Question on painting plastic buildings.

[Robertj668]

Hi everyone.
As you may know I finished my first wood laser kit several weeks ago and  I recently started making my second wood kit just a few day ago. I am at the window part on that one. 22 windows take a while. So while I was waiting for all of the windows parts to dry I decided to open up the "Lifelike" little church.
I am gong to paint it the color of the little church my wife and I got married in.  A 1928 Sear and Robuck Catalog Church. The walls need to be brown with the windows being white and a multi gray roof.

Now here finally comes the question. Well  being in the evening hours the Hobbies shops are closed.  I looked at my paints, these are the sample paints that can be bought at Lowes or Home Depot and thought why not try them out. I have all of the colors I need here. The paints are latex eggshell interior. I looked everywhere and cannot find if the paints can or cannot be used on plastic. 

Well I tried an exterior wall and a window. Well two coats later they look great. I do see a few imperfections but they look like they belong there. I do not think I will do this with all of the models but this model was only $4.99 and said what they hey, lets give it a try.

I would love some feedback.  Thank you in advance.

Robert

[pdlethbridge]

Model paints are designed  to be scale. That is, the color dyes are finer, much finer, than you'd find in a house paint. For a test, compare paint chip thicknesses.

[CNE Runner]

More years ago than I care to remember, I decided to paint a plastic kit (the Revell Mainline Station) with some house paint we had around. The results were disastrous! Since then I have not used house paints on anything other than for what they are designed. I'm glad your project turned out successful. Take PB's comments very seriously...he knows of what he speaks.

Ray

[Jim Banner]

House paints require thicker coats for colour coverage than do model paints.  The thicker coats tend to obscure fine details in small scales even though they work just fine in large scale.  Craft Acrylics use a finer grind of more opaque pigments and like acrylic model paints, shrink when drying.  I like these for some things in 0-scale and some scenery applications in H0.  The thinest coats that least obscure details require lacquers which seem to be falling into disfavour due to the health hazards.

Having said that, there are times even in the small scales when you want a thick coat.  House paint can be stippled when it is drying to give a stucco-like finish.  If applied to a wooden structure, it can be used to fill the grain.  When sanded to a fine finish, it can resemble a steel surface because of its LACK of detail.  On roofs, it can be brushed as it dries to form the heavy grain of cedar shakes.  For tar and gravel roofs, a thick coat of black latex with fine sand added immediately works quite well.  This usually requires working a small area at a time, keeping a wet edge on the paint.  And sometimes the details on a kit are over size and need to be obscured a bit.  Latex to the rescue.

The original question was whether or not latex paint can be used on plastic models.  The answer is YES.  Deffinitely.  I have plastic kits painted with latex over 40 years ago and the paints are still in pristine condition.  The only preparation I did was wash the buildings with water and a bit of liquid detergent to remove the mold release and finger print oil. 

Bottom line, no one kind of paint does it all.  House paints, including Latex, Acrylic and Alkyd all have their places along side model and craft paints and lacquers in your colouring arsenal.

Jim 

[Robertj668]

I am glad I asked the question.  I think complete the church with these paints but I rather in the future use the model paints.  I will post the final project when complete.
Robert

[BradKT]

As a general proposition, I agree with those who say to use model paints.  However, I have used interior latex paint on plastic buildings and models with an airbrush and achieved very good results.  If you are using an airbrush, all you have to do is to thin the paint.  You can use the thinning fluid for acrylic paint offered by anyone who sells acrylic model paints.  You can even use water.  I have done both.  You just have to thin the paint a little more than you ordinarily would if you were using model paints that are specifically designed to be used on plastics and wood models.

I had no problem at all.  Just don't thin the paint too much.  It works very well with flat colors.  I don't know how well it would work with glossy colors, but you would probably be using flat colors on buildings anyway.  The advantage, of course, is that you would have a much wider variety of choices of colors that you could use.

[GlennW]

Now here finally comes the question. Well  being in the evening hours the Hobbies shops are closed.  I looked at my paints, these are the sample paints that can be bought at Lowes or Home Depot and thought why not try them out. I have all of the colors I need here. The paints are latex eggshell interior. I looked everywhere and cannot find if the paints can or cannot be used on plastic. 

Well I tried an exterior wall and a window. Well two coats later they look great. I do see a few imperfections but they look like they belong there. I do not think I will do this with all of the models but this model was only $4.99 and said what they hey, lets give it a try.

I would love some feedback.  Thank you in advance.

Robert

You may have been lucky with the house paint. Very quickly you would know if the paint would attack the plastic.

Model paints are made a little different to fit our models. You don't want the fine details to hide under a coat of paint.  Some posters may be confuses with the type of paint you used. It would be funny to go to HD, Sears, etc & use their sample paint. Hope the price compares to $1.50-$3.50 Testors paint.

A few guys use housepaint to cover bare plaster & plywood . Lucky to find some CHEAP paint to use. Unless you are into custom painting to use a quart to cover a bunch of buildings & sell them on feebay.



[/quote]

[CNE Runner]

To expand the topic a little to include spray paints:
    I use 'off-the-shelf' spray paints on plastic and foamcore structures. The various flat primers make a brick wall look great (this is followed up with some mortar washes and random bricks overpainted with markers). Before gluing a foamcore building together, I paint the inside of the structure with flat black spray paint (the cheaper - the better). The outside (and edges) are usually spray painted in a complimentary color. For example: If the structure is to be covered with a paper laminate - depicting well weathered wood - I would go for a tan or light brown. Should I be laminating with a brick paper; go for either black or dark red...you get the idea.

My comments, in a previous post, are based on my one (and only) foray into house paints and plastic kits. Perhaps it is time for me to revisit this concept?

Ray