smooth sweeps with the can.
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Its plastic and I wiped it down with rubbing oil. I don't know what went wrong, oh well. I cant see painting my gun camo though, it just doesn't seem right, does our military do it?
I wanna try to paint my B.A.R.-10 in woodland camo, but im too afraid to do it because whenever i try to customize any of my airsoft guns, they end up breaking or looking bad . And tips?
. And tips?
