Help with painting costume

[Grenge]

Just wondering if anyone has had experience with this sort of thing. I need a bit of help with painting some Dr Horrible style goggles. The soft plastic of the goggles needs to be painted silver, but i'm wondering if regular spray paint will be a problem on the soft plastic, if it might crack or rub off.

Also I know the official Dr Horrible store sells the T-shirts, but does anyone know if there is anywhere in Australia that sells the Dr Horrible Groupie shirts?

Thanks

[Caribou]

Grenge,

Spray paint might melt the soft plastic.

Often acrylic paint will work, but I would try a sample section and see how it goes first. You could try plastic mod paint for those lovely warhammer, et all game pc's.

Hope this helps,
Caribou

PS if not, message me and I will look into other ideas for you.

[Baralier]

It really depends on the paint. I'm making a costume piece at the moment where I need to spray foam rubber and thankfully the test has been successful.

You can buy paint that is flexible (designed for painting over rubber) but it can be hard to track down. Try Hearn's Hobbies or the Victorian Hobby Centre. Maybe even a Bunnings. I know they get some very weird requests for projects there :-)

[SuperWannabe]

For help on costumes try the following sites


http://theleagueofheroes.yuku.com/

http://thesuperherocostumingforum.yuku.com/

[Darth Salem]

I've seen at the Church Of Bunnings spray paint that is a primer for soft plastics, some for harder plastics. I can say that I've tested it on the NERF gun I am currently working on. Unfortunatly it was about $20 a spray can. 2 or 3 very thin coats worked for me.

Just make sure you get the plastic primer and not the metal primer, not that the metal primer will melt the plastic, it just gives a bit of a stucco finish.

Post some shots when you're done, would be most interested to have a look.

[Grenge]

I had a busy week so I wasn't able to look around, but hopefully I will be able to look around town this weekend and if I can't find anything here, I will be working in Canberra for the day on monday, just across the road from Bunnings.

I'll have to remember to take a photo before I do it as well. Unfortunately the old style that were exactly like Dr Horribles are no longer available. These are almost the same but they are a bit square on top, where the originals were rounded.

[Grenge]

I had a look at Bunnings yesterday and they didn't have the soft plastic primer there, although the guy there did suggest using ESP (surface preperation liquid) then painting with an acrylic paint. I think I have some in the garage, I might have to read the instructions and try it on a non-visible section.

[Darth Salem]

I had a look at Bunnings yesterday and they didn't have the soft plastic primer there, although the guy there did suggest using ESP (surface preperation liquid) then painting with an acrylic paint. I think I have some in the garage, I might have to read the instructions and try it on a non-visible section.

How did the ESP work out? I'm interested as I'm making some WonderWoman boots for my daughter to goto Fed Square on Sunday (The DC Hero Day) and painting on soft red plastic gumboots is... interesting... yes that's the word I'm looking for....

[Grenge]

How did the ESP work out? I'm interested as I'm making some WonderWoman boots for my daughter .....

Are you sure they are for your daughter???

I only got around to trying it out a few days ago. It seemed to paint on OK, but I don't know if it is the crappy paint I got or the ESP isn't working, but I just checked it and the paint is just rubbing straight off.
I might try again with some regular spray paint instead.

[Darth Salem]

Hey Grenge, I found when I was using some craft paints (especially the metal/glitter) varieties, they would rub off no matter what basecoat I used, so now I use a clear or gloss finish after each layer of "rubbable paint" just to hold it in place, it works fine on the nerf guns and helps to build up a nice thick coat. Which I admit might not be the look you are going for, but perhaps a couple of really light spray coats of something clear might help.

[Grenge]

I attempted to give the goggles a paint job recently, and stuffed up. I thought I was buying acryllic paint, but it was enamel. The paint dried on some parts of it but after 3 weeks all the paint was wet again. I cleaned it off and going to try again.
I did actually find some plastic primer at Supercheap Auto. I have applied the primer and giving it time to dry, then see how the other paint goes on that.

I'm actually going to do the full Dr Horrible costume for a party in november. I have also found a good pattern for the lab coat online at The Barefoot Seamstress. It was $18 US for the download version. I will probably try sewing this on the weekend, with a little help from my wife (ie: my wife does the sewing and I stand there and try it on.
I was able to get some white boots cheap through work (love the employee discount on safety gear ) and I got some long gardening gloves that are almost identical to Dr Horribles. Also just a cheap toy gun for my Freeze Ray.

I'll post photos when I get it done.

[Grenge]

I think the painting may have finally worked.
I painted it with the plastic primer and gave it about 3 coats so that the plastic would be seperated from the final coat. Then I let it dry for 24 hours and then put the silver on it. It has been drying for about 2 hours now and seems to have taken well.

I thought about a few little extras I could add to the costume for laughs.
A set of keys on an Australia keyring, for the "..keys to a shiny new Australia"
A letter from Bad Horse
A zip lock bag with gold liquid, that smells like cumin.

After I told my wife about these, sh called me a "tool"