Apeface was a childhood bot of mine so I sweat the details with this figure. In order to get his deco closer to his classic colors I painted over the terrible damage patterns. I also painted the non friction parts of his shins black. I created a magenta that is slightly lighter than the plastic..which I didn’t intend to do..but it matches the magenta of the Titans return figure at least. His feet, I want to paint black to complete the look but it’s a complex part to tackle so he’ll still look like he’s wearing brogues. Being a hand painter and not a spray painter complicates dealing with that part I think. I will be painting the milky white body soon with a light gray. Gotta test some primer on it first. But the body is definitely unpaintable plastic..which is unfortunate. I'll transform and post pics once I'm completely done. edit: Added pics of completed body. Friction in the gorilla knees prevented me painting that area. It would require more sanding than I want to bother doing atm. I may add a clear coat to protect the color after it dries. It’s acrylic Model Master light gray. The legs are Testors enamel black semi gloss. edit: Transformation pics added. I really want to blacken the front of his feet. I’ve had luck with markers before but I’m not certain atm. edit: After a few days I figured out what to do with his feet. A black marker. I used a Marks-a-lot to blacken the front section of his feet. It worked out great, the ink dries quick and is scratch resistant. I use marker for touch ups, and on this plastic the ink adheres more thinly than paint. I scratched at the ink after letting it dry a day and it didn’t come off. Now his legs are nearly uniformly black. I also blackened the unpainted tab on his shin.
Nice, What color did you do the cockpit, I was considering doing the same if I get him. I have been having a mental battle if I should or not.
It's a tricky color to nail down but I think I figured it out. These are all testors paints. Base of gloss Magenta to start out with pink. Add drops of gloss Purple until it begins to slightly change the color to a light Fuschia then immediately stop. Add drops of gloss Dark Red to darken the tone and red shift the mix until it resembles the shield/wings. Make it a slight touch darker because when it dries it will lighten(this is what I forgot). To prevent orange peel with enamel paint and get the smooth look I did..mix in a few drops of penetrol. It makes it a little runny but it dries even..and faster. For Acrylic, Tamiya has an Acrylic leveler...but I haven't tried using it yet.
Forgot to mention on the arms I used straight up grape purple..which gave it a kind of sheen. At first I didn't like it, but now it looks fine. Didn't feel like trying to color match the purple plastic or paint over it entirely.
Maybe it was just a typo ...but I'm confused about something. You said, the white paint is "definitely unpaintable." So how do you plan to paint it then?
I guess I used that as shorthand for “primer required”. It’s resistant to paint adhesion, or dye absorption.
So I saw baltmatrix video and he says the plastic is Nylon .. which I'm reading online it may be possible to dye Nylon. I won't be trying that here though unless I get ahold of a test figure.
Looking good. I'm curious...why do you think the plastic is unpaintable? What are you using for paint?
I’m not a expert model painter so my terms are probably lazy..I picked them up from others. But my use of un paintable means highly advised to use primer for a durable coat.
Just added the brands to my post. I forgot to mention I used Tamiya Acrylic leveler to prevent brush strokes. The light gray coat brings out the details..and it doesn’t look cheap as before. I would say, if you want the figure to “pop” more..animation style..use white paint. When I had only the white primer on there it looked super nice. But I wanted this to resemble the G1 toy color as much as possible so it’s light gray and I’m considering adding gloss clear. I think people would have been more impressed if Hasbro gave it color and lessened the splatter.