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Krylon fusion is a good spray if you're doing a really large custom like my masterpiece ultra magnus. It bonds really well with plastic and it doesn't leave airbubbles if sprayed right.

I stared with Testor's Acryl, moved on the Model Masters and Tamiya, but with Sunstreaker's advise, will be moving on to Games Workshop. (All brush for me, for now)

What do I use to seal the paint with?

I use this stuff called spazstick. I purchased it along with R/C paint at the hobby store. I used that to seal the nebulos that I did a few pages back in this thread.

Man Des! You are really a custom-making factory! How do you find the time to roll all these cool figures out? I'm still working on my custom Minerva, not even close to being finished! Not enough hours in the day! Plus I'm really having to stay on top of my on-line college studies!

I'm having troubles with my paint and it flaking and not going on smooth on the back section! It looks awful! Wonder if i can lightly sand off the bad paint section and repaint? Any thoughts?

That may work sentinel. Another thing you can do, before you paint or prime, is lightly sand the area to be painted. It helps the paint bond with the part and is less likely to bubble up.

OK, my VF-19 Valkyrie model kit arrived this morning, so I can get to making this custom Sunstorm. Just wondered though - what glue should I be using? There's good old superglue or there's modelling cement... I can't remember which is which, I.E. which one literally "melts" a thin layer of plastic, and which actually just sticks them together...? any ideas?

Modelling cement melts the plastic together and superglue just sticks them together.

yeah nice work u guys I still havent got round to trying my hands at customizing one day soon though

Thanks for the comments one and all, I appreciate them!

@Cliffjumper: If you are going to try your hand a customising be careful, because once you are bitten by the custom bug you won't be able to stop. Then you fall into the trap of not finishing one of them before starting another (Talking for experience here ). Also ambition can be your own worst enemy, be sure to start small and work up as you develop your skills.

Sunstreaker wrote:Customizing is addictive, some thoughts crossed my mind for a second project (i must be losing it )...

You got that right!!!


any ideas on what I should do with my extra Trailbreaker with a lot of chrome wear, sticker wear and a broken head?

I got this when I was a wee mini-con.
I played with it so much, almost all the chrome has worn off.
I used that so called "chrome" paint... more like a silver / grey color.

I can't remember who bought it for me, maybe my mother (RIP)
So due to sentimental reasons, I cannot part with it.
But it's been sitting in my "Parts" cabinet for a long long time.
Since I bought another Trailbreaker from TFL a couple of years ago!
I thought maybe I could do something nice with it and fix it up a bit.
But when I look at it, my mind goes blank on what I want to do with it.
So I am asking all my GALVATRONIACS for ideas.

galvy you should make him into a trailbreaker that is a lowrider maybe paint him up like a show truck lol could be nice

@Galvy:If i were you,since its a toy you have memories of,i'd leave it be.But if you want to something about him,i'd say (guess what ) try to add joints to make him poseable.

Yeah Id leave him be too for sentiments sake

@ Roar.... When I have some time"not playing Cod4"

Cliffjumper wrote:Yeah Id leave him be too for sentiments sake

You know since this is a special sentimental toy maybe you could find a head from a junker to put on him and an original label sheet?

Commander Megatron wrote:Galvatron leave it be, all Autobots should be spare parts!!!

let it be unanimous (spelling)
I'll leave it alone.

Does anyone know a good style chrome paint I could use?

Again,i'd say leave him be (if the paint goes for him ).His wear reflects the time you spent playing with him.

www.chrometechusa.com

I talk to this guy every year at iola, he said he'd happily do transformers. he does good work. got started in the model and promo car business.

You know, Galvatron, your chrome really and truly doesn't look that bad! There are a couple of places that could use a little love but its not that bad.

galvatron wrote:

Commander Megatron wrote:Galvatron leave it be, all Autobots should be spare parts!!!

let it be unanimous (spelling)
I'll leave it alone.

Does anyone know a good style chrome paint I could use?

You can try those chromish type paints but through experience they've proved themselves to do two things well.

1. Look really really bad.
2. Stay tacky and not cure properly.

There are re-chroming services avaliable but I don't know how much money you're wanting to spend on your toy.

If you're really wanting to try to use spray paint try Krylon's silver "chrome" stuff first. It will cure on Transformer plastic. It would be best if you didn't try to shoot all of your legs though just the problem areas. Spray some paint in a thick white plastic container like a well washed sour cream container or something like that. The spray paints will melt some plastics.

After you do that use a small bristled thin brush to cover only the exposed colored plastic areas. If you try to shoot the legs completely with paint it'll obviously be painted and look horrible. They may say its chrome and the paint can top be the prettiest chrome you've ever seen in your life but it doesn't look like that when you put it on. Also that kind of paint if you spray it on...no matter how light a coat you put on.... tends to pool in the lower areas taking the definition off the parts and leaves the edges bare.

I haven't gotten up enough nerve to try the fake silver leaf you can buy at craft and hobby stores but if you could get that to stick it would definitely look like chrome. I bet if you got some, cut it into small squares and put it into the holes in your grille it'd do a good job! I don't know how it'd hold up in the land of moving parts though.

As far as the edges of your black painted areas go I would just touch up those areas sparing as much of the original paint as I could. I like to use either Testor's flat black enamel or Testor's Acryl Model Master's paints. Both of the paints will cure on either plastic or metal and you'll have to follow up that paint with a sealer to both make it durable and glossy looking because it dries somewhat dull. I use Testor's clear acrylic. That's what I used on Orion Pax.

But...since your metal is what you're touching up you could get away with using a regular gloss model paint without the worry of non-curing.

I think maybe a nice new paint job and some stickers from REPO LABELS and ol' Trailbreaker could look pretty darn good.
But I do need to glue his head back on.