Painting police hats

[BlueBard]

As it seems Lego City Police is moving to black hats (don't know if it's the right word in english for it ) I was thinking at painting some of my old white ones for having a bit of uniformity. Has anybody tried it yet? Can you post any pic with the result before I start a catastrophe? Thanks!

[kill will]

The police hats are fairly cheap off of Bricklink, but if you would rather modify them, I would recommend using a black permanent marker, as it's much easier and faster than paint.

[Steel Dragon]

The police hats are fairly cheap off of Bricklink, but if you would rather modify them, I would recommend using a black permanent marker, as it's much easier and faster than paint.

Aye, Sharpie black dries in a color almost identical to LEGO black. I've recolored/modified a good number of pieces with my trusty Sharpie, and they always come out great.

[Darth Legolas]

Aye, Sharpie black dries in a color almost identical to LEGO black. I've recolored/modified a good number of pieces with my trusty Sharpie, and they always come out great.

Really? I always thought black sharpie to be the worst! It does it's job well, but it comes out with a shiny purple...

Edited January 26, 2010 by Darth Legolas

[Steel Dragon]

Really? I always thought black sharpie to be the worst! It does it's job well, but it comes out with a shiny purple...

It very well may depend on the type... I use a Broad Point (chisel I think)...

[Darth Legolas]

It very well may depend on the type... I use a Broad Point (chisel I think)...

Thanks for the tip, I'll try to get a broad point next time. I'm surprised there's ink variation just from widening the tip of the marker, but I'll sure try.

I think that my answer your question, BlueBard, though I wouldn't go for it. I like the white hats better than the black ones, and in real life there is variation, I think you should leave them as is.

[Steel Dragon]

As an alternate plan, you could use white-out on the black hats. I can't vouch for the color matching, however...

[Darth Legolas]

As an alternate plan, you could use white-out on the black hats. I can't vouch for the color matching, however...

That's where sharpie paint comes in. It's like a really thick sharpie, so colors like white can be used, it's basically a paint marker. You don't want to use whiteout, because it's very, very thick and leaves a weird texture on the piece. Sharpie paint is as thin as regular sharpie when dried, but thick enough to go over other colors when wet.

[BlueBard]

Thanks for your suggestions I think I'm going to try the permament marker idea. I'll post some pics of the result...

[Steel Dragon]

That's where sharpie paint comes in. It's like a really thick sharpie, so colors like white can be used, it's basically a paint marker. You don't want to use whiteout, because it's very, very thick and leaves a weird texture on the piece. Sharpie paint is as thin as regular sharpie when dried, but thick enough to go over other colors when wet.

Hey thanks for the warning, you just saved a few visors from being messed up.

Is there a thread about this sort of thing in MCW? This is an important thing to have info about, I think.

[Rick]

The police hats are fairly cheap off of Bricklink, but if you would rather modify them, I would recommend using a black permanent marker, as it's much easier and faster than paint.

The very few cases I have modded original parts (like cutting up a road plate), I always regretted it afterward, so I would just get replacements of Bricklink or S@H's PaB (which has them new for €0.12).