painting the airsoft captain america sheild

kenobibale

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RPF PREMIUM MEMBER
hey everyone,
i recently received my airsoft captain america shield, very nice shield by the way. and i was planning on painting it using rub n buff, but i have read that the ruby colour which is as close to red as i can get is more of a copper colour. does anyone have any experience with it? or rub n buff in general? would spraying a red undercoat help make the rub n buff come out a more true red colour or should i just use ordinary paints?
i am going for the movie look so the ordinary silver rub n buff will be fine for the raw aluminum look i just need something for the red and blue sections

progress photos to follow once i get started
 
Most everyone it seems (including myself, once I get mine started) uses the Duplicolor Anodized Metalcast spray paint. The red and blue are pretty spot on
 
yeah i was looking at them, they look pretty nice. might have to invest in them. might still use the rub n buff on the silver circle and star. on the duplicolor web site them recommend a lot of prep for spraying plastics but that seems to mostly be for car parts. would simply priming the plastic be enough for the shield?
can you spray over rub n buff?
 
so i have spent the last few days working on my shield. first thing i did was remove the straps and take some rough sandpaper and rub it over the entire shield in a circle, like spun aluminum. this wasn't to give the spun look but more to give the primer something to stick to.
after the first coat of primer i took some 400 wet/dry and sanded it smooth. then i put on a second coat of primer and finally sanded it down with 600 wet/dry till it was smooth. then i cleaned it and started to apply my rub n buff.

i wasn't sure how i was gonna paint this thing, i had seen such great results on the metal shields using duplicolor metalcast paints, but seeing as i couldn't find a supplier in the uk i settled on vht anodized paints, basically the same thing, gives that anodized look.

as for the rub n buff, i had seen it being used on jango armour and thought it looked cool and was always looking a project to use it on and the cap shield seemed fitting.

my plan now is to mask off the center metal ring and the star then spray the rest of the shield with a clear primer and mask off some battle damage then lay down my red and blue coats.

i am tempted to try and add the spun lines but ill see how it goes. not sure whether ill lay down a clear topcoat on the red and blue yet or not, seeing as im not worried about the paint chipping off seeing as im going for the battle damaged look

any way ill finish up the painting next week, gonna let the rub n buffed shield sit for a while so the rub n buff sets.

all in all it was very easy to use, i got a silver hand but that was from rubbing it in, and i rubbed as hard as i could and almost immediately it started to look like real metal and very little came off onto my clean hand.

it should look awesome once its buffed, who knows might look good enough to just have a raw vibranium shield

here is some progress pics, expect more next week sometime


 
ok so status update on the shield.
this last week i let the rub n buff set and did alot more buffing to shine it up and to remove any remaining excess.
i decided to try using the toothpaste method of masking off my battle damage areas, i smeared it on creating several bullet hits and some score lines, as close to the movie shield as i could.
after i did that i spryed plasticoat clear primer over the areas to be painted red and blue after having masked off the center silver ring and star.

once the primer was dry i masked off the whole shield and started spraying the blue center circle. i am using vht anodizing colour paints.

i did a few misting coats before laying down a wet coat. not too much, the more paint the darker it gets and you loose the silver undercoat effect.

after i let that sit over night i took the shield out to see how it went.
well not to well it seems.

the toothpaste idea thing didnt really work, maybe i used to much or something but it had created nasty streaks were it must have ran, could have been caused by the cold weather out in the garage. also it ate right through the rub n buff and in some places right through the primer down to the bare tan coloured plastic. this could have been caused my the baking soda in this particular brand of toothpaste.

so i decided i would try and spray the red anyway so i masked off the blue circle and then decided that the toothpaste i had on the red areas prob ate through the rub n buff there too and indeed they did.

so i decided the best thing to do would be to start over and forget about weathering, it looked fake anyway, and i got better results scratching the blue paint off with my thumb nail.

when i removed the masking of the blue circle it lifted an awful lot of the paint off with it, it was rather worrying.


i cant figure out what happened,
was it that i didnt let the paint dry long enough? i left it over night
was it the primer i used? it was plasticoat clear primer for plastics
or is it simply that the primer and paint wouldnt stick to the rub n buff?

can you spray paint over rub n buff without a primer?

and will i need a clear coat over the red and blue?

i dont have much experience with spray paints and im worried about ruining this whole project, its so frustrating having to sand it down, prime, and wet sand all over again.in the mean time here is a pic of the shield i took once i had finished applying the rub n buff



Uploaded with ImageShack.us
 
Hey all, noobie here. So basically I signed up on this forum for help with this exact project. I think your technique sounds pretty cool. I'm wondering how it turned out with the rub n buff? Any difficulties you'd warn against? Love to see some updated pics. Thanks!
 
sorry for late updates and replies. i kinda forgot about this thread.
Solochaser yeah it is very durable or it seems to be. it has a bit of flex but that is just the nature of the plastic. helps with shock absorption i imagine.

