Painting armor

[tk4013]

Well I'm trying to paint some vintage Rawlings football pads for my Wez costume and nothing I've used sticks very well. I've tried Krylon Fusion for plastic, Special paint for vinyl, Plain old Rustoleum, Rustoleum Professional, and nothing passes the "scratch" test. I've even sanded the armor for better adheision.
Is this normal for the paint to NOT want to stick to this type of plastic and I just need to be careful when I wear it, or is there a better paint out there I'm not aware of. Thanks for any imput

[MFP 2020]

Yes.

I assume you read Karol's tutorial? (http://www.madmaxcostumes.com) I tried roughing mine up with sandpaper (didn't help much; didn't like that the scratches showed). I tried priming it first. I tried Krylon's special paint for plastic furniture. I had the best results with several layers of Rustoleum Painter's Touch 2x Ultra Cover flat black. Let it dry a long time before you mess with it. My pads held up surprisingly well for Road Warrior Weekend; I didn't need to touch them up at all. But then, I tried not to "scratch test" them after I realized that there was no perfect solution.

If you've never noticed, in MM2, right after Max meets Gyro, Max's shoulder pad is facing the camera and there's a big white gouge in it. A few seconds later it's been "fixed." So I'm sure they had lots of spray paint on set.

As Karol mentions, the vinyl parts tend to stay sticky; I dusted mine with baby powder. (I also lightly misted them with khaki for simulated dust--not that I didn't get plenty of real dust out in the desert.)

pads.jpg (237.52 KiB) Viewed 2240 times

[Max Replica]

Yes, they definitely were doing some constant touchups to Mel's pads during the movie. There are several scenes where bits of white were visible.
And yes, a light sanding will help but you need to be careful to use a fine grade of sandpaper or you will see the scratches.

For the vinyl I use Meltonian brand spray paint (in flat black) that is specially made for vinyl and leather. It works great. It dries about as quick as any normal spray paint and does not leave the vinyl sticky/tacky. I also used it for the entire underpadding, not just the vinyl piece.
I got it at a special shoe repair supply warehouse here in Los Angeles. I think you can also find it online.

For the plate I had the most success using Duplicolor brand flat black auto primer from the autoparts store. A few light coats of that seem to stick very well.

[Road Pig]

i use matt black engine laquer, paint not spray, the stuff is thick and doesnt come off

[tk4013]

Thanks everyone for the imput. That's one good thing about jwrites resin plates, the paint sticks good to those.
I guess I'll have to keep a can of paint handy Thanks again fellas.

[MFP 2020]

Imput. "Are you German?"

(Bonus points if you can name the movie.)

[Karol]

Ya, like my tutorial says, I have been using Rustoleum Painter's Touch Multi-purpose Paint, Matte Clear. I just cover the vinyl areas in a generous layer of that stuff and it's usually dry within 5 minutes. I then spray any brand of flat black on that and it's fine.
http://www.madmaxcostumes.com/images/tu ... eclear.jpg
Of course, I bought my can over 10 years ago so I can't vouch for the current product's chemical makeup.
I'm sure jwrites is correct about Meltonian - but not sure how hard it is to find for you.

Roadpig: interesting about the engine paint - thanks for the tip!

[Max Replica]

i use matt black engine laquer, paint not spray, the stuff is thick and doesnt come off

How thick is the paint? I would worry that thick brushed on paint would cover up too much of the fine detail when it comes to the Rawlings pads (and maybe even show brush strokes?). I would worry that they might no longer look like the ones seen onscreen (which look to be done with spray paint - they really look like Rawlings manufactured some black football pads, as opposed to white ones that were painted black after market). However, if that's not an issue then this could be a product worth trying. And it certainly is a viable solution for anything original that doesn't need to be screen accurate.

[tk4013]

The Rustoelum Professional isn't half bad, and if you sand the armor with some fine sandpaper it adheres even better. I would recommend using the "gloss", for some reason it works better and then finish it off with some flat paint of any brand later.

BTW "input"/ imput whatever LOL, the keys are right next to each other