article on vinyl dye and a question

"I'm high on vinyl dye" - article

needless to say, the guy is in favor of it. From what I've seen there and elsewhere, so am i.

I just have a few questions about it:

do I have to remove all nerf paint before applying it?

I have an alpha trooper - if I remove the cocking slide, I should be good to go for painting the thing in one piece, no?

if you mask an area, does the stuff soak into the plastic such that it bleeds under? I have good modeling tape so it wouldn't bleed under on the surface.

If I sprayed some in a cup, I could technically brush-paint with it, no?

For part of the curing time it actually softens the plastic temporarily, according to the article. So long as I'm not handling the gun during that time, this shouldn't be a problem, amirite?

After it's cured, I can paint over it, yes? The point of the exercise is to have a reliable base color show through, if the paint gets chipped. Nothing kills an artistic buzz quite like a paint scratch on a plastic thing where the color of the host material clashes with the paint scheme or detracts from the realism, if you paint the thing to look real. In the RC rock crawler community, people like to use Tamiya bodies which are made of ABS, the same plastic as nerf guns and Legos. However nobody in that community has heard of vinyl dye so you see a lot of bright red 1983 toyota hilux bodies with unsightly white scratches on them. It looks awful.

is there any kind of plastic vinyl dye won't work on? Is that even a problem for us nerf headers?

Will it dye a glued area?

perhaps a stupid question, but how thoroughly should one degrease before applying it?

Because of all the recessed lines on nerf guns, it is impossible to remove all the original paint without doing damage to the detail and even then, you might have to use a paint stripper and that would be terrible for the plastic itself. If you were to remove 95% of the host paint in a given region and then dyed the plastic, would it alter the remaining paint at all?

What grit sand paper should i use to remove the paint? 600+? Note to everyone: wet-sanding is your best friend. I do carved plaster sculpture from time to time and wet-sanding is awesome. nothing quite like it.

Is there anything else I should know about it, like if i get some on the concrete driveway, will it come off with exposure to the weather? If it gets on surfaces that it doesn't bond with, how do you remove it? What about when its dry on those surfaces?

thanks again!

I didn't read the whole thing, but most of it. Few basics.

You can't brush paint with it, spray paint just doesn't work like that. You can try, and good luck to you.

Don't paint your blaster in one piece, unless you want it to look shit. Fully disassemble it, man. Paint only what you want painted.

Yes, sand in back completely, don't use too high a grit, or your new paint will show it up. Be gentle and loving with your blaster shell.

It shouldn't bleed, but the beat way is to try it on a bit of old crappy plastic and see if it does.

Yep, you can paint over it.

As with any paint, if you don't mess with it while it's curing, it'll be alright.

With the recessed lines, you don't need to worry about sanding too thoroughly, because your fingers can't reach in there to wreck the paint.

You need to degrease it completely, dish soap and warm water works a treat.

Good luck, amigo.
Cody

Hey,

I have a thread on here already answering some of your questions. The search button is your friend.

I'll address a few of your questions, but, trust me you're going to get flamed for asking so many questions. Google is also your best friend, as is trying things out for yourself.

1. Don't be lazy, strip your blaster down to paint it. You're a sculptor, so you should understand preparation better than most on here.

2. You only need to remove the mould-release agent on the blaster. In all the blaster's I've painted with vinyl dye, I've given them a light sand with 800 grit paper, dry. Wet sanding is good, but pretty much unnecessary for blaster's. And, I used to spray cars for a living when I finished school, so I'm fairly finicky with prep work.

3. You probably won't be able to mask areas effectively, and spray to get nice clean lines. It's a dye, not paint. I haven't tried it, so maybe you could give it a try, and let us know your findings.

4. You can't paint over vinyl dye effectively with enamel paint. I had primed the recon light with dye, and sprayed a top coat of enamel. 3 weeks later, and the topcoat still hadn't cured properly. Acrylic paint can be used over the dye, but it has a cure time of about 4 days. Either use the dye as your primer and topcoat, or wait at least 24 hrs for it to cure, and spray topcoat with acrylic.

5. I doubt you would be able to brush dye effectively. It needs to be applied very thinly, otherwise it won't bond effectively. Also, I doubt it would be effective on hot glue/epoxy adhesive, but I have no proof to confirm this.

6. I haven't had any issues with the dye bonding to any nerf plastic, but I have experienced issues with other types of plastic I have tried it on.

