Nerf dye experiment
So someone on the Brass Goggles forum mentioned that fabric dyes could be used to dye plastic. Someone else remarked that it would be interesting to do on Nerf guns. I decided to try it. A black base coat is used for most paintjobs, but the paint often gets worn off at the corners. Dye wouldn't wear off, and a quick drybrushing or rub and buff could be used for all kinds of metal effects.
I went for black Dylon Multi-purpose dye, because it is suitable for synthetic fabrics as well. The gun is a Maverick.
The first downside I noticed was that basically, everything has to come apart much further than with a regular paintjob. For instance, the turret consists of several parts which are screwed together.
Since this was mostly an experiment, and I didn't have a pot I was willing to sacrifice big enough to hold the larger parts of the shell, I just put in the visible bits which would fit. The big blue main shell will have to stay blue for a bit longer.
The liquid needs to stay at a pretty high temperature (around 90 degrees Celsius) for 20 minutes. While stirring, I noticed something worrying: The complex turret parts were getting warped out of shape. I'm guessing the heat caused the plastic to expand, causing the part to push against itself. To be safe I'll let the pieces sit in the dye bath until they've cooled by themselves, rather than risk having everything set in their warped shape by cooling it too rapidly.
The colour doesn't seem to have taken as well as I'd hoped for. Instead of black, the yellow parts have turned an olive green. Not unattractive, but not what I was going for either, since I'd still need to paint it to get a black base coat. The originally metallic gray parts look better though. The cocking slide got a quick sandpapering to take off the Nerf logo and warning print before I dunked it into the dye, but most of the factory original paint was still on. The paint seems to have dyed just as well as the plastic.
Edit: After letting the dye bath cool and cleaning the parts, I'm afraid I've got some disappointing news. The two main turret parts and the two halves of the slide no longer fit together. The smaller, more compact pieces seem to have come through quite well. The colour is not spectacular: yellow became dark olive green, orange became purplish, silvery gray became dark blue. In poor light the colours might pass for black, but not in daylight. Maybe a higher concentration of dye would work better, but it would also need to work at a lower temperature. 90 degrees is too hot for Nerf gun plastics.
I went for black Dylon Multi-purpose dye, because it is suitable for synthetic fabrics as well. The gun is a Maverick.
The first downside I noticed was that basically, everything has to come apart much further than with a regular paintjob. For instance, the turret consists of several parts which are screwed together.
Since this was mostly an experiment, and I didn't have a pot I was willing to sacrifice big enough to hold the larger parts of the shell, I just put in the visible bits which would fit. The big blue main shell will have to stay blue for a bit longer.
The liquid needs to stay at a pretty high temperature (around 90 degrees Celsius) for 20 minutes. While stirring, I noticed something worrying: The complex turret parts were getting warped out of shape. I'm guessing the heat caused the plastic to expand, causing the part to push against itself. To be safe I'll let the pieces sit in the dye bath until they've cooled by themselves, rather than risk having everything set in their warped shape by cooling it too rapidly.
The colour doesn't seem to have taken as well as I'd hoped for. Instead of black, the yellow parts have turned an olive green. Not unattractive, but not what I was going for either, since I'd still need to paint it to get a black base coat. The originally metallic gray parts look better though. The cocking slide got a quick sandpapering to take off the Nerf logo and warning print before I dunked it into the dye, but most of the factory original paint was still on. The paint seems to have dyed just as well as the plastic.
Edit: After letting the dye bath cool and cleaning the parts, I'm afraid I've got some disappointing news. The two main turret parts and the two halves of the slide no longer fit together. The smaller, more compact pieces seem to have come through quite well. The colour is not spectacular: yellow became dark olive green, orange became purplish, silvery gray became dark blue. In poor light the colours might pass for black, but not in daylight. Maybe a higher concentration of dye would work better, but it would also need to work at a lower temperature. 90 degrees is too hot for Nerf gun plastics.