Tip for Painting Vintage Cases?

forter4

03 Jun 2020, 19:22

Before I get flamed to death, just let me explain lol

I like to hoard parts in case I break something (which I tend to do), and I have a few extra cases lying around that are in pretty bad condition where retrobriting might not do the trick.

I'd like to keep the overall vintage look so I plan to paint them off-white.

My questions are, are there things I should take into account when painting a vintage case? You can't really sand these down because you'll mess with the texture. Is there a particular type of paint or brand that works best?

Findecanor

03 Jun 2020, 19:35

If the paint contains some solvent that isn't oil (such as enamel) or just water, then it should adhere to ABS just fine. Just clean and dry it well beforehand, and don't paint too thick layers. You will lose some texture.

If there are any printed logos or other sharp colour artefacts (such as repairs) then you might need primer to give it an even base colour. Otherwise not. Primer smoothens the texture worse.

Finding the right hue of paint might not be that easy though.

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kralcifer

03 Jun 2020, 22:20

Post pics of how it turns out. I plan to do diy cerakote very soon. Have most of the parts. Hope there is no flaming involved. Yellowed cases need a new life somehow.

forter4

04 Jun 2020, 18:24

Findecanor wrote:
03 Jun 2020, 19:35
If the paint contains some solvent that isn't oil (such as enamel) or just water, then it should adhere to ABS just fine. Just clean and dry it well beforehand, and don't paint too thick layers. You will lose some texture.

If there are any printed logos or other sharp colour artefacts (such as repairs) then you might need primer to give it an even base colour. Otherwise not. Primer smoothens the texture worse.

Finding the right hue of paint might not be that easy though.
Nice, thanks so much! I was going to use primer so I appreciate you calling that out

I'll be sure to post pics when I start the projects

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