Didn't know what to call this, so here it is. I've been testing the waters of dying as of late for a super secret love project I'm working on. The best way I could think of testing it is by using the extra targetmasters I have laying around from said LP. First test was this guy. While certain parts took the black very well, the yellow on him turned into an olive green, and it looked too cool. My brother suggested I add some dark purple on him to bring it together and it looks sweet! Looks like he should be teamed with toxitron or something. Not sure how well it shows up on camera mode tho. (That little spot is a reflection of my lamp) I like how the black at the end looks like heat burns Second wave was tested with another batch that'll be in a separate post, but I dunked these guys in, forgetting to remove the paint, and the paints dyed almost instantly and, once again, too cool to finish. First is Yellow boy. And now blue boy. And together After that, I had several more tests learning a key factor....I WASN'T DOING ENOUGH!!! not enough dye, not enough heat, not enough acetone! Then comes to my last subject of the day. A battlemaster firedrive, who is now Nightstick!! Dyed his arms and cannon black. There is still a very tiny bit on the underside where the head goes that remains white due to me super gluing a piece between it so it won't fall off, but it doesn't bother me. And with his buddy And that is it for this post. If you guys have any suggestions on who to name the first three, then I'd like to see them! Thank you for taking time to check this and I hope you have a wonderful day!
Thank you and %100 honest, I'm pretty sure my personal process and quirks makes my way very inefficient, but I'll share it anyway. *Medium sized pan (no longer for cooking) *RitDye Synthetic *Dish soap *%100 Acetone *stove top *Stirring/cooking spoon (Also not for cooking) *water *The pieces you want dyed, separated for best results So I've been using a medium-sized cooking pot because I had one that was never used and I didn't know which one to buy at my store. I'd fill it with enough water to fully submerge the pieces I'm dying, then heat it up to near-boiling. At this point, I'd pour a bit of the dishsoap and acetone in (careful though. I caught my hand on fire because of my impatience, just poured it in without care or overspill. I'm good tho.) then added the dye, and stirred. Then I'd lower the oven (flame stove-top ) to near simmer, and toss the pieces in. (This is where my personal quirks kick in) I'd then check to see which pieces take the dye easily (I had a few with instant results, which was weird) so I'd remove them with a cooking spoon and every 2 to 8 minutes, stir the pieces that remain so they don't melt onto the pan. I think the longest I had any pieces in was an hour before I removed from heat. I'd still stir but not as often. After that, I poured the dye out and checked the pieces. Something of note is that the pieces that don't take it well REALLY don't take it well. The black bits on Delet (in my other thread) took forever (but it could've been my early process) but something else is I learned is not all same-colored plastic takes the same amount of dye in, so ones that take in less should probably have multiple or longer dyebaths. One thing I did was have a few pieces soak in rubbing alcohol for some time before the dyebath (I know Olive green had this bath, but not Blue or Yellow) to help take it in easier. IIRC Delet's Blue bits were soaked about a week before I threw them into a bath of black, blue and a tiny purple and got that result in a few minutes. (I remember hearing that adding a bit of blue into a black dyebath helps, so i tried it. seemed to work) Lastly, test it out on other, unimportant things first before moving onto the actual project. I got 2 extra scoops for my current project, which is where a few of the TMs came from. Sorry if the wording is everywhere and weird, but I hope I got my message out. I'd suggest asking some other dying customizers for some advice as well. (Please don't take this out of context, lol). In any manner, I hope this was helpful and you find some better ways for this than I did. Thanks, and yeah, my brother was on-point with that! I do wish it came out better in-camera. It looks so much better in-person.
Oh I like that. Great and unique colors on the green, black and purple guy! Wow! Was it hard dyeing the plastic? The blue guy looks kinda like an underwater robot with the tube things on his chest. I like Nightstick too.
Thanks for the tutorial. I've dyed pieces in the past, but stopped over concerns about inhaling chemicals. I, too, noticed some of the plastics took the dye better than others. I also never kept it in the boiling water as long as you did, but I didn't lower the heat to simmer either. Reading your tutorial and seeing the results makes me want to try dying again some day though. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you again, for the kinds words! Not as much hard as it was annoying. Also, underwater for blue, you say? *checks*… I see it now, too! I wonder if I can repurpose him as Waverider for now. Thanks! It really does look like one of those, but my first thought was "Master Chief Spartan colors" lol. Now that you mention it, I do have two more of the Scoop Targetmasters at the ready, and been thinking about what I could do with them. Plenty of options for dyes atm, so we'll see what happens.
I've melted more than one figure doing this. Im going to have a great scrapyard\battlefield\junkion diorama before too long. The battlemasters have been pretty resilient....its the deluxes that i keep screwing up. Dyeing is an art and its hard to get it just right or even duplicate the same results. One thing i had picked up somewhere was rapidly cooling the pieces in water straight from the dye bath. I think this was contributing to the warping i experienced. I know i was also letting my water get too hot. I would recommend using a hot plate and not the kitchen stove. any dye accidents.....and you'll be remembering the accident a LONG time. I picked up a hot plate from the grocery store for $10 and another from a thrift store for $2. I do my dye jobs in the basement and the garage now where it doesnt matter what "oops" moments I may have. Another issue that keeps coming up for me on the battlemasters is air pockets in the gaps on the limbs. I started poking them with a toothpick while in the water to get the air out and let the dye cover evenly. Additionally I got some cheap strainers that can hold the parts higher in the water and not resting on the bottom of the pan where its hotter. I added acetone the first couple times i dyed. i tried without acetone on later projects and saw no difference in the time it took to dye the parts. Stopped using it afterwards.
