paint brands on nerf guns

I buy them direct from the online store mate. I bought 3 x ultra fine, 3 x fine and 3 x medium in my first order.

And I've just received my second order of 10 x medium. I use them on everything from prepping shells, to cleaning up brass breeches etc. The only thing is you have to be careful around sharp edges, as the foam will tear, but apart from that, they are fairly durable.

Cheers,

clunk07 wrote:I get lazy, and use 40 grit on handles etc, just like Akimbo said. But, I go over those areas with 320 grit, and sometimes even 600 grit, to remove any deep scratches/grooves.

Evo, do yourself a favour, and get some finer grit paper, and go over the entire blaster after sanding with the really coarse paper. It will make your paint jobs look 1000% better.

AA - I know the feeling mate. Try sanding a LS for 5 hrs, and only getting $3/hr in labour charges, as I do with all my commissions. Maybe it's time for a price hike... lol

Cheers,

Fortunately you can sand in the comfort of your own living room! (assuming your other half lets you :p)

Yep, I'm sanding a couple Stampede shells in front of the 52" plasma right now, while watching retro 80's animated tv shows!!!

Worst bit is having to pack everything away before the whirlywind (aka - my daughter) wakes up in the morning!! haha

Cheers,

Any recommendations of clear-coat / sealant products for acrylic coats?
I'm swaying towards Ironlak for its colours, plus a supplier isn't too far from me.

mull wrote:Any recommendations of clear-coat / sealant products for acrylic coats?
I'm swaying towards Ironlak for its colours, plus a supplier isn't too far from me.

Hey mull,

I've had success using WhiteKnight's enamel lacquer over the top of acrylic paint, including Ironlak.

The cure time on the Ironlak is rather lengthy, sometimes up to 2 weeks. I wouldn't apply any lacquer until it was fully cured, just to be on the safe side.

The only acrylic lacquer's available in a rattle can, that I can think of, would be 3M or a similar automotive paint brand. Your best bet would be a SuperCheap Auto/Auto Barn type store to source this. They're predominantly used when people do paint touch-ups on body kits/bumpers etc, so shouldn't be that hard to track down.

Cheers,

clunk07 wrote:The cure time on the Ironlak is rather lengthy, sometimes up to 2 weeks. I wouldn't apply any lacquer until it was fully cured, just to be on the safe side.

Looks like I need to get a move on the paintjob. Melbourne's colder weather's going to slow down the curing time.

Perhaps, I should leave it near the warm area, close to the computer.

I wouldn't mess with it too much mate, just let it dry naturally, but, yeh, out of the cold shouldn't be an issue.


Cheers,

I've just used 4 coats of Testors Dullcote on my daughter's reflex pistol. I use this same method on Warhammer figures.

Don't use spray paints outside when it's foggy or raining - the humidity makes the spray paint (in my experience, especially clear lacquer) go weird, like ice crystals, and then you have to strip and start again. But cold doesn't seem to affect the paint, except for drying time.

I spray light coats an hour or so apart, let it dry outside for an hour or so, then bring it indoors to dry in the warm of the ducted heating. It's touch dry in an hour or so, hard enough to use after 6 hours, but takes a week or so to harden properly.

I've tested the VHT vinyl dye (white satin) on my disposable Recon stock with an unsatisfactory result.
Perhaps I am doing something wrong, as I lack in canned spraypaint experience.

I wanted to use white dye as it also acts like a primer, in order to skip the conventional step of primer + white paint.

Environment:
- Midnight, not cold and clear skies.
- Indoors, insulated garage (I has insulation batts on the ceiling of the garage).

Method:
- Instructions say 2 light coats and 1 medium coat on vinyl.
- After 1 light coat, I didn't like what I saw...

Observations:
- Some of the paint, puddles up in the valleys of the parts and blisters the plastic in those areas.
- White vinyl dye does not cover the bright yellow plastic nor dark gray plastic properly.
- The unpainted internal areas standing onto the newspaper (the protuding screw ports) while painting, melt and stick onto the newspaper, despite no paint near the area where the items stick to each other.

Continued to do a few more light coats, hoping that it will cover the base colours underneath.
Still no good.

Possible reasons:
- Poor ventilation and lower temperatures allows solvent to accumulate in valleys and attack the plastic too agressively, resulting in blistering of the plastic.
- Also stagnant fumes may soften and partially melt the plastic in undesirable areas.
- My application of light coats is actually not thin enough, resulting in puddling.
- White dye is a poor colour choice to mask the more dominant colours.
- 30 minutes after conclusion of painting is not a good indication what the result would actually be.

