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BigGinge

Best paint for silvered plastics

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It’s a bit late for today but what to people normally recommend as the best paint to cover the silvered plastics that you get in some of the Tamiya body kits?

The reason I ask is that I’ve been trying to paint the black sections of a Lancia Delta grill today and all I had to hand was some PS-5 (with some clear acrylic top coat to get a nicer finish). This doesn’t seem to have covered all that well (it needed a lot of coats) or to be particularly well bonded to the plastic as some chunks came away with the masking tape. It also looks a bit like some of the paint solvents may have had an effect on the chrome finish under the masking tape. 

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Should I have just gone with the X-18 recommended in the build instructions or is there something else that works well for this?

 

 

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Chrome plated plastic you mean? Nothing sticks particularly well to it but a few suggestion that may work better are Tamiya own acrylic X-18 as instructed or Vallejo (or Mig or any other "real" acrylic). Is that a static model? 1/24? What some of us static modellers do is strip all the chrome off and start again. Chrome paint sticks and allow other paint to stick better than chrome plating.

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31 minutes ago, alvinlwh said:

Is that a static model? 1/24?

It’s the front moulding from a 1/10, lexan,  lancia delta body for an XV01 build. Doesn’t really matter if this one isn’t perfect as it’s going to be a runner and will probably end up in the hands of an enthusiastic 7 year old but it would be nice to do better next time  

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You can also strip the chrome plating off and just work with the bare plastic if you'd prefer. Castrol Super Clean at full strength usually removes it, as does a trip through the dishwasher.

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1 hour ago, markbt73 said:

Castrol Super Clean

Just bleach will strip it too.

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