Does acrylic work on sintra ?

[dragonslayro]

Hello , im making my first armored cosplay , which is going to be gundam sandrock endless waltz version which if you seem him has a strange purple to him , and a buddy of mine suggested to use sintra and tamiya putty for the major things , and the cost is racking up , and im just making the helmet , does acrylic work on sintra i have so much acrylic paint and I dont I would be able to get a large amount rustoleum and such in order to paint , yes I would love to make it look cool and awesome but I am wondering if this cheap alternative will work just as great as more expensive paint products

 

[FuzzyDrawings]

Acrylic will certainly work. You'll still want to apply a layer of primer (spray paint for plastic is fine).

 

[dragonslayro]

What type of primer should I use ? If there is any recommend brands or types

 

[Kenneth Creates]

I tend to stick to Krylon. You can get it at most hardware stores.

 

[Collektor]

Pretty much any kind of paint works well on Sintra in my experience. I use it mostly for weapon props, but I find as a base primer any kind of Krylon Fusion paint works well to give a good primer base. After that I've hit it with everything from tube acrylics to Vallejo Game Air paint and its taken it all very well. Like anything though you'll want to do your surface prep prior to laying down the primer. The raw Sintra I worked with had a slight texture to it, but that went away with some light sanding. This prop blaster is 100% Sintra with the only part being resin casted is the trigger. After sanding I primed it with Krylon Fusion black then went back over it with Golden acrylic airbrush paint that was labeled as Carbon Black.

 

[mdb]

By acrylic what do you mean?

Artists/Students acrylic come sin tubes, smells a bit like ammonia and is water thinable but dries into a thin flexible plastic.

Acrylic ink uses the same sort of pigments and binders but are in an alcohol solution- can be thinned with water best to stick with alcohol.

Spray acrylic has solvents and has a much less pungent odor than spray enamels.

All will work to one degree or other but I found the cut/sanded areas can absorb alcohol and water and so expand and look punky with the tube and ink stuff. ANd they beaded on the pretreated surfaces.

So prepping the surface is key. Also sintra is a specific brand but applied to all expanded foam PVC. But the process differs slightly from one brand to another and sometimes that baked surface is easy to scuff for priming sometimes it can be tough and sometimes you can cut through to the very foamy centre.

So get some scraps and see how much prepping your specific piece needs I defer to others who have solved the absorbing issue. I live in a a very humid climate so it's a constant issue so to resolve it I think will require working very fast to sand and seal the edges with something that will hold the paint to the same degree.