I was really scratching my head on how to paint these complex parts. I was contemplating spraying from a can but was concerned that I would deposit too much paint and some areas are really tricky to access. My son suggested using some sort of dye so we ended up doing with Rit fabric dye. You have to heat up the dye to about 90 celsius and then immerse for 5-10 mins, which worked great. The parts were nicely colored and there was no accumulation of paint. The dye is absorbed into the material so all the details are preserved. Very happy with how that worked out.
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Hi Jeff, That would have been a great way to go. I wasn't sure what the best approach should be and I was also worried about hot spots. I think your way may be the better solution to make sure there is better diffusion.I think I actually just painted the inside of the clear armature white--that transmits the light very evenly with no hot spots and still allows for a lot of brightness.
These were printed in White Natural Versatile Plastic by Shapeways. I believe it's nylon material and the parts seem pretty porous so they absorbed the dye very well. I did have to get a replacement part much later and the material was the same but seems less porous. I did absorb the dye but it took much longer. So not sure if they have improved the printing process or materials but definitely was not as easy to color.This is an awesome build so far. The primative Dave build of this has been on my To be built list for too long.
The dyeing of parts..... gonna give that a test on some other projects.
Just wondering is that nylon or PLA, or ABS.
Back in the day I used a dye to colour gears for my 1/10th RC stuff and thats mostly nylon. If memory serves, and Tamiya only did bright colours like neon pink etc.
So looking forward to progress on this.