Cape Question

Ok, just wanted to throw this out there for anyone else who finds this issue. After scouring everywhere for a possible paint, Hobby Lobby, Michael's, Lowe's, etc., asking for help, I happened to be driving by a fine arts store the other day when I decided to stop in and ask. And the clerk recommended trying Angelus Leather Paint. I was a bit skeptical at first, but considering the flexibility you would need to paint leather, I was hopeful. And I'm happy to say the stuff works perfectly for this particular rubber cape.

Plain acrylic hobby paint crack and chipped soon after application. But I've put on several coats of the leather paint and the cape is completely flexible with no signs of cracking or chipping. It's an amazing water-based acrylic paint I'd recommend to anyone trying this. Best part, a 1 oz. was only $3. If you can't find it locally it is available on amazon and elsewhere I'm sure.

Maybe this will help someone else out as well.

Good to know, I've only ever seen people dye leather to color it, didn't know there was paint for it. Im guessing its a general purpose paint with the additives to make it flexible.

I'll have to try some because I'll be painting capes soon.

How does the paint work for painting figures themselves? Is it any more durable than the usual acrylic brands?

Also curious to know about whether it would be more durable than the usual acrylics for painting figures, or if it would work at all? Although I have been having pretty good luck with my paint apps, but I nearly always use a primer base and sometimes even go as far as giving painted parts a quick coat of spray sealer between coats (which may be a bit of overkill).

I haven't really tried using it on anything but the cape. It seems pretty durable and certainly came in a good assortment of colors. It is thicker than something like Testors, and seemed to be applied best with the nail polish type applicator that was attached to the bottle cap. A regular brush didn't seem to work as well. It can probably be thinned out, but I didn't want to risk affecting it's adherence ability by watering it down. I'll be curious to see if anyone else tries it on anything. Certainly for rubbery capes like what DC Collectibles is using, it's the only thing I've found so far that actually works. And it seems to work really well.

Thanks for the reply, I have a few of those rubbery capes, at least one of which I'd like to use for a custom so I may pick up a bottle(?) and test it out on a "junk" figure part just to see how it goes.

Cool, thanks. Hobby Lobby, maybe? Then what, mix it with the color paint?

Thanks. At the risk of sounding like a noob, when you say paint store are you talking hobby shop or hardware store?

Oops, I meant art store, like Dick Blick, but hobby shop may work too.

Ask your local paint store if they have an additive to make paint flexible, maybe liquid latex. Don't know about flexible primer