@Boobiebear sorry i took so long. i think the rub n buff is successful but i found that i couldn't paint over. when i did it looked great but the paint peeled away and took the rub n buff with it. this could be because the rub n buff hadn't fully set. it takes a few weeks i find before it stops rubbing silver onto your hand so maybe that was it. i had an idea to mix metallic powder into the rub n buff in red and blue colour and then you could apply proper red rub n buff or blue rub n buff and hopefully it would give the same effect as the silver. but i haven't tried it yet.

i ended up just re-priming the shield and laying down a metallic layer of spray paint then masked everything off and applied the red and blue paint. then i applied the rub n buff last on the silver parts trying not to get any on the red or blue areas. i think it looks ok. not 100% what i wanted so maybe its time to try making my own coloured rub n buff

here are some pics
IMG_20120224_190554.jpg
IMG_20120224_190601.jpg
IMG_20120224_190611.jpg

my personal favourite
IMG_20120225_104153.jpg

really shows how the rub n buff can looks
 
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Hey kenobibale, no worries on the late response. I wound up attempting a rub n buff base SEVERAL times and although I got a nice luster finish with LOTS of buffing (and I stress lots), it was the red and blue paint application that was a problem. Eventually I wound up using Duplicolor aluminum engine enamel and the red n blue Metalcasts over that. Looks pretty good just not quite as much luster as I'd like. I also have to get around to clear coating it someday soon.
Anyway, your shield looks great and thanks for the pointers!
 
yeah i went though that myself. wound up taking off the rub n buff, used a metallic base then "VHT" metalcasts for the red and blue, same thing as the duplicolour just the only brand i could find in the uk. couldnt get the duplicolour for some reason. i was thinking if you clear coat just the red and blue then you could polish it and still have the rub n buff? think clear coating rub n buff defeats the purpose. i am ordering some metallic and iridescent powder tints for my man of steel project, might finally try the coloured rub n buff thing and see if it works, that would solve the lack of luster problem. you have to admit when the light hits it just right it really sells the look of it.
 
so sorry to resurrect my old thread but i am in the process of redoing my shield for my cap costume this halloween and i can't decide what finish to do. originally i did the shield in rub n buff but the paint didnt take to well to it. so i used chrome spray paint under the red and blue and rub n buff on the silver parts and it went ok. i decided a few months ago to try some other rub n buff colours. more specially the ruby and sapphire. i applied them simply over the red and blue paint just to see, the results were ok i guess




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so then the idea occured to me to use car wrap as a finish on the shield. now there are some great car wraps available especially in america but getting hold of them in the uk is near impossible without buying a whole roll at an insane price so i had to settle for some less than ideal choices. there are some great options in way of brushed finishes but the only red i could get was a chrome finish which to me looks a bit like some sort of christmas gift wrapping paper but in pictures it looks ok. so i got some samples in chrome red brushed, silver chrome brushed, silver brushed and blue brushed. the blue is very dark and i might have found a better one. the red like i said is very glossy but might work, and my friends think i should go with the silver brushed and do the star in separate pieces so each segment of the star has the brush running straight across it and catch the light better at different angles. i think the car wrap is a viable and quick and cheap method for anyone with a plastic shield. the only thing about going for a brushed wrap is you would have to apply it in once solid ring for the bands so the brushed effect would run straight across the shield a opposed to the concentric circles brush effect on the metal shields.
i also revisited the vht paints over the rub n buff. i think last time i did it i layed it on too think and maybe the rub n buff hadn't set right and lifted with my masking tape. i think it is looking ok this time. the test areas literally took me all of 2 minutes to do. so they could be done better and i have also had a sealer for rub n buff recommended by the people at rub n buff which means i can clear coat the shield and shine it up to help with the shine of the painted areas.
in the pics below are the wrap samples on the red bands, the middle silver band with the chrome wrap. and 2 points of the star in the plain brushed and a section of blue in brushed. and the new painted sections. i hit both the silver band and the red band with some paint to see if the effect was better over the silver or ruby rub n buff.
P8140004.JPGP8140005.JPGP8140006.JPGP8140007.JPGP8140008.JPGP8140009.JPG
any thoughts? i have a source for a metal shield now so this will simply be a stunt shield for taking out on halloween. so which finish do you think i should go with?
 
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