Painting armor to a showroom car like finish

[kamikaze[TK]]

Hey folks! Just thought I'd share this, in case anyone is interested. I have some of this posted in my build thread but thought the details would get lost there and so putting them here.

 

Anyway, while planning out my build I wanted to go an extra mile with it and pay some solid attention to the actual finish on the plastic, rather than just leave it raw. I didn't want to see color fading, nor wanted something that would bare "battle" damage without being very resilient to it and easily fixed. Thus I planned to do a full car-like paintjob on the entire thing, having a solid primer and/or color coat to work with for repairs if ever needed, and a strong waxed clear coat to protect it.

 

Ok so to the details. Basically, after the piece was fully finished (cut/trimmed/sanded/fitted/etc) and after thoroughly cleaning the surface it went into the paint booth for 6 coats of flat gray primer, followed by 7 days of cure time, then dry sanded with 400 grit. Afterwards I applied 6 coats of gloss white color, let cure for 3 days, then dry sanded with 400 grit. I then applied another 6 coats of gloss white color, let cure for 3 days, but this time wet sanded with 1000/1500/2000 grit. Then came a final 1 coat of gloss white color, let curse for 3 days and no sanding. Afterwards I applied 6 deep coats of clear then let cure for 30 days (yes seriously). When fully hardened I lightly polished the surface and then applied a quality thick layer of carnauba wax. Voila!

 

Disclaimer: I'm no painting professional and had to experiment a bunch with different techniques on the plastic before I found a process that produced the look and durability I wanted. That said, painting the whole darn kit this way is one massive tedious exercise and I really wouldn't recommend it for the faint at heart, it was very time intensive, not to mention costly, I went through nearly 60 cans of spray paint doing the entire kit, and that doesn't account for lots of odds and ends a heck of an electricity bill for two months baking it all with 1000 watts of heat lamps for hundreds of hours. Plus, there's the whole trying to maintain a clean room in your garage thing which meant lots of filters, fans, plastic sheets, etc.

 

Anyway, this is what it looks like now... a very deep glossy look, exactly like a showroom car finish. The end result is a dramatically different look than what it was like before as raw plastic, and is certainly very resilient:

 

 

[DarkTrooper[TK]]

Damn, that's a lot of patience.

[ukswrath[Staff]]

$? 

[Sly11[Admin]]

Indeed it is shiny, hope it maintains well for you.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[ukswrath[Staff]]

I was just about to say my FOTK was professionally painted, and expensive. Interested to see how much 60 can of spray paint cost 

[dejango[TK]]

wow, more pictures? 

[T K[501st]]

Amazing job! I too would love to see you kitted up.

[kamikaze[TK]]

I was just about to say my FOTK was professionally painted, and expensive. Interested to see how much 60 can of spray paint cost 

Ok so I used 2 cases of primer, 5 cases of white, and 3 cases of clear coat. There are 6 cans per case, and the total cost for those materials alone was about $285. In case someone is wondering, these are the actual paints I used:

 

Rust-Oleum General Purpose Flat Gray Primer #249088

Rust-Oleum Automotive Enamel Gloss White #252468

Rust-Oleum Automotive Enamel Clear Gloss Spray #257884

 

Keep in mind there are lots of other disposable miscellaneous materials required to actually do the job itself... coveralls, goggles, face mask cartridges, bulbs, air filters, etc. Plus, the expense of constructing some jigs to hold the pieces for painting (I made a few out of PVC, for about $30), and probably $20 worth of plastic sheets to establish a contained clean room inside the garage.

 

In the end, I'd say the total cost incurred by taking on the paint job was in the $400 range, yeah not exactly the cheapest. I wonder if it would have been cheaper getting it professionally done somewhere but I wanted to do everything myself.

 

wow, more pictures?

I'll snap some photos of a some other pieces later today and post them.

 

Amazing job! I too would love to see you kitted up.

Nobody would love to see that more than me, trust me! The last bit of curing on the final pieces will be done later this month and then I can post submission photos so you'll see plenty of the whole set in action from all those perspectives.

[silverdollar22[TK]]

Nice can't wait to see it 

[kamikaze[TK]]

Ok, more pictures! It was an overcast day here so the lighting wasn't nearly as good as yesterday, that said pictures don't really even do any of this justice... it's difficult to portray the sheen on it from one or two angles in a fixed position, but it's better than nothing!

 

Anyway, here are some shots of the back plate. I like this piece because all the shapes and features create some nice cross reflections.

 

 

Here is a shot of the thermal detonator. This one was a royal pain to do, since all four pieces needed to be painted separately then constructed after curing, since the paint for the tube was gray versus white for the caps and pad. However, the worst part was all the layers of paint increased the diameter of the tube to the point that the end caps wouldn't fit on anymore, so I had to dremel off all the coats from each end of the tube for them to slide on lol.

 

 

The ammo belt is another piece that looks great in person, the sharp peaks and valleys really make the finish sparkle.

 

Edited August 5, 2016 by kamikaze

[ukswrath[Staff]]

Just beautiful   Reminds me of my FOTK. 

[kamikaze[TK]]

Just beautiful   Reminds me of my FOTK.

