Good paint for use on rubber and plastic?

[Guest]

Anyone know of a good paint that is flexible and will adhere to both rubber and plastic?

I have modified a little toy RC shark which was originally all rubber skinned. As standard, the thing was sealed for life, so you had to charge the batteries in the model. I sliced the front off (scalpel) and used the front of another plastic toy shark which was the same sort of size. I have a radial o-ring seal with a machined housing, which enables me to split the shark in two just aft of the dorsal fin for easy access I have upgraded the radio and batteries as the original equipment was awful, with limited radio range and poor duration.

I'm nearly done with it now, but will need some paint to finish it off.

Any ideas?

[Guest]

Re: Good paint for use on rubber and plastic?

Hmmmm, might give this stuff a shot-

http://www.plastidip.co.uk

[steveneill]

Re: Good paint for use on rubber and plastic?

Andy this is something I've had a great deal of experience with in my makeup effects work over the years in the horrible movie business.

For rubber not plastic a 50/50 mix of Bestine rubber cement and Bestine rubber cement thinner is the best paint for rubber there is. Now that's natural latex rubber. It literally becomes part of the rubber and bonds to it. You can stretch it across the room and it won't peel or come off. It is water proof, smug proof and a lot more. It works best with an airbrush. But it can be sponged on and hand painted.

For color universal tints work perfectly. Any paint store carries the tints.

Only trouble is it won't bond to plastic and will peel off. But I figured this info might be good for the universal data base here as I haven't mentioned it before.

I made a giant sized dinosaur head for movie once that had to be submerged. It had a diver inside (me) and as much as it was used in the pool and at a lake the paint never came off and water proofed the rubber. Latex is it's other name.

Steve

[virg]

Re: Good paint for use on rubber and plastic?

Hi Andy,

As far as plastic is concerned, you might want to give "vinyl" paint a try. I used it on lexan and it was great!

Virg

[Guest]

Re: Good paint for use on rubber and plastic?

Thanks for the tips. I have no idea waht the rubber is. I'm pretty sure it isn't latex, natural or silicone based rubber. I've got a sneaking feeling it's a urethane rubber.

I have some spare pieces of the rubber from the discarded front end of the shark, so I can practice on those bits.

[bill harris]

Re: Good paint for use on rubber and plastic?

Years ago, Marhyde (Mar-Hyde) Vinyl paint was the standard for use on auto upholstery. Take a look at it-- it was to be used on flexible plastic seat coverings, and could not peel off or rub off. Whilst Googling marhyde, I noticed entries for paints and primers for automobile urethane bumpers. Another thing to look at, since paint must adhere well to urethane bumpers.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&sour ... g-s6g1g-s3

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe ... =g-s1g-sx1


Good luck!

--Bill