Acrylic Paints/Primer and Sealer

Use blu-tac! Cover the face, spray primer then peel off. The tac may be unusable after, but the face will be protected. Plus it shouldn't leave any bits behind - and no residue!

Ah good idea! Probably will be easier to remove than vaseline, I'd practically have to scrub vaseline off =P Thanks!



Use blu-tac! Cover the face, spray primer then peel off. The tac may be unusable after, but the face will be protected. Plus it shouldn't leave any bits behind - and no residue!

I've used Krylon in the past and, it's not as strong as Duplicolor, it's not bad. Doesn't work real well on super flexible items such as capes.

Too add what TXT said, silly putty works too.

No worries on flexible, everything on the figure is solid so as long as it works and doesn't gunk up joints it'll be fine I'll try to find Duplicolor but I wanted to have a guaranteed backup in case I can't =P thanks!

Use blu-tac! Cover the face, spray primer then peel off. The tac may be unusable after, but the face will be protected. Plus it shouldn't leave any bits behind - and no residue!

I've used Krylon in the past and, it's not as strong as Duplicolor, it's not bad. Doesn't work real well on super flexible items such as capes.

Too add what TXT said, silly putty works too.

Use blu-tac! Cover the face, spray primer then peel off. The tac may be unusable after, but the face will be protected. Plus it shouldn't leave any bits behind - and no residue!

Ah, my bad. Guess I should stop base coating white then. So, now I have a couple questions about primer. First, will Krylon primer work, or is it not so great? I might not be able to find the Autozone stuff. Now, my really important question is: is there a way to prevent primer from hitting areas you don't want to paint (specifically, faces that don't need repainted)? I'd think it'd be hard to tape over it effectively, but my gf suggested putting vaseline on the face and washing it away afterwards, which seems like a decent idea but personally I feel like the can's pressure would blow right through something like that.

You don't need to but you should if you want the best results. When I first started out, I didn't disassemble just sprayed, moved the joints to get areas the first spray missed, and sprayed again. Once I started selling more, I started taking the figure apart completely to get full coverage.

Yes, your link is the stuff mentioned.

Do you need to disassemble the figure to prime it? I have never tried primer, but using the Autozone stuff has me rather curious!


Hopefully it is ok to link, but is this the right stuff?

http://www.autozone.com/paint-and-body/ ... ing=search

I'm not going to take chances with the Folk Art then. I pulled out an old Shocker figure I had lying around and started testing on him... Didn't seem to go too well. I have a custom that I'll be selling when done, so I may as well buy the proper paints now and hope for a simple profit margin. I really do want to use FolkArt's Inca Gold though (I'm doing an Iron Spider figure) so I may look into Varnish. Thanks guys!

Primer is completely different from paint. In response to Danyx's response of painting it all white first, no offense, is not the best advice. The problems with doing it that way is as follows:

It's still white paint, meaning you are not going to get that a strong as bond on the figure as you would with primer.

You will have to paint a lot of white layers to get a consistent look. Down side to this, even if you do get an even look, you will have a lot of white paint which could lead to joint rubbing.

Two sprays of primer is WAY faster than hand painting a ton of white layers.

My suggestion is go to Autozone, and get their Vinyl and Fabric Spray in whatever color you want. The nicer the Autozone, the more colors to choose from. I have been using this as a primer for years and absolutely love it. Goes on smooth, extremely durable, and not too badly priced for a great primer.

As far as mixing different company paints, I do it all the time and have not had a problem. If you are hell bent on using FolkArt, I would suggest going to Hobby Lobby and buying some of the Vallejo Varnish. Mix that with FolkArt and it will help strengthen the FolkArts bond.

I can second that Folk Art is crap. It's more of a canvas acrylic than a model acrylic. That said, it sucks even then. I once got it because I wanted to paint a handheld game I had and I couldn't even open the case (it flipped open) because the paint was so crusty/chalky. I use Testors Model Master Acryl, Citadel, and Tamiya, with Tamiya quickly becoming my favorite (though I really do love the various shades of the Citadel paints). I might actually swear off Testors MMA when I run out of what I have, but lots of people love them so it's all up to preference. Those three, plus Vallejo, are the main paints I see customizers using.

Onto your more recent questions, Testors (as well as the other paints above) mix very well with each other. I almost never use a color straight out of the bottle, so I'm often mixing different colors and brands together. Some colors don't like to mix well with others (I've noticed if I put some Tamiya Silver in the mix, I'm mixing for a while), so experiment with it cautiously. You can always add more paint but you can never take it out. I'm not entirely sure how actual primers work, but I believe they come in matte usually, but also come in various colors depending on the brand. However, an alternative that I use is you can also base coat the figure in flat white. It might take an extra coat depending on the type and smoothness of the plastic (hard plastic seems to reject the paint for the first coat), but if you have a dremel (and you really should for customizing, my figures before getting one were definitely of lesser quality) you can VERY slightly rough up the surface and the paint will stick a lot better. Since I've never used primer, you might want to wait to hear what someone else has to say about it (I've been thinking of trying it myself to be honest).

This is useful advice to me. Yeah, I figured FolkArt wouldn't be the greatest, but like I said, it seems easier to find a wider array of colours for it. How well do testors mix with one another? Also, are there are separate primers, or do I just coat the whole figure in one shade (ie white, grey, black)?

Regards,
Richard