7. Having a good base colour show through will only be an issue if you're either extremely rough on your blaster, or your painting regime is poor. I apply two coats of primer, 2 coats of topcoat, another coat or two of topcoat with my camo stencilling. I then apply 3 - 4 coats of lacquer, very thinly. And usually an extra two coats of lacquer around hard-wearing areas like the handle, trigger guard etc.

8. Plan your spraying area, and lay down suitable masking material. I wouldn't advise getting it on concrete. If it doesn't bond to a certain material, it will bubble quite visibly. Leave it to cure, and the entire painted area can be removed like a skin of dried paint.

9. Don't use degreaser on Nerf guns, they will melt. Warm soapy water is your best bet.

10. Give the recessed lines a light sand any way you can. Because you won't be touching those areas, the paint shouldn't come off.

11. Be prepared to sacrifice a blaster shell for trial and error. I have destroyed 4 x LS front guns, and 3 x Stampede shields with trialling paint types etc

@Mozart:

1. You can brush with spray paint. Vinyl dye is not a paint, so you're right with that bit.

2. The higher the grit of paper, the less coarse it is. Higher numbered grit is best for our applications. For dye, only sand as little as possible.

3. Spot on with the soap and water - but degreasing tends to imply the use of chemicals. I'd just call it washing to be on the safe side.

4. I'd be terribly surprised if it didn't bleed. The dye leeches in to the plastic, no masking tape (even good hobby stuff....) will be able to prevent this.


Guys, don't think I'm having a go at either of you. Just trying to help out where I can.

@Spacephrawg - when I said cosmetic's wasn't my thing, I wasn't referring to paint:






Cheers,

legit double post.

I have discovered today that dye won't adhere to cetain painted parts of stock blaster's. My advice would be to remove any paint other than the base colour of the blaster, before using dye.

Cheers,

Hey Clunk,

Where can I get vinyl dye up here?

I've tried super cheap auto, but they don't keep it up here.

I don't want to use paint, just real vinyl dye.

Am I needing to order it in from out of town?

Cheers,

oznerfnerd wrote:Where can I get vinyl dye up here?

I've tried super cheap auto, but they don't keep it up here.

I've come to notice that the Super Cheap Auto near my place has removed vinyl dye from the shelves sometime between 3-6 months ago. Not sure if that's happening to all stores.
Then again, some of their product range has changed a far bit over the years (eg. They changed from Valvoline to Ryco filters).

oznerfnerd wrote:Hey Clunk,

Where can I get vinyl dye up here?

I've tried super cheap auto, but they don't keep it up here.

I don't want to use paint, just real vinyl dye.

Am I needing to order it in from out of town?

Cheers,

I just bought some K&H branded vinyl dye from Autobarn in Rocky. Also, any auto shop that sells VHT branded spray paint products would possibly be able to order some dye in for you. My local Caltex servo has about 10 cans, that would be 5 years old or more. But, they work perfectly, and I picked them up for $4 a can!! lol

Wow,

That's a score!

VHT was what I was looking at.

I'll search around some more for a bargain.

Cheers,

oznerfnerd wrote:Wow,

That's a score!

VHT was what I was looking at.

I'll search around some more for a bargain.

Cheers,

Yeh, definitely a score alright!!

It was only 2 weeks ago tomorrow that I bought the cans from Autobarn, so I'd assume Mackay would stock it as well. Supercheap in Emerald had some a few months ago, but I haven't been back to check it recently.

So if enamel won't work over dyed plastic, what about automotive primer?

Best option over vinyl dye is probably an acrylic hand paint. Or a plastic spray paint if it's cammo you're trying to do.

Psykka wrote:Best option over vinyl dye is probably an acrylic hand paint. Or a plastic spray paint if it's cammo you're trying to do.

You mean like that Krylon stuff that's formulated for plastic? Can you paint over that stuff?

My intention isn't so much cammo as it is to make some thing iconic-looking like it came out of a video game. I'd like to be able to do dry-brushing and ink washes and ultimately a sealer coat over the whole thing. I want to use miniature painting techniques on it.

Krylon Fusion is ideal for painting Nerf apparently. Unfortunately, it's not easy to find supply of it in Australia.

Have a read through this:

http://www.oznerf.com/t2810-paint-brands-on-nerf-guns?highlight=paint+brands