Hello everybody, I'm currently thinking about the design for my new V-Moda Headphones. I would like to have Shields with my Design 3D in gold. Well, unfortunately I can't afford to order the Steel-Version in Gold. I will have to go with the Fiber Shield and paint them myself. Do you guyes have any experience with that and can give me some advice?
I saw that Bentox painted some 3D-Shields himself. They look stunning!
And they've held up over time too - no chipping or anything, so I'm super happy about that; still use 'em every day!
I'm sure there are a bunch of great ways to go about it, but the way I approached it was like painting miniatures (which I hadn't done for decades).
1) Brush the fiber clean with a soft toothbrush.
2) Apply primer - I used Rust-Oleum metallic paint & primer in one, since I was going for a metallic look anyway. Did 2 or 3 very light coats over 2 days. They key is in doing very light coats, and allowing plenty of time to cure - there's no rush, and you don't want things to get goopy and start filling in details.
3) Painted in the black details with a small brush - I use Liquitex soft body acrylic paint. Keep a q-tip & dixie cup of water or paper towel handy in case you make a mistake. Let that completely dry.
4) Did a wash with the black paint (paint+water) to get in the hard to reach crevices. Again, you'll want a cloth / Q-tip handy with some water to clean up any overspill. Let that completely dry.
5) Did a dry brush with Liquitex 'iridescent bright silver'. If that sounds unfamiliar - put some paint on the brush, then basically wipe the paint off the brush with a paper towel. Then lightly brush back and forth across the piece, where you want the paint to be - the little paint on there will 'highlight' the raised portion of what you're painting, but won't get on the sunken parts of the piece. Let that completely dry.
6) Sealing it up - used Rust-Oleum 'Ultra Cover Semi-Gloss Clear'... bonds to plastic, which is important. I believe I did 2 or 3 very thin coats of this over 2-3 days as well.
So it's not hard at all, but taking time for one layer to cure before the next really makes life easier. Because if you screw up and want to aggressively remove some paint, the layer below is fully cured so you won't remove the last layer 'by mistake'.
Hope this helps!
