The Energon Pub

[Starscream's Girl]

I love my TF's to be perfect! So I want to be able to paint my figs that have some flaws in their paint. Does anyone know what type of paint Hasbro uses and where I can find some that would be close?

[bionic_radical]

trying to match their paint can be rough. Try looking in google for a color chart for model master paints, and see what comes up. Invest in Gojo, an electric toothbrush, and some sort of clear finish, for starters. Airbrush is always gonna look better than hand brushed too. Get a junker lot off of E bay for cheap and start your craft!

[Mykltron]

The easiest thing to do would be paint the entire figure, rather than touching up imperfections.

[Counterpunch]

The easiest thing to do would be paint the entire figure, rather than touching up imperfections.

What? Really? I can't agree with that.

I would say that model paint pens are the way to go for touch-ups, especially where blacks, grays, and silvers are concerned.

[paul053]

Depends what part you want to paint. If just some little fixes and touch ups, like Counterpuch described, you can just use paint pen. Mostly I use Tamiya acrylic paint, even just for touch ups. If you don't like shiny, you can buy the semi gloss or use flat base to mix your own.

[dirk2243]

trying to match their paint can be rough. Try looking in google for a color chart for model master paints, and see what comes up. Invest in Gojo, an electric toothbrush, and some sort of clear finish, for starters. Airbrush is always gonna look better than hand brushed too. Get a junker lot off of E bay for cheap and start your craft!

I agree here. I am still in the practicing painting / perfecting my technique. I started off on the guys i wish I never would have bough if I would have known more. Rescue ratchet, yellow rampage, 07 movie arcee, etc, etc..... Even some legends classes. Very helpful instead of rushing in to paint the guy I actually wanted to paint.

[Screamfleet]

The easiest thing to do would be paint the entire figure, rather than touching up imperfections.

I think it'll really vary on a case by case basis, depending on the figure, the painting required, the touch up required ect.

This is also the way it'll be for what paint you need. Some colors may be easy to find. Before you think you get a match, use the paint, let it dry before you paint the figure. It may end up different than what you're after.

[rpetras]

You are entering a whole world here.

If you just need to fix minor dings, CP is right, paint pens work fine.

If you want to do more, invest in decent paints, like testors model master, and Tamiya paints which should be available at your local hobby shops, or on line.

Check out the customizing pages here and elsewhere for tips and tricks.
Jin Saotome, over at jinsaotomesdangeroustoys.com has some good beginner tutorials.

I also like some of the general tutorials they have over at figurerealm.com (not a TF specific site)

Good luck and happy painting!

[SKYWARPED_128]

Incidentally, I just finished touching up my DOTM deluxe Bumblebee, adding some gray to the thighs, "toes", and the mechanical detailing on the parts that hold the front wheels. Will get to dry brushing tomorrow.

If you plan on just dry brushing the gray plastic to give it a metallic finish, it's pretty easy. If the plastic is a dark gray like the movieverse Bumblebee figs, just dab a paint brush with silver paint, wipe off the paint on a paper towel until almost dry, and brush the gray plastic as if you were trying to remove dust from it. As far as dry brushing is concerned, less is always better than more.

For lighter gray plastics like Classics Cliffjumper, you might need to apply a coat of dark gray or black paint onto the plastic before dry-brushing.

As for fixing flaws, which I take to mean missing paint apps, just try to use the closest approximate color, as some of the specific colors used by Hasbro are a little hard to come by in hobby stores. The only color I can recommend for a TF is movieverse Bumblebee--use Pylox's city cab yellow. It's the closest approximation to the yellow hue of Bee's alt mode.

DISCLAIMER: Please try any spray paint on a used model kit runner to see how the color turns out before using them on the actual figure. The color on the cap isn't always a hundred percent accurate.

[Mykltron]

The easiest thing to do would be paint the entire figure, rather than touching up imperfections.

What? Really? I can't agree with that.

I would say that model paint pens are the way to go for touch-ups, especially where blacks, grays, and silvers are concerned.

Ok, maybe I didn't express myself properly. I'll try again:

The easiest thing to do would be paint the entire section and anything else of that colour, rather than touching up imperfections. That way you won't get paint joins where the colour doesn't quite match. Also, painted plastic looks much nicer than plastic. She said she likes her figures perfect.

[Starscream's Girl]

Thanks for all the posts! I'll have to look into those paint pens. I'm just trying to fix areas that weren't all the way painted and what not.

[Bonecrusher27]

A most timely post as I've decided to take the plunge. The first thing I have to do is to go over some dull gray with some nice shiny metallic paint.

Just a question though: Those paints that you mentioned, such as Testors... do they make the toy sticky after that? And what's the damage transformation does after a paintjob? I remember the store I frequent had a custom paint Fallen, really beautiful, but I was advised that it should not be transformed or even posed.