Need help with painting faux leather

[DarthVeach]

Working on a Macho Man Randy Savage costume and I was hoping someone could give me a little advice on painting faux leather. A lot of the materials they use now for jackets are very convincing as a leather substitute and would be a lot cheaper for costume use for me. Just wondering if leather paints or even acrylic / fabric paints would work. It is for costuming and not going to be subject to any harsh elements if that helps, LOL! Just want to make sure it is fairly durable. Thanks!!

 

[Klybern]

I had to paint a pair of faux leather gloves for a riddler costume I had made and I found success with regular old krylon spray paint and clear coat sealer. I would post a picture but my phone is not cooperating.

 

[DizzyStrmtroopr]

angelus leather paint works wonders on stormtrooper boots and it pretty much never comes off. for weathered looks, ive used enamel spray paint and it cracks off naturally at toe bends on vinyl boots if anyone is going that route. be sure to dull the finish with rubbing alcohol or something so the paint sticks in either application.

 

[robstyle]

Regular old dollar craft paint will do it. I painted the back of my jacket back in the mid 80's and its still there. Underneath that fabric backing the leather has a painted skull that was painted over with black and even thats still there.

This would have been around 1985/86 where the above image was from last year to show it indeed holds up and ill tell you, that jacket went through hell.

 

[DarthVeach]

angelus leather paint works wonders on stormtrooper boots and it pretty much never comes off. for weathered looks, ive used enamel spray paint and it cracks off naturally at toe bends on vinyl boots if anyone is going that route. be sure to dull the finish with rubbing alcohol or something so the paint sticks in either application.

And those are vinyl, right?

I have never had trouble painting real leather, I just worry about vinyl and imitation leathers

 

[DizzyStrmtroopr]

the cheap ones from fantasma are, those are the "costume boots" you find on ebay, but the legit Chelsea style ones are usualy faux leather. the paint works on anything

 

[Nzfly]

+1 on Angelus. It will work on leather, plastic, vinyl, polyurethane, canvas, you name it (within reason). It is acrylic, and it is waterproof even without a finish treatment. It is a wonderful paint. Depending on the material, you might consider a test patch. Put some acetone or fingernail polish remover on a cotton ball and swab the surface several times to remove any existing finish and promote adhesion between the material and the Angelus. Think lots and lots of cotton balls to ensure you are removing the surface layer, not re-spreading any preexisting surface finish. Only other suggestion would be to apply lots of very very very thin coats of paint allowing them to fully dry in between applications. This will keep it from cracking and just generally looking like amateur hour.

 

[Sakura1618]

+1 on Angelus. It will work on leather, plastic, vinyl, polyurethane, canvas, you name it (within reason). It is acrylic, and it is waterproof even without a finish treatment. It is a wonderful paint. Depending on the material, you might consider a test patch. Put some acetone or fingernail polish remover on a cotton ball and swab the surface several times to remove any existing finish and promote adhesion between the material and the Angelus. Think lots and lots of cotton balls to ensure you are removing the surface layer, not re-spreading any preexisting surface finish. Only other suggestion would be to apply lots of very very very thin coats of paint allowing them to fully dry in between applications. This will keep it from cracking and just generally looking like amateur hour.

Angelus also recommend using sandpaper as part of the prep if your surface has a shiny finish.

 

[nathancarter]

Heard good things about Angelus but have never used it personally.

Another option is Meltonian Nu-Life color spray, which is intended for shoes and boots. We used their Gold on these boots which were originally matte black leather. Two light coats is all it took, no cracking or flaking, and they were not sticky even after only about 20 minutes of dry time. It does scuff off a little bit, so they need a very light touchup after a day of con or a night of fighting crime.

MegaCon_20160527_1396.jpg by Nathan Carter, on Flickr

 

[mdb]

+1 on Angelus. It will work on leather, plastic, vinyl, polyurethane, canvas, you name it (within reason). It is acrylic, and it is waterproof even without a finish treatment. It is a wonderful paint. Depending on the material, you might consider a test patch. Put some acetone or fingernail polish remover on a cotton ball and swab the surface several times to remove any existing finish and promote adhesion between the material and the Angelus. Think lots and lots of cotton balls to ensure you are removing the surface layer, not re-spreading any preexisting surface finish. Only other suggestion would be to apply lots of very very very thin coats of paint allowing them to fully dry in between applications. This will keep it from cracking and just generally looking like amateur hour.

Just bolded the most important part to anyone skimming- look to make sure you are using an acrylic based paint. It is essentially a fairly flexible plastic so moves with the surface of the plastic of PVC or PU and even leather. I have no idea if I can get Angelus in New Zealand but I sure can look at the contents list for acrylic!

In fact one of the Fiebings "dyes" is acrylic based (white, so really a pigmented product).

I use rattle can acrylic for painting boots, even occasionally just a craft paint wash on a very soft matte PU coated fabric will work. Do not use an enamel rattle can, it chemically bonds to the coating in a very bad yay, so it essentially dissolves it. It's not just the solvent either. So acrylic. Usually the solvents used with it will not interact with any plastic so I tend to use them on all my plastics.

Not all products marketed for shoes are good. The Wapro brand of shoe paint is pretty terrible. It cracks and splits. I ruined a pair of fabulous boots with it when I should have just gone with what I knew about paint.