Changing Color of Technic Parts

[__________________________]

Hey EBers,

I want to change the color of the parts in 8110 Unimog. Any advice on what technique (painting, dyeing, etc.) would be best? I'm totally inexperienced with this stuff.

This would be to enhance the look of the vehicle with an all-black bed, chassis, etc.

Thanks, have a good day!

[Saberwing40k]

The best technique is to buy the parts in the right color off of bricklink.

[Bzroom]

Each time I redesign the cab of my latest moc I get all excited about the new colors that are possible with that choice of pieces. Then i have to make another design change and the pieces change and then the possible colors change. :( LEGO problems.

[Paul B Technic]

I have the same problem, I have heaps of a given piece but not in the right colour :(

Just buy them in the right colour, I doubt painting or anything like that would work very well.

[grum64]

Good Morning All

I have this very problem.

My cousin is building a car which when finished will be identical to this.

He's, foolishly, asked me to build a copy in Lego (the problems of which are well documented elsewhere on this forum) but has asked that it be as close as possible to his finished cars colour.

The Silver's no trouble and as you can see, Dark Red pieces will be almost a perfect colour match but this part, the wheelarch, is the only part not available in Dark Red.

I've thought about taking a Dark Red part to my local DIY centre to see if their colour match service can come up with anything & if they could would the paint be OK to use on a Lego part and would the finish match that of a Lego brick?

I'd also thought about asking the vehicle vinyl graphics company that's working on replacement stickers for my Williams F1 if they could reproduce the colour accurately on vinyl and 'wrap' the face of the part.

Like TheLegoExpert, I'd be very interested to know if anyone has any experience of changing Lego part colours, the methods used and if were the results satisfactory?

I'd welcome any advice/ideas/solutions.

Edited June 4, 2014 by grum64

[__________________________]

The problem is I don't think I can get some of these parts in black purist-wise. I'll have to get them colored.

Anybody have a black Lego color of some kind?

[zux]

  On 5/31/2014 at 2:58 PM, TheLegoExpert said:

Anybody have a black Lego color of some kind?

Hope this helps

[Bzroom]

Grum, I think I read that effe's custom parts are available in a very close matching red. Maybe he can draft you some parts so you can order them in the right color. But it's part of lego. If you want it to be an authentic lego model, you might have to make some compromises on colors. But the good thing is, multiple colors usually looks pretty cool!

[grum64]

  On 5/31/2014 at 6:33 PM, Bzroom said:

Grum, I think I read that effe's custom parts are available in a very close matching red. Maybe he can draft you some parts so you can order them in the right color. But it's part of lego. If you want it to be an authentic lego model, you might have to make some compromises on colors. But the good thing is, multiple colors usually looks pretty cool!

Good Evening Bzroom

Thank you for the info. Custom parts isn't something I'd thought of but will look into.

As for it being an authentic Lego build. I'd certainly prefer it to be but if I can't get the parts accurately recoloured then I may have no alternative as the car has to be Dark Red.

Thanks again.

Edited May 31, 2014 by grum64

[Hrafn]