TIME TO UPDATE!!! Part 1: Canonical characters So I have been doing quite a lot of custom stuff over the past few months and only got around until now to post them, and I still have plenty more ahead of me. With that said, lets begin with something simple. The OG decepticon Targetmasters! Blowpipe, Aimless and Caliburst. these guys are a simple partswap, with the exception of Aimless, with a bit of red on his chest to help me remember that he fits closer to Misfire than the others. I just like the thought of these guys sharing a similar color scheme and molding, and I plan to do the same with the Autobot versions (if the official versions don't already do that, btw...still waiting on Pointblank and Sureshot, Hasbro!!!) Next is Jackpot's partner Sights, Treadshot's partner Catgut, and Micromaster Discharge in her black vaiant color. I dyed the teradaxtyl (don't remember the name) body black and used a blue I have for the wings and head. Catgut got spraypainted for red thighs, even though I forgot his limbs were orange (oops) as well as some black paint on his head. I also dyed Discharge's red parts black, but used grey to help break up the pallet a bit. A small detail I'm personally proud of is Catgut's mouth, which I didn't paint in! (my huge hands is the culprit, btw) Lastly, here's a few Titanmasters I have done. While the robot modes are the same, I focused on the faces and whatnot. First is Sureshot, based on the Legends comic (Although I say it looks more like Pointblack) but I'll just call him Targettor. Then it's Strafe from Trentroop's shapeways page. The last in the row is another Legends-based one, this time being that Blue Corps. Omega Sentinel that had the blue TR Sentinel prime body. I got an extra Swoop TM, so I plan on doing a blue faced one as well. Below all three of them is a simple grey touchup on the sides so that I can have both of Brainstorm's faces at the same time. If I recall correctly, that face is from the fixit set. so in my next post, I'll show of some rando's and some other masters I have done.
part 2. Rando's and others. So following up my random dye sessions, I've gotten some weird mixes and cool results imo. Some of these are leftover bots and most don't have any changes besides the dyed parts, but once I get better at details, I'll get to them. I'll only name the ones that actually have names. First off, is the greyscale group. next is some leftover bots and some dye sessions. next is some more Scoopmasters, but this time there's a surprise! Spreem makes a comeback!! Some more colors but on different molds! I have a yellow one done as well, but I'm currently painting some bits on him. I added some red onto that one to try and have it be a stand-in for some og the Autobot targetmaster we didn't get, but I think I'm going to hold off until we see what could be coming. and lastly, some beasty bois! Blue Smashdown is Slamdown, and will become UM's battlemaster. White Teradaxtyl is now Nova Wind, painted with that white vynel dye. I should add another layer tho. and lastly, Mr. Kitty, who will be an upcoming partner to another bot of a certin cute hat variety I'm working on. And that's it for now, but I'll be sure to come back eventually! Stay safe and have a great day, everyone! for me, its dependant on how big the pieces are.
minor update again. First up is a few BMs with yellow and brown dye. (I removed the paint on the main body. I really need to get better at detailing) this next batch is weird, because I actually don't own the dyes they were turned to! I had a mini-brainblast of "Wait, do dyes work the same way with mixing paints?" and they do! Here's Minty Green (from Yellow and a tiny bit of blue) and Rocketbot (Yellow and a tiny bit of red, Homage to that targetmaster Strafe figure's partner) and here they all are in gun mode I wanted to add a few more here, but I messed up in a paint session with red and it will be dealt with alongside another project. Let's just say the next batch will be a rival to a trio I've already done.... EVENTUALLY!!!
Alright, another update. Got myself some custom G1 Targetmasters here! So I found out that mixing a tiny bit of yellow while dying red, it prevents the color from turning deep cherry. After learning this, I got a second Netflix Megs so I could have a second red TM body. Dying another Firedrive's arms and gun to match the body... However, peacemaker here has a modded gun barrel, using a piece cut from FOC Onslaught's gun and painted red (which does not match the rest but just enough for me to ignore it) and yeah. Also, I painted a body white and gave him the pink/red colors from before, but now looking more like Countdown more than anything. So anyway, here is Pinpointer, Spoilsport, Peacemaker and (new guy) I've been needing to post these for a while but I was waiting on how I was proceeding with their partners. Still figuring that out. Anyways, a few Smashdown based customs should be next. Until next time!
Well, it wasn't the Smashdowns, but it's something. I decided to dye a Blowpipe's arms a darker blue, and I added a very tiny bit of purple into it. It came out like a sharpie color, so his name is Sharpy. (I seriously need to get around to paint the torso pieces tho) If anyone has color suggestions for this guy or the others above, please let me know. I could use the advice. Thank you, and take care!