Please let me know, if I have buggered up something.

I'm also evaluating my techniques, by using a more proven method of Tamiya spray primer + Ironlak spray paints.
Let's see what happens in a day or two.

Hey Mull,

Your technique sounds pretty spot-on. I've found similar issues with white dye not covering properly on the first two coats, but coming good on the third. The only thing I could suggest would use a grey dye, and spray white acrylic over it once it's fully dried/cured.

As for the other issue with the paint pooling/bubbling, it sounds like it's not bonding properly (obviously... haha). All I could suggest is possibly temp was too cool, or the dye wasn't mixed 100%. I've noticed that the VHT brand takes about 2 mins of mixing - a lot longer than most other brands.

Vinyl dye can be a real pain to use. I've had some good success, yet some very awesome failures as well. Probably the best I've used is Rustoleum Universal Paint - but it seems to be discontinued everywhere that I've searched for it...

Let me know how you go with the tamiya/ironlak method - but I think you'll notice a big difference in the end results.

Cheers,

I'll just ditch the vinyl dye as it's not giving me a satisfactory result.
I guess the results may vary widely due to many environmental and human factors, and I'm not prepared to take that risk and refine my techniques, when more foolproof methods are currently available.

It's more foolproof to use a proper primer rather than use vinyl dye as a primer substitute, though not everyone has easy and affordable access to such supplies.

I am very pleased with the Tamiya + Ironlak combo, after 2 coats and 12 hours later, under the same conditions as the vinyl dye.

Heck, I did 2 coats on a scrapped piece of Longshot without any prep work (straight on with original paint still there), and although has not fully cured after 12 hours, the paint adheres really well to the plastic and quite resistant to scuffing (hard rubbing with thumb, minimum transfer onto white paper with furious rubbing, resists scratching with a discarded piece of blaster shell).

I wanted to make sure that the folks inside the graffiti supplies store were right when I asked them about if the paint would stick well to plastic.
They said, "It should be fine, as the paint sticks to train seats."


Of course, this is just a preliminary observation, while the paint is dry but still in its relatively plastic stage.
I'm not sure how it will toughen up after some time, however, primer should be used to guarantee that the paint sticks well.


Rust-Oleum Universal All Surface Paints?
This shop posts.
http://www.aallpaints.com.au/shop/index.php?cPath=70&osCsid=2bb3f7c38e2ff801fb2093ebb889c435

Predominantly, I only use the dye on clips and drums now. Mainly parts that are difficult to sand effectively.

If I didn't have freight costs, I'd use Tamiya and Ironlak exclusively. But when it costs around $8 per can in freight charges, the cost becomes rather prohibitive. The biggest issue with acrylic as opposed to enamel, comes down to my painting style. The camo jobs require alot of coats in the final stages, and the cure time of the acrylic is just too long. Probably not a big issue for my personal jobs, but with commission's, I always seem to be pushed for time.

The Ironlak will stick to the plastic without primer, but it does scratch off fairly easily after about a week of curing. Hence why you're using the tamiya as well.

I did spot an acrylic lacquer in Bunnings the other day, but I can't remember the brand, sorry. It's probably worth a look next time you're there.

I did purchase a can of dy-Mark plastic paint, and hopefully I'll be testing it over the next week. Results will be posted.

That Rustoleum paint is brilliant. I may have to see how much dangerous goods freight is going to break the bank. I wouldn't recommend it as a primer though, but it's perfect for painting clips and drums.

Cheers,

Does anyone know where there is a supply of Krylon brand paints or Olive Drab (Pulse rifle build) colour paints in Canberra?

Ive heard about Krylon paints but the finish looks absolutely nasty. Sorry Drac

My painting consists of the White night light grey primer and the cheapy spray packs from bunnings. Havent had any issues if you take your time and sand/prep/leave to cure/seal. I use a crystal satin sealer which is awesome. Doesnt shine up like someone has painted sparkles on instead

Cheers,

Combust wrote:Does anyone know where there is a supply of Krylon brand paints or Olive Drab (Pulse rifle build) colour paints in Canberra?

Ive heard about Krylon paints but the finish looks absolutely nasty. Sorry Drac

My painting consists of the White night light grey primer and the cheapy spray packs from bunnings. Havent had any issues if you take your time and sand/prep/leave to cure/seal. I use a crystal satin sealer which is awesome. Doesnt shine up like someone has painted sparkles on instead

Cheers,

Krylon paints are very hard to find in Australia, not that there are none but in my opinion Krylon is far too expensive to purchase since you would need to order it from over seas(just not worth it).