Thanks! Coming from you that would be quite a compliment, I've seen your FOTK pics... extremely nice paint job you have on it for sure! I only wish I had the professional body shop tools and environment that your kit enjoyed the benefit of versus my hodgepodge amateur hour in-house skills and setup. Perhaps for no other reason than to avoid having my house stink like enamel for two months. That said, I did have a ton of fun doing it all and am proud of the end result considering this was my first time ever doing anything like this lol.

 

Worst part of all this was, after putting that first coat of primer on my first piece I knew I was now fully committed to seeing it through the end, for better or worse, as there was no going back from that point. I think my heart skipped a beat when I realized what I just got myself into.

[ukswrath[Staff]]

Thanks! Coming from you that would be quite a compliment, I've seen your FOTK pics... extremely nice paint job you have on it for sure! I only wish I had the professional body shop tools and environment that your kit enjoyed the benefit of versus my hodgepodge amateur hour in-house skills and setup. Perhaps for no other reason than to avoid having my house stink like enamel for two months. That said, I did have a ton of fun doing it all and am proud of the end result considering this was my first time ever doing anything like this lol.

 

Worst part of all this was, after putting that first coat of primer on my first piece I knew I was now fully committed to seeing it through the end, for better or worse, as there was no going back from that point. I think my heart skipped a beat when I realized what I just got myself into.

 

Yes it is a timely and expensive venture that's for sure. Looks really nice. Just do yourself a favor, prepare for nicks and dings, their inevitable    

[kamikaze[TK]]

Yes it is a timely and expensive venture that's for sure. Looks really nice. Just do yourself a favor, prepare for nicks and dings, their inevitable    

 

Oh for sure, sadly it's not a question of if it will happen but when. Which was one of the whole driving points of wanting to do this in the first place, when it occurs in theory it should be easier to address... just like bodywork, isolate, sand, blend and recoat. Whereas what good options do you have if your plastic is bare and it gets a scratch?

[ukswrath[Staff]]

Oh for sure, sadly it's not a question of if it will happen but when. Which was one of the whole driving points of wanting to do this in the first place, when it occurs in theory it should be easier to address... just like bodywork, isolate, sand, blend and recoat. Whereas what good options do you have if your plastic is bare and it gets a scratch?

 

Touch up paint and blend. 

[T K[501st]]

What a shine! I don't think that I wold have enough patience to go through the painting process. 

[kman[TK]]

Wow! I don't suppose you've trooped in it yet?

[kamikaze[TK]]

Wow! I don't suppose you've trooped in it yet?

 

No not yet, the legs and helmet are still curing from their clear coats. It will take another week for that but afterwards it will be all done and can start trooping in this... after doing the submissions and getting approval on it first of course. 

[kman[TK]]

No not yet, the legs and helmet are still curing from their clear coats. It will take another week for that but afterwards it will be all done and can start trooping in this... after doing the submissions and getting approval on it first of course. 

Gotcha. Very interested to see how well it holds up under real world conditions.

[kamikaze[TK]]

Gotcha. Very interested to see how well it holds up under real world conditions.

 

Roger that. You, me, and I'm sure many others too. I'll have many troops in it through Q4 this year which should be a good test, and will certainly post updates to my impressions after it has been given thorough exposure. Can't wait to report back with pros/cons (hopefully not many if any of the latter). 

[mikidymac[TK]]

First off let me say that looks amazing.

 

What would concern me is that the standard primers do not bond very well to plastic like ABS and PVC, especially rattle cans.

My other concern is with that many coats the thickness is getting pretty good and those paints don't have any flex additives in them.

I hope i am wrong but I think there is a pretty good chance of it coming apart once you start wearing it and flexing the plastic.

[A Master Builder]

 wow...

[iceman25c[501st]]

Looks great!  I'm curious how the paint will hold up in flexible areas like the belt.  

[kamikaze[TK]]

First off let me say that looks amazing.

 

What would concern me is that the standard primers do not bond very well to plastic like ABS and PVC, especially rattle cans.

My other concern is with that many coats the thickness is getting pretty good and those paints don't have any flex additives in them.

I hope i am wrong but I think there is a pretty good chance of it coming apart once you start wearing it and flexing the plastic.

 

 

Looks great!  I'm curious how the paint will hold up in flexible areas like the belt.  

 

I had similar concerns before I started out. Note that I played around a while with test pieces to see what the characteristics would end up looking/feeling like. Surprisingly, you can flex a piece a decent amount before the hardened enamel clear coat cracks, much more than you'd bend a piece under any normal circumstances unless you're trying to break it. 

 

As far as the primer bonding to plastic, I specifically used Rust-Oleum #249088 because it was advertised to bond to plastics. That being said, the bond requires a 7 day cure and I ensured the surface was very clean and lightly scuffed over with 2000 grit to ensure adhesion. 

 

Anyway, here is the belt bending at a decent angle, way more than what it would be worn at. I could have probably gone much more on it but why risk a finished piece just for illustration.

 

Edited August 26, 2016 by kamikaze

[Kredal[TK]]

Thanks for sharing!  I'll be doing something like this (but probably not 6 or more coats of any single level.... That seems excessive to me) on my TFU-TX to turn black plastic silver and grey.  The only thing I'm concerned about now is that my armor is acrylic capped ABS, so it has a layer of acrylic on top that the paint will have to bind to.  I'll be testing on scraps and some of the spare cover strip material I was given, for flexibility, scratch resistance, and reflection (after all, the point of all this is to have reflected lights on it!)

 

So again, thanks for boldly going.  (: