I want to try my first ever TF painting project, painting Universe Ironhide's face silver and his shoulders dark gray. However, I have never painted anything before in my life. Can someone give me some pointers?

Before you consider painting a surface, clean it. This will remove any excess oil / plastic residues or anything else that might affect the paint's ability to adhere to the figure.

Dawn dishwashing detergent is pretty good about being safe on plastics. If you wash your dishes by hand, add Ironhide to the stack.

Okay, I know cleaning the object to be painted is important.

But do I need to use some sort of primer to be able to paint Ironhide's shoulders?

What should I use to remove the blue paint from his face? I want something that will remove the paint without damaging the plastic.

When I paint my gaming minis, I don't use primer.

Instead, once I get everything painted on I use a layer of clear-coat. Clear-coat is actually a type of urethane, meaning that once it dries it turns into a layer of plastic.


Wal-Mart sells a brand of clear-coat known as Delta Ceramcoat; you'll find it in the craft section next to the craft paints. It's cheaper than primer and does a better job of keeping the paint on.

Cool.

Now, what should I use to effectively remove the blue paint from his forehead and face?

No clue; the one time I ever had to remove paint from anything I ended up using an old toothbrush, some water, and a lot of effort.

Hm. Guess I'll have to get a second opinion.

I'm very far from an authority on the matter, so take anything I say with a grain of salt... but I know that some of the kitbashers and repainters here don't even bother to remove existing paint, unless the project specifically calls for using the base plastic color underneath. Since it sounds like you're going to (basically) have full paint coverage, you could probably just cover over the light blue with the gray you're talking about.

Delta Ceramacoat? Is it spray applicated or can you paint it on with a brush?

Yeah you should have no problem with painting it over.

You use a brush.

It washes off of your brush with water, which is a good thing considering that you're working with urethane.

I mostly wanted to remove the blue so that if I mess up, I only have to remove one layer of paint rather than two. But if I can easily paint over the existing blue, I guess I'll just be careful and try not to mess up.

you're best off using some 70% rubbing alcohol, that does the trick. You won't need to clear coat, but it's safer to do so.

Well, seeing as he's going to be a toy and not just a display piece, clearcoat definitely sounds like a good idea.

When I did mine, I just painted over the blue.
To make the painting easier I took his head apart, and removed the light piping.
After that It was easy to do it without messing up. I used appleBarrel Country Gray acrylic .
I got it from walmart for about a dollar.
I like using acrylic's because if you mess up all you need is a few minuets and some hot soapy water.
I used testors flat black to paint his shoulders.

good luck
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That definitely works. I was planning to use silver to really make the various facial contours stand out, but that gray looks neat too. I'm already going to disassemble the head, because it will make painting infinitely easier.

well, clear coat will be tough. Do you plan to disassemble the entire shoulders, then spray them? How will you not get clear coat on the rest of the figure? How will you get the clear coat to match the rest of the figure? Satin, Gloss, Matte? These are all things to consider when using a clear coat. You won't need clear coat if painted properly with a good paint.

I'm going to disassemble the painted parts regardless, so that's no problem. I'm only painting the front shoulder piece (the one that is painted gray on the Henkei version), so that's also no problem.

Now, which clear coat would fit best? Flat would look duller than the rest of the figure, and gloss would probably look too shiny...

The clear-coat that I recommended goes on like normal acrylic paint, meaning that you apply it with a brush.

Alright, so I've gotten the clearcoating sorted out.

Now, does anyone have a good, yet affordable silver paint and dark gray paint that I should use?

When I'm doing minis, I use Testor's acrylic model paint (maybe $1 a bottle) as my first choice.

I only bother with dedicated mini paints when I need to do skin tones.

That answers one question...

But what shades of silver and gray would work best for what I'm doing?

That's up to you.

IE, if you get a paint set themed around military colors (especially military aircraft), you could get a number of grays. But it'd set you back about $10. OTOH, you could just pick a single gray that you feel best for $1. It's all a matter of what you consider to be worthwhile.

Testors makes an inexpensive 1 oz bottle of "silver" and "dark gray". most Michael's carry these paints. They are the tiny square bottles.
I stay far away from Acrylics.

I prefer to use acrylics because they tend to be far more forgiving than enamel and a lot easier to clean up.

Plus, since I cover with clearcoat I don't have to worry about anything washing away.

well even with a clear coat, the paint will only stick to the plastic the best an acrylic can stick to plastic (which isn't very good from my experiences)
Enamels can be reworked once dry, so I'd say they are the "more forgiving" of the 2.

Alright, I've got the supplies I need down. And there's already some soap to use for washing, so I just need to get the supplies (I need a brush as well) and I'm ready to start.