The Vinyl Dye Experiment

[WetWired]

So I found some vinyl dye and set up an experiment to see if it'll work on a MOC I plan to make.

I was after something close to tan, I knew I'd never match the colour completely, but I was never going to mix tan pieces with the dyed pieces for that reason.

I prepared my pieces, some broken or just old pieces I didn't need anymore, of varying size and types to get a good idea how it will work in all situations

I put tape around one of the pieces to see if masking would work and allow me to have nice crisp lines, or whether the dye would seep under the edges

I also put in a black piece to see how the dye would respond to a dark underlying colour, to see if I would need an undercoat of white on black pieces I planned to dye.

I set them all up, I raised some on toothpicks thinking it would be easier to spray all around them, but after the first coat I ended up taking them down and spraying them on the cardboard instead and turning them over when I had sprayed one side (it is touch dry in 5 minutes)

3-4 coats later about 10 minutes apart,(an extra coat for the black piece to be sure) and they were done, I left them to set for 24 hours as you're supposed to do and here are the results. I added an official lego tan piece for reference.

As you can see the black piece is exactly the same colour as the white pieces, no undercoat will be needed, and the masking worked well, though I couldn't make the tape stick around the studs and the line isn't clear over the top. I will probably still mask, but hand paint with a paint rather than dye for areas like that, as I want to have the masked areas brown on top of the tan, and there isn't a large amount of brown to do, it's not worth forking out AU$18 for another can of dye for such a small amount.

The pieces are a bit tighter clicking together, and the dye does scrap off around the studs after you've connected them if your coat is too thick, the MOC I'm using it for will be permanent and won't be coming apart once it's done so it won't be noticable, and even if I do pull it apart I don't plan to make anything else from it. So be warned if you plan on bulk dying piece to be mixed in with your collection, I would only use the dye on specific one use-pieces.

[iamded]

Those turned out well, but if I were doing it I would dye all the pieces, even the tan ones to get that even coat. May I ask what you plan on making?

~Peace

[Lt. Veers]

Certainly an intreting expiriment. I can't wait to see what it will make in the future.

[WetWired]

Those turned out well, but if I were doing it I would dye all the pieces, even the tan ones to get that even coat. May I ask what you plan on making?

~Peace

yeah that's what I plan on doing, otherwise I will have mismatched colours throughout the MOC, the original tan lego piece in the photos is only for reference.

I'm making a version of my batmobile...

...in this colour scheme

the reason I'm dying instead of using tan is that I can't find all of the pieces I need in lego tan, namely the rollcages at the front which don't exist at all in tan, and the little 2x3 left and right wedges do exist, but I can only find one of each on bricklink in the entire world. So I plan on buying all white pieces and dying them custom tan then hand painting the brown camo pattern

[tedbeard]

The pieces are a bit tighter clicking together, and the dye does scrap off around the studs after you've connected them if your coat is too thick...

Are you sure it is dye? From the write up on Classic-Castle I understood that true dye is absorbed into the plastic, if it stays on the surface it is paint.

[WetWired]

yes, it's labeled vinyl and plastic dye, it contains acetone which is a key ingredient to the dye, I think I may have put the dye on too thickly on some parts, and it couldn't soak in because there was too much, also I tried fitting them together before the 24 hours are up which I'm sure didn't help :(

it doesn't seem to scrap off on all the studs though, hence why I think I put it on too thick in places, when I do my final dying I'll be sure to be more careful to spray it more finely but with more coats

[SirNadroj]

Looks good ~ can't wait to see your finished product!

May I ask where you bought the vinyl dye? I was looking everywhere for it one time, and never found it! :-$

[CP5670]

That looks quite nice. I wonder if something like this can be done to restore discolored white bricks.

[WetWired]

I bought it from autobarn which is a chain of car accessories stores in australia, the kind of place that has seat covers, car stereos, car cleaning products etc, most places like that you should find it, as it's designed to be used on car dashboards etc

I was thinking the same about restoring white pieces, I can't see why it wouldn't work, I was going to try it myself but at AU$18 a can it is bit expensive to buy just for the small amount of discoloured whites I have. My only worry with white is that it would be a different shade of white than the lego colour

[SavaTheAggie]

Excellent work. I had always wanted to try masking a part like that, but I was always afraid the acetone would melt the tape to the brick. I've never had problems with the dye rubbing off, but I never tried vinyl dying bricks, just minifig accessories. The color of the parts looks like it came somewhere between LEGO tan and LEGO dark tan, not a bad color I must say.

--Tony

[Stony]

Tan Vinyl Dyed bricks look surprisingly close to the official "Dark Tan" colour.