What about spraying parts?

[piterx]

im so sick of red and black -.-

i want, i dont know....blue, dark green, white, rusty red,

someone of you will say "there are parts with those colors!" but ill answer: no! there arent enough coloured parts compared to red and black ones :\

so has anyone of you tried to spray some parts? what kind of colors did you use? is it something acceptable by the lego purists?

[colinrichardson]

I'd always presumed that this was a bad idea. I recently received a bulk lot off of eBay which contained a handful of spray painted parts- it confirmed, for me, that it is a bad idea.

[Saberwing40k]

It could be a good idea, if, and this is a big fat ugly if, you do it right. I've never done this personally, as I prefer the black models myself.

[mahjqa]

but ill answer: no! there arent enough coloured parts compared to red and black ones :\

Edited May 20, 2013 by mahjqa

[piterx]

lol xD i should have been more precise! i was talking only about technics :P

[mahjqa]

And? Yes, I've used some studded parts here and there, but there are plenty of parts in blue, orange, lime, yellow, teal, purple, white and grey. Dark blue, dark red, dark green, brown and tan are also available if you know where to look.

And as long as your chassis itself is in a neutral color, you only need surprisingly few coloured parts on the outside to spruce things up.

[piterx]

but what if i wanna make a blue lancia? i cant :) because the red pieces i used arent aviable in other colors!

[Vr5fx]

That purple one is like... Amazing.

[Edit] In regard to spraying pieces.... It would take quite some time to get the finish right, and you will probably only get a handful of placements before it would chip, so it would be a single time build, with little or no mistakes. I have spray paint, so I might try it out when the weather gets better (so probably next week)

Edited May 20, 2013 by Vr5fx

[Saberwing40k]

I think that painting parts is a massive cop out. And in regards to the blue Lancia, I think every part you need is available in blue, so you'd only have to improvise a little bit.

[The_Skirrid]

I never really grokked Bionicle type sets in and of themselves, but they are a really good source of technic bits in out of the ordinary colours. Most go for peanuts on BL/evilbay, and can help you stash a good amount of bits for low cost.

[MrNumbskull13]

I've sprayed wheels before and it turned out really good, I sprayed them black with a plastic paint that required no undercoat. As long as you do it in lots of thin layers with enough time in between painting the next layer you should be fine.

[Boxerlego]

I never consider the idea of spray painting the parts. I have thought about a putting a Rc car body on a Lego chassis.

[Someonenamedjon]

I never consider the idea of spray painting the parts. I have thought about a putting a Rc car body on a Lego chassis.

That would be quite interesting!

Would the spray paint start to fall off after a while and look bad? If you were to then put some more spray paint on, the colors would vary.

[Doc_Brown]

I have thought about spraying parts, I wanted to make a white frame for my crawler but there are not white connectors and it will look stupid otherwise.

@ jon. If you use good paint I don't see why it would come off, like citadel paint.

I need an airtank to test, anyone lend me one?????

you know 1 x 11 orange goes for like 7 E each, used on BL??? I know they only come from one 2002 model now, but geez......

[rm8]

I want to spray 56's rims with white color.

Topic is actual for me:)

I've sprayed wheels before and it turned out really good, I sprayed them black with a plastic paint that required no undercoat. As long as you do it in lots of thin layers with enough time in between painting the next layer you should be fine.

Which paint did you used?

[piterx]

i wanna spray all my panels ahah....no seriously im 99% purist and im so frustrated by the lack of colors !!!

[Balrog]

Well I think this is depending on the kind of part if you can spray paint it or not. I think this will work well with panels and rims. But I don't think it is very clever to do it with connectors, liftarms or pins.

If you want it to be permanent and good, you need to use a primer and then apply the colour paint. After that you might also need a coat of clear paint to protect the color layer and give it a more shiny look. I guess this can be applied good to rims and panels. But pins would be the hardest, because the layer of paint changes the dimensions of the piece and it might be hard to insert them into pinholes or the pain comes off if you use the parts.

If you dont want the paint job to be that good (in terms of layers) because you want to use the parts properly, the paint will come off more easily. And I guess this is not what anyone wants.

In any case, if you want to clean the parts later, you need to use a paint that will come off with water, because you cannot use the typical paint stripper on the Lego pieces without damaging them.

That's it from my knowledge of spray painting stuff. Not much, but I guess this shows the limits when spray painting Lego.

What might be interesting, would be to make some Airbrush Graffiti style paintjobs on panels. Like the panel stickers of 9398, but permanent.

edit:

And I think that spray painting certain parts like rims should be legit, since they are mostly available in light grey only or sometimes in black. Other colors are very rare, if even available. But I think thats it already. Thats just like using 3rd party tires.

Edited May 21, 2013 by Balrog

[DLuders]

Certain spray paints (like Krylon Fusion) are formulated for plastic. If it can stick on plastic lawn furniture (which flexes a bit), it should work fine on Lego parts too. I recommend finding something like it at your local hardware store and trying it out on a common Lego Technic piece. If you don't like the results, you can always use the paint for something else.

[aqaz]

You should not be at all bothered by Lego 'Purists'. After all, many of them find it perfectly acceptable to have parts expensively chrome plated.....

Years ago we spray painted a small model of a truck after it was built, at the time there was no plan to ever take it apart, despite a lot of playing with, it stayed pristine in its new colours.... They were 'Humbrol' paints if I recall correctly.

A long time later it got taken apart and when any of the bricks were used in anything else they were placed so the painted side was inwards or otherwise out of sight....

After saying this, I would not paint parts now, simply because it is far easier just to buy what I require in the colour I want. But then again, I haven't yet wanted to build something in a colour that is not readily available.

[piterx]

i have done a nice buggy... it's red (again -.-) and i was wondering how nice it would look with camo painting on it :P

in some days ill publish this car i've built for a shop who asked me to build em a small model :)

[Blakbird]

I have sprayed wheels silver. Works OK. A few years ago there a post here from a man who made a bunch of Formula 1 models which were heavily painted. They were beautiful.

On the one hand, it is a design challenge to make a model work using only the parts available in a rare color. On the other hand, if you want to do a scale model of a real object using colors that don't exist in LEGO, painting is an option.

[Alasdair Ryan]

On the one hand, it is a design challenge to make a model work using only the parts available in a rare color.

I would agree with Pinkbird,using a limited number of parts tests your skill and ingenuity as a builder and helps you to improve more.

Edited May 21, 2013 by Alasdair Ryan

[Balrog]

I would agree with Pinkbird...

[Someonenamedjon]

I would agree with Pinkbird,using a limited number of parts tests your skill and ingenuity as a builder and helps you to improve more.

And I agree with Pinksdair too!

Edited May 21, 2013 by Someonenamedjon

[D3K]

Alicedear

Anyhow, on topic: Would plastic model spray paint work? Like the ones Tamiya produces?

I remember they made for a real nice finish on my large scale plastic model airplanes, back when I was in to that... Probably not very scratch resistant, but for a nice finish of display models, it would probably work! Also, the size is convenient for small projects like Lego models