I wish I had 36 hour days... I'm getting so behind on MY customs  

 

Very nice!

Just like everything else you do...

 

Wow...that is really all i can say to that.

And is it just me or does this custom kind of scream "Me am Astrotrain's big brother!"?

 

Now, I'm wondering... there's a lot of grey on this guy. Am I to assume that since you painted this with more traditional paints, that the vinyl dye-paints experiment proved to be less than satisfying?

Just picking your brain, because I'm still anxious to try the vinyl dye stuff (if it holds up to handling and transforming).

zmog

 

well, there's nowhere near the selection of colors available in vinyl dyes than in traditional paints.

 

that is wicked... I love the subdued purple... kinda makes me want to make one.

 

Oh, I know that... but since this Jetfire is mostly gray, and I know that he's already used gray vinyl dye before on his Classics Starscream, I was curious why he elected not to use the vinyl dye in this instance.

zmog

 

That sucks ducks...now can I have it? PM me.  

Flawless paint apps and panel lining, Boggs, very nice work indeed. And I love that color scheme.

 

I LOVE it! Keep up the great work!

 

Your kitbashing skills are marvelous. Great work!

 

Very nice! 

 

Extraordinary. Just extraordinary.

 

I used the vinyl dye on the jetpack, but not the rest of him. I was going to use the same gray that I used on Starscream, but in the process of picking colors and browsing the local model shop, I picked this gray out because I THOUGHT I could get a bottle of the same color for touchups. Well the bottle was not the same color (what I was speaking about an earlier post) and I had already begun painting him that color gray.

One other big drawback to the dye is that I can't get it to brush on very well at all. Which sucks for touch ups using the spray-in-the-cap-wasting-lots-of-paint-method. More experimentation is needed. The color I got on the jetpack was exactly what I wanted and that paint came out tough as nails.

Something I like about Tamiya spray paints is that they have acetone in them, the stuff that the dye has that melts plastic, also the reason the cans say "FOR ADULT MODELERS". I have found that this greatly helps it ahere to bare plastic.....but, and this is a significant but..... you're not supposed to use them on bare plastic or you get some unwanted effects, especially if you use glossier colors. This is what caused my "drawing away" problem on my Sunstorm. You're supposed to use a primer. But then your run into the problem of messing with your tolerances and paint scraping off.

Also, speaking of paint scraping off, the tamiya paints on bare plastic have the same problems as the dye in terms of it not ahearing well to the more dense plastic. I'm still trying to figure out a way to make it stick, keep my tolerances in check, and still have it look good. Its a tall order.

Sorry for the long answer, but that is why I used the paint instead.

 

No... THANKS for the long answer! More info is always more welcome than a brief and cryptic response.  

I still haven't gotten my hands on any of the vinyl dye, but I'm anxious to try it on a few customs I have in mind. What has been holding me back in my TF bashing is the fact that I don't want to sacrifice the tactile experience of the toys. A TF that just sits up on a shelf, only to be looked at, but never to be transformed or fiddled with, is hardly a TF at all in my books.  

So far, the only colours I've found are black and white (at my local hardware and automotive store). I haven't visited any specialty car custom shops in my area for a better selection. Figure that they have gray and primaries at least, right?

zmog

 

BADASS  

 

Probably. Just take note of whether they are a dye or a paint (if it says coating on it anywhere, it it more than likely a paint with acetone) The both work the same way, but the dye seems to work better on the right types of plastic. Some of the paint versions need an ahesion promoter to go along with it.

The only dyes I have used so far are from Mar-Hyde. I can't find anyone around here that sells the Plasti-kote version.

I'm going to order more soon anyways because the club I sponsor at the school I teach at is have a "mod day" The students are taking their x-boxes, ps2s, etc... and recoloring them. So I'll have a lot more feedback on different colors.