Just a note re the Krylon paint. I found loads of them in a craft shop on the Gold Coast. Small cans though. Also full size Krylon protective sealant.

clunk07 wrote:Probably the best I've used is Rustoleum Universal Paint - but it seems to be discontinued everywhere that I've searched for it...

My local Bunnings still has Rustoleum paint (interesting nozzle/control) but as you say it's being discontinued and the shelf stock is on clearance now @ around $9.00 a can.

Necro'ing the paint thread to keep all the info in the one place.

Regarding sanding prep work, has anyone used a flapper wheel on a dremel/drill?

It's like a bunch of small pieces of sandpaper on a spline, come in difference sizes and grits like regular sandpaper. Fire up the drill and let it do the work. Might be a bit aggressive but varying the grit and the RPM should give room to play.

Any updates on paint? Anyone used an etch-primer to avoid the sanding/prep altogether?

cray- wrote:Necro'ing the paint thread to keep all the info in the one place.

Regarding sanding prep work, has anyone used a flapper wheel on a dremel/drill?

It's like a bunch of small pieces of sandpaper on a spline, come in difference sizes and grits like regular sandpaper. Fire up the drill and let it do the work. Might be a bit aggressive but varying the grit and the RPM should give room to play.

Any updates on paint? Anyone used an etch-primer to avoid the sanding/prep altogether?

Major Necro to start off 2013...

I obviously missed this post 6 months ago. I've tried heaps of mechanical aids for prepping blasters. I've used flapper disc's on a dremel and a cordless grinder. Even on the slower RPM speeds, it melts the paint off, which creates a major mess, and you end up creating more work for yourself.

The best I've found is to use an orbital sander with 120 grit paper on a low setting, and prep as much of the shell that you can, then finish off using more 120 by hand or on a sanding block, and finish the entire blaster off with a medium grit sanding sponge.

Cheers,

Hi I have only just started Nerf modding and am more artistic minded so while i wait for my OMW kit to arrive I pulled my longstrike apart and primed and painted it, after sanding I applied 2 coats of The Army Painter 'Necrotic Flesh' coloured primer, this primer id specifically designed for priming and base coating plastic and resin miniatures e.g Warhammer 40K etc. it's fairly dear but for coverage it's just amazing and leaves a matte coat, after priming I broke out the old airbrush and using Vallejo air series paint I worked out a camo pattern on the body of the gun, then once dry i used Games Workshops foundation paint 'Calthan Brown' to add the darker splotches which finishes it nicely, letting it dry for a while I then went over the whole gun with a matte spray of finishing varnish from an art store.

hope this is the right place to put this? and i hope you like it!







cheers

Damo

While it's a nice paint job, it's far too realistic to be taken outside of your own home, particularly on a longstrike.
Also, this thread is for discussing different paint brands etc, and GW paint is no different to the Tamiya equivalent. Also, we're more concentrating on rattle cans, rather than air brushes

You can either post your pics in the 'flaunt your blaster' thread, or use them in your introductory post.

Cheers,

Hey guys,

while I know that this is an old thread, I just wanted to share my experience using Montana or MTN spray paint. This (like Ironlak) is a graffiti designed spray paint.

It has different 'types' or 'series' of spray paint. some thick, glossy, matte or designed for a special purpose.

Being a street artist I use MTN Hardcore and 94.
Hardcore is thick and glossy (which clogs up the caps easily), while MTN 94 is thinner and has a matte finish. Prices range from $6.50 to $7.50 for MTN Hardcore while MTN 94 is around $8.00 to $8.60, depending on which website or store you purchase it from.

MTN paint has a HUGE range of colours. MTN 94 and Hardcore have over 100 different colours for each one. It's great if you need a specific colour (especially MTN 94 with 167 colours).
I've used Hardcore and 94 on around 4 of my blasters and they have turned out GREAT;
Smooth finish and the paint sticks well with a little bit of sanding. No primer is really needed.

Hardcore is a little thicker (as I said before) and you may want to put this into  consideration when painting your blaster. On the other hand, MTN 94 is perfect, relatively thin with a nice spray.

Since these are graffiti paints, they stick onto blasters well (even without sanding) and they don't peel, fade or rub off.
MTN also has 'MTN Black' and 'MTN White'. I have only used these for street art but not for painting blasters.

Has anyone used MTN before?
One question for everyone, has anyone used other paint brands like: Flame, Belton Molotow, Crunch Stomper etc.?

For anyone who wants to use MTN paints, you can find them in some graffiti stores in the city or on these websites.
- ozgraff.com
- mtnaustralia.com.au

- Jeremy.