"To Paint Or Not To Paint, That Is the Question"

[DLuders]

Folks sometimes complain that there's a limited color palette for Lego TECHNIC parts. For a large project (using Technic panels), one is pretty much limited to RED, WHITE, BLACK, and YELLOW. If one wanted to make a Lamborghini or a construction Badkhoe (for example), wouldn't you want it to be ORANGE, just like the real thing? Owners of REAL Ferrari cars don't ALWAYS have a RED car; they sometimes paint it a different color and it's STILL A FERRARI.

So, why should LEGO be any different? Why does one HAVE TO stick to the limited selection of colors? If one were careful and used a paint suitable for plastic, could/should one PAINT his/her TECHNIC creation?

Pros and cons were discussed on http://www.bzpower.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=268173 , but they weren't talking about TECHNIC specifically. What do you think?

1) Have you tried it?

2) Would you do it? (Why or why not)

3) If you saw somebody else's MOC that had been painted, would you LIKE or DISLIKE it?

[mahjqa]

Short answer: No.

Long answer: Hell no.

If there was some kind of magic way to turn parts into the right color without quality issues, I would. However, paint scrapes off (with technic this is even more of an issue), is a bitch to apply, is hard to get consistent, and Lego parts have all these kinds of nooks and crannies where paint might not get into or might clot together.

Also, the challenge with Lego (for me) is how to work with the parts that you have. Sure, I wish almost daily that a certain part existed in a certain color... but it doesn't. Tough luck. So you'll have to improvise. And that's how you get creative. It forces you to look at other colors, in other combinations and get you to places you wouldn't otherwise have gone. For example, I never considered using purple and orange in a single colorscheme, yet it works wonderfully.

Also, I've been collecting strange colors for years now. Tan and brown? Can do. Power Miners colorscheme? Not a problem. Not to mention the stuff I do with Teal. Hell, I could get a long way with purple (thanks to the competition sets) at this point.

And if you only have a tiny supply of odd colors, simply using what you have as an accent color could get you some interesting results.

I've long ago overcome my aversion to people who paint their parts. Still, I think they are limiting themselves by choosing the easy way out.

Edited May 13, 2010 by mahjqa

[TechnicJuan]

What about www.chromebricks.com? What do you guys think about chroming/gold plating bricks and wheels? this is much more durable than painting. I really like the chrome wheels on cars.

[allanp]

What about www.chromebricks.com? What do you guys think about chroming/gold plating bricks and wheels? this is much more durable than painting. I really like the chrome wheels on cars.

Even as a purist I really like the idea of chrome plating parts but you must consider that it adds a layer of chrome affectively changing the dimentions of the piece. If it's purely cosmetic then is fine but for things like gears and especially axles, it's not a good idea as they may no longer fit together.

[Rijkvv]

To be honest I don't see the advantage to chrome gears or axles. But I think this is very useful to chrome wheels, exhausts, bullbar pieces and more fancy parts. I consider myself a purist, and when I first heard about Chromebricks I didn't want to use custom-chromed pieces. But now I want to build some trucks I changed my mind. Maybe I'll use their pieces.

For painting: no way. It's too difficult to paint parts properly.

[TechnicJuan]

You just can't go wrong with chrome wheels. Crowkillers was the first guy that I had ever seen get wheels chromed. I would love to see TLC release a new car with chromed wheels.

[Jurgen Krooshoop]

Haven't painted any parts so far. It's just like Mahqua says: it makes you more creative.

But when reading how difficult it is to get a good result when painting/spraying parts, I will propably never try it. I won't neccecarily dislike models with painted parts (even Jennifer Clark painted some parts white).

[Milan]

(even Jennifer Clark painted some parts white).

Dennis Bosman also did paint some parts for his magnificent models.

I painted a bucket long time ago, when I was 16, from yellow to black, in order to match excavator real color.

Now, I would not do it.