The Energon Pub

News Credits: 22 · Sat Jan 14, 2012 11:05 am

I have decided to custom paint my purple G2 Megatron into the greenish brown it was in the comics. I am planning on painting the purple parts dark green and then grey parts either darker grey or brown. Not sure, I have to look at the comics. But, my main concern is the process and materials. I read some of the tips and techniques in the repaint thread, but I am still not clear. Like I said, it's my first time, and I want to get it right. I would appreciate any instructions I can get as far as what to do first and what kind of paint/tools to use. Stuff like that. I appreciate any instruction and help.

News Credits: 3 · Sat Jan 14, 2012 9:02 pm

Everyone's method differ and the hardest part is finding the method that works for you.

Some people like to disassemble them, some paint as they stand assembled. This also is open to each situation depending on the figure.

Personally I take them apart and spray each piece with a Krylon Fusion flat black to base coat. I then apply the paints from darkest to lightest. It won't cover is one pass so the best method is to apply them in numerous light coats.

The choice of enamels or acrylics is all up to you.

News Credits: 22 · Sun Jan 15, 2012 8:53 am

The figure is simple enough to take apart, so I will probably be doing that. Also, it'll most likely be acrylic, I don't like the oily stuff that much. And Michaels should have the paint and stuff I need, right?

News Credits: 10 · Sun Jan 15, 2012 10:12 am

The way i do repainting, is to take apart whatever that can come off. The rest that cant, just mask off with some tape, spray, and repeat. Since you are painting a G2 fig, its much easier since its so blocky

You can also sand the figure if u like, i did not, and it turned out OK still. But i do reccomend washing it in WARM water to clean off dirt/factory oil (Warm, not boiling).

I made the wrong choice of starting out with DOTM Megatron, which was a huge pain in the butt to paint since it has so many moving parts. :lol:

Oh, also, if the colour you are painting on is similar to the base plastic, i suggest using a silver basecoat 1st.

News Credits: 2 · Mon Jan 16, 2012 11:38 am

Rodimus Prime wrote:And Michaels should have the paint and stuff I need, right?

Don't. Those acrylic paints at Michaels or Walmart are really not meant for plastics. They are difficult to apply on and the quality is not good. Find any hobby store around you and start with Testor or Tamiya. And also get a good brush, better with animal hair brush.

News Credits: 22 · Mon Jan 16, 2012 12:59 pm

Thanks for the tips, guys. Yeah, Walmart or Michaels would have been my choices, but there are a couple of hobby places I can go to. I get the next 3 days off from work, I should have enough time to do it then.

It's going to be simple, just 2 different colors. I decided on dark grey for the grey parts and dark forest green for the purple parts. Not exactly like the comics, but it'll still be better than purple. And I thought of using a black base first but if silver is better, I'll go with that.

Mon Jan 16, 2012 2:08 pm

Here's some information I found extremely useful, even though I'd done customs before:

http://www.tfw2005.com/boards/tutorials ... tents.html

The guides are fantastic and very novice-friendly, definetely a good read before starting your first custom!

I'd personally recommend starting out with a cheap figure to experiment on before you start with your G2 Megs, so at least you have some practice with using new paints and tools before launching into your first project

Good luck and happy customising!

News Credits: 1452 · Tue Jan 17, 2012 8:36 am

The biggest deterrence I think for people starting out customizing is not the idea of the amount of time, patience or 'skill' that's required for it but rather the amount of money that's needed to make it successful.

As cliche as it is, if it's cheap then there's generally a reason why. It's true in some cases, and it's false in others. Other customizers have their own opinions on this, here's mine.

Pre-Production

Paints

Paints are the most crucial aspect. I personally like to use Citadel paints that can be found in your local Games Workshop. While the paints are $3-4 a pop, I like the price for considering the paint's quality and quantity (their metals are fantastic). You buy 8-10 of those to fill out your color palette and that's only $30-40 and that's going to last you for a decent amount of time. From my current situation, I've got the same 30 paints from GW that's lasted for over 3+ years. In regards to your current situation, I think these Citadel paints will be the best for the work you want to do atm.

Chaos Black (Great if you aren't going to prime the figure, as it helps provide a nice base coat)
Bestial Brown
Codex Grey
Dark Angels Green
Snot Green

Brushes

While staying at GW and buying brushes there would make this is a 'spend my money all in one place' situation, please don't. Anything other than paints there are generally overpriced. From personal experience and preference, the more paint brushes the better. I tend to go through these like headphones. Michaels generally has a nice selection of brushes, ranging in size that will help vary your colors and make the painting process more enjoyable. And the cost of 1 GW brush would likely get you 7 at Michaels.

So what some might think would be an expensive turnout to get into customizing is going to be under $30-40 for your first custom.

Production

Dissembling

Now that we've got buying stuff out of the way, let's move on to the toy. People do it either way, but I really like to dissemble the figure. It exposes the most surface area on the toy and in turn makes the job easier for you.

Prepping

Really the only thing that you're going to have to prep for before you add paint is when applying paint to ball joints or areas that clip or intersect during Transformation. I generally tend to sand these areas, but at times I can be lazy. Scrapping of paint will happen during transformation, it's just a matter of being able to reduce that by sanding/trail and error.

Painting

A little goes a long way. When painting, constantly make sure your brush is wet. Try to spread out of alot of paper towels in your work area so that you can smear your brush when it has paint. I do this so that the paint that I'm applying to my figure is a thin as possible, and the possibility of brush marks being left behind is reduced. When i first started off painting with tabletop models, i'd just dip my brush in and slather the figure with paint and it would just end up horribly. What you want with paint is to generally get a ton of coats on to the figure.

If you are ever using white paint, I'd suggest using a different brush and different cup of water than what you've been using for other paints. The slightest mix up between white and another color is going to end up having unwanted light pink, light blue, light green, etc on your figure.

While I'd love to prepare you for everything, it's really all trial and error. Just make sure you take your time with it, it's easy to imagine what your figure is going to turn into.. but it's another thing entirely to actually get it done! G'luck.