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Step 9Painting the Plastic
With each additional depression of the red button, the once unsightly hull began to take on a beauteous appearance
With each swipe with the polishing cloth the metal begins to show through the years of grime and neglect
Materials:
Take your plastic parts apart (except where glued or tefloned of course) and put tape over anything you don't want painted. This includes any brass parts, any exposed threads that are still needed, things like that. I used to use painter's tape but it always falls off and I end up painting something I would rather not. Electrical tape works way better for me but use what you know and love!
Sand everything that's shiny with fin sand paper to give it a matte finish. This is really important as paint refuses to stick to shiny things . . .some paints boast that they can but they're too expesive for my tastes. Dust it all off before you actually paint or you'll have more problems.
Give everything a nice thin coat of flat black paint. Do the whole depress nozzle, sweep across piece and off other side, release nozzle trick or you'll get drips and those are nasty. It's ok if your part shows through a bit, you'll take care of that in subsequent coats. Give it enough of these thin coats to make sure it's fully covered. I like taking sticks and pushing them into the grass to hold tubes and stuff but this only works for light weight things and I'm stuck with cardboard for the rest. Make sure each coat is dried properly before re-coating or you'll get "crazing" (little warped crackely bits in the paint) Once you're sure its completely dry then you can pick bugs and grass out of the thing and it won't leave much of a mark. Do this when it's wet and you'll foul the whole thing up.
Once you're done the undercoat whip out your embellishing stuffs. . . for me this is "Rub N Buff" metallic finishes. Try Michael's or other craft stores before real art stores . . .the real stores carry real leaf and that stuff won't work for our purposes. there are also other products that will probably work as well but I've not tried any . . .Stole the idea of this product from TribalDancer's tutorial.
I can't replicate her instructions as well as she did so I'll refer you to her instructable for the use of the rub n buff with a couple of tips that I discovered through using the stuff.
Post pictures!!! I wanna see all the cool antiquing!
With each swipe with the polishing cloth the metal begins to show through the years of grime and neglect
Materials:
- Black Flat Spraypaint
- Clear Matte UV protectant spray acrylic (glossy finish will also look nice for metallic surfaces since it's shiny)
- Black flat brush on paint (for tiny places that refuse to be sprayed)
- Electrical Tape(or painters if you like it better)
- Fine Sandpaper
- cardboard and sticks to paint on
- rub N buff or other gilding stuff . . .I used antique gold and Pewter colors
- Paint thinner
- Paintbrushes
- Plastic bag
Take your plastic parts apart (except where glued or tefloned of course) and put tape over anything you don't want painted. This includes any brass parts, any exposed threads that are still needed, things like that. I used to use painter's tape but it always falls off and I end up painting something I would rather not. Electrical tape works way better for me but use what you know and love!
Sand everything that's shiny with fin sand paper to give it a matte finish. This is really important as paint refuses to stick to shiny things . . .some paints boast that they can but they're too expesive for my tastes. Dust it all off before you actually paint or you'll have more problems.
Give everything a nice thin coat of flat black paint. Do the whole depress nozzle, sweep across piece and off other side, release nozzle trick or you'll get drips and those are nasty. It's ok if your part shows through a bit, you'll take care of that in subsequent coats. Give it enough of these thin coats to make sure it's fully covered. I like taking sticks and pushing them into the grass to hold tubes and stuff but this only works for light weight things and I'm stuck with cardboard for the rest. Make sure each coat is dried properly before re-coating or you'll get "crazing" (little warped crackely bits in the paint) Once you're sure its completely dry then you can pick bugs and grass out of the thing and it won't leave much of a mark. Do this when it's wet and you'll foul the whole thing up.
Once you're done the undercoat whip out your embellishing stuffs. . . for me this is "Rub N Buff" metallic finishes. Try Michael's or other craft stores before real art stores . . .the real stores carry real leaf and that stuff won't work for our purposes. there are also other products that will probably work as well but I've not tried any . . .Stole the idea of this product from TribalDancer's tutorial.
I can't replicate her instructions as well as she did so I'll refer you to her instructable for the use of the rub n buff with a couple of tips that I discovered through using the stuff.
- Rub N Buff is soluble in paint thinner! it will help you clean brushes, hands and stuff and it's great for thinning the rub n buff for large areas if you want a dull look.
- Plastic bag works wonders for burnishing the dried wax gilding . . .learned this trick in ceramics with terra sigilatta!
- paper towel will spread and even dull the rub n buff
- a little gilding goes a LONG! way . . .she mentions this but it can't be stressed enough
- less is more . . .who wants a gun that looks too fake due to way too much gilding. . .go easy on the stuff!
Post pictures!!! I wanna see all the cool antiquing!
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