Painting onto Plasticard

[BloodFather of Kharnath]

Ahh. I need some of this stuff. It's probably a different material than what I am using. I have see Plastruct and read their catalogue. Most of their stuff is made from a plastic different from your standard styrene.

 

[BloodFather of Kharnath]

At hour four or five, the edges of the plasticard have curled upwards like before. Not sure if this is a bad thing or not, but an interesting chemical reaction to the priming nonetheless.

 

[BloodFather of Kharnath]

Problem still exists. Horrible brushstrokes. I can't build an opaque smooth coat because you will just end up seeing a series of brush strokes. What's really bad to is right at the place where you lift the brush off the surface at the end of a stroke, it deposits an extra thick glob of paint. These problems exist no matter how I dilute. Help....me....

 

[Bloodhowl]

Problem still exists. Horrible brushstrokes. I can't build an opaque smooth coat because you will just end up seeing a series of brush strokes. What's really bad to is right at the place where you lift the brush off the surface at the end of a stroke, it deposits an extra thick glob of paint. These problems exist no matter how I dilute. Help....me....

The only thing I can think of left to try is seal the plasticard with a lacquer based matte sealer (Testor's Dull Cote). Then prime and paint?

 

[BloodFather of Kharnath]

Problem fixed.

I thought about bout how some materials, like Bones Miniatures, don't take well to priming. The way my paint was acting reminded me somewhat of when I recently started painting a Bones mini, and found out after priming that they actually aren't supposed to be prepped in this way. So I took the ingenious measure of painting on the plasticard side that was not primed and TAH DUH!!! No I haven't tried anything too fancy on it yet, but it just seems like it is acting right.

So I guess I'll just base coat it with my background color and start to free handing. If the result is not too embarrassing, I'll post it here and my WIP so everyone can see how well a talentless hack like myself takes to complex freehand design.

 

[moonmin82]

I have the perfect tip recalled from my childhood:

Mixing your base paint with PVA glue should allow it to adhere to the surface of the plastic. You'll only need to do this for the undercoat.

They always used to recommend this on kids TV when crafting cr@p from plastic bottles and old cereal packets!

 

[BloodFather of Kharnath]

I think I should follow up on how things worked out.

The Gale Force 9 plasticard does not take to painting. Do what you will to it, the paint just won't go on smoothly. I thought maybe it was just me and maybe I was missing something, but then I read in a Dakka glossary thread that plasticard that is glossy will not take paint. So a waste of money here...

Does anyone know a plasticard brand that comes very thin, can be manipulated with heat, and takes paint very well? Still looking for some to both practice on and make freehand banners. Thx all.