Seibertron.com Energon Pub Forums

[AutobotJazz]

OK guys, here's a good place for you guys to throw out brands of paint you like, various tutorials, resource sites, or other tips and tricks you've picked up along the way. We've got a good mix of veterans and interested beginners. Let's share and pool together our strength and resources.

[MacrossFA19]

I have always liked the testors brands paints. The Model masters seem to be the best of thier line. And the airbrush kit is an o.k. addition.
Krylon fusion is another great invention. Just follow the directions and voila.
Krylon metals great for Titanium repainting.
And Tamiya paints are now becoming my favorites. Especially the clear colors. Great for windows, light piping projects, and weapons

Though these are just my opinions. There are other vetran basher/reapinters out there that prefer other paints.

[Godmodule]

Gundam markers. Cheap, removable if you mess up, and simple panel lining adds so much detail to your project...

[Ramrider]

I concur that the Tamiya clearcoats rock somewhat, but I find the normal paints to be hard going, taking too many coats to get any kind of smooth coverage.

I use a mix of whatever paints work; I mostly use Inscribe acrylics, which have generally very good coverage, and really good value (most are 99p for a 59ml container, which is at least 5 times better value than most paints). The range also has some great clearcoats, like Pearly Glaze and Glitter Glaze, which make for some stunning effects.

There's also a fairly new line from Revell called AquaColor, which I only have couple of colours, but I'm loving the satin black especially.

Gluewise, I've developed a love for Loctite's Easy Brush superglue. As it says on the label, it brushes on easily, comes in a handy, hard-to-knock-over pot, and unlike tubes, the lid doesn't fuse to the container before you've even used half of it. It's got better adhesion than any superglue I've ever used before (I've stuck things that weren't remotely flush, and they still hold beautifully), and it's the only superglue I've used that doesn't develop that oh-so-tasteful white crust when it dries. I've also found it serves really well as a clearcoat to protect high-wear surfaces (when I've painted a gun handle, for instance).

[Leonardo]

I think this is the best thread for this question; I'm looking for advice.

I want to begin my first repaint, in particular, Classics Megatron into more G1-accurate colours.

Is there anything I should be especially careful of when disassembling this figure? Are some joints/pins/screws easier to remove (and subsequently replace) than others? I'm worried about the pins holding the back 'wings' on the trigger. Will that be easy to push out / in?

Also, how does one go about changing the colour of the light piping?

I'm wanting to achieve this:

[Dr. GM1983]

Panel Lines and how to Paint Them

This is a question I get from many kitbashers/modelmakers both new and vets. Forget trying to paint them in with a brush, 9 times out of 10 you will either ruin the brush or just make a mess.

The best way I've filled in the panel lines on a mech, or anything else that I wanted them to be visable, is to use .001 tipped pen. Yes, its an ink pen. You can find them readily at most craft and hobby stores and from time to time in the crafts department of Wal-Mart with the prices varying from $1-2 US.

Tips

These pens are not ball point nor are the felt, to be honest I'm not sure what the tip of them are made up but with it being so fine they can and will break if too much pressure is applied so be carefull.

When filling in panel lines be sure to take your time. In most cases these pens have a very steady flow of ink and wont blotch/build-up if you leave it in one spot for a few seconds. However a few of the cheaper ones have a very heavy flow which can overflow and "spill over" onto the rest of the peice your painting.

If this happens you can easily wipe them off or, if your looking to put some "weathering" on your model, use a napkin to soak up the extra ink and gently rub the remainder on the peice. In the case of mecha it usually ends up looking like a grease stain or smudged earth. The exception to this method is if the peice your painting is white. If you smudge the ink it will usually end up looking yellowed, like the butt of a smoked cigarette and not very eye appealing.

If this happens you have a few choices:

1. Soak up the excess ink with a napkin, usually the very soft "gentle" types work best but sometimes leave a little felt. No worries, you can get that off later.

2. If its an airbrushed peice, just wait for everything to dry and do a quick touch up. In most cases its usually just a very small splotch and easy to cover up.

3. If it becomed yellowed and dried, you can try to use paint thinner but in my experiance, its better to just repaint the entire peice.

