Just a question I've been wanting to ask and forgive me if it has been asked before, but is there anything special you have to do to paint clear and translucent plastic? I'm kinda interested in the new PPC but the translucent mini-cons will drive me crazy, so if I were to pick one up and paint it would have to do anything different than I would for normal plastic? Any special type of paint or things to look out for?

 

Probably same way as painting any other kind of plastic. Sand, primer, and paint.

 

Not so much in painting clear/translucent plastic as taking paint off. From what I've gathered anyway.

I made the mistake of leaving Cl. Cliffjumper's chestpiece/windshield & roof in 70% alcohol for too long and the whole thing ended up somewhat dyed the color of the paint I was trying to remove from it. It wasn't too bad, but it was really noticeable when I went and used another CJ chest.

 

You can paint it just as you would the regular plastic. If you plan to keep it translucent and simply paint it in another color, use some clear Tamiya or clear testors acrylic paint in whatever color you want. I've used them both in clear blue and clear red to paint clear plastic and it left them "see through". If you simply want to cover it, you can just sand and paint (or sand, prime, and paint), depending on your methods.

Good luck!

 

Using the clear Tamiya's you can create other colors depending on the color of the clear piece. For example: When covering the clear blue missiles of Classics Jetfire with yellow gives a nice green color. Varying the layers will give you different shades. This is a subtractive color process, so you are limited.

Also, heed that warning about taking off the paint. Sometimes I have no problems with 90% iso taking paint off clear parts, other times it turns the plastic foggy. I noticed a easy fix fo the foggyness is to put a layer of future on the plasic, this seems to take care of the foggy plastic.

 

As mentioned above, sanding is key to painting plastic.
Sanding works better for dye as well.
Really fine grit, like wet/dry does the trick.

Magic eraser works good soaked with isopropyl.
The alcohol makes removal, just a tad easier.
U need some old fashioned elbow grease though.
It sux on tiny parts and high detail, but perseverance will win out.
I use little bits of magic eraser and try to get in those corners.
What I can't get, I delicately scrape with an x-acto.
I have tried harsher stuff, but melty away.

You just answered a question of mine!!
Thankyou!!

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