It does take a bit of practice and a steady hand to use these pens but in the end its worth it. If I get my hands on a digital camera I'll take some pics of what I've painted with them.

EDIT
I forgot to mention that this method can be used on action figures as well. The key to getting it to work is cleaning the figure. Virtually all plastic figures from mechs to humanoids have some residual grease on them from the mold that can and will mess up any type of paint job you attempt.

I just put the figure in a large bowl of warm water with a few drops of liquid Dawn and let it sit overnight. Now all the grease should be off in the morning when your ready to fill in those lines. I slowly pour out the water so the grease doesnt get back on the figure then put it under a running tap of hot/warm water for a rinse for about a minute. Allow time to dry and begin filling in those lines.

For those figures that have stickers on them, use your best judement. I would recomend using a very soft bristled toothbrush to clean away the areas you plan on filling in with a small amount of dish soap on it so it doesnt sud covered in suds. It shouldnt take too long to clean off and dry, maybe 10 minutes at most.

[Dead Metal]

Shot wounds and fire damege. Is quite easy as I found out, just take a knife and cut, scrape of parts of the plastic and then burn them with fire. Very easy and efectiv as my old carbot sale Prime found out.

[Devastator]

I usually used Testors brand arylic paint. I used to order my paint online from the Testors website, but I found that towerhobbies.com carries a bigger selection of Testors paints at lower prices and they actually have pictures of most of the products.

To paint large areas I use a Testors airbrush. I use the kind that sprays the paint directly from the bottle with the use of a special cap rather than the kind where the paint is sucked into the tip of a nozzle and then forced out of a hard to clean tip. For areas that are too small to paint with my inaccurate airbrush, I use Testors paint brushes. After the bristles get damaged I pick up a new set.

[Autobot032]

I have a few paint questions.

I saw Walky's touchup on Shortpacked, in which he detailed movie Ratchet. I followed it (gotta say, he looks fantastic with everything detailed...oooh.) but he just said paint pens. He didn't mention which brand, whether or not it was acrylic, or enamel, etc.

I ended up buying Sharpie brand paint pens, and it's been about 5-7 days since Ratchet was painted (touchups included) and when you touch the spots, it's nothing like glue, but they do have a slight stickiness to them. Fortunately, fingerprints do not stay, the paint's pretty much solid at this point, just..slightly sticky. One nice thing about 'em though, it was almost dry to the touch within minutes after painting. Of course if I had been rough with it, it would've damaged the paint.

So...here are my questions:

1.) Which type of paint is in the Sharpie pens?

2.) What's the difference between Acrylic and Enamel?

3.) Which one's the better of the two choices?

4.) How long, on average does it take for paint to fully dry to the touch with no problems?

[Ramrider]

1) In normal Sharpies, I think it's a standard alcohol-based ink, much as you'd find in any permanent marker; most paint pens, I think, are likely to be enamels.

2) Short answer - Enamel's oil-based, acrylic's water-based.

3) That's pretty much up to you. Most people (myself included) will probably tell you that acrylics are better.
For one thing, they smell a lot less; because enamels are oil-based, you need to use turps or white spirit to keep your brushes clean, and that's gonna stink the house out quickly. Acrylics, as a water-based medium, only need water to clean up, which is a lot more pleasant.
Acrylics also tend to dry more quickly; more often than not, within a few minutes of painting a coat, it's dry and ready to take another.
I've also heard that enamels can cause damage to plastics after several years. Since I haven't actually used them in ages I can't personally confirm or deny this, but still, it's something to consider.
Actually, I can't offhand think of any advantages that enamels have over acrylics, even though I wanted to present an unbiased view.
Bugger. Maybe an enamel user can help to enlighten us both...

4) That depends a lot on factors. Acrylics usually dry pretty quickly, but the actual length of time it takes will depend on what you're painting on, how much you've diluted the paint and how much you've applied. I think certain formulations of acrylic do tend to take longer to dry (Tamiya's certainly seem to).
I believe enamels are even more subject to variation, particularly in reference to the material on which it's painted. I've heard of cases where a fig's been painted with enamels, and while most areas have dried normally, on particular kinds of plastic the paint has never truly set.

Hope that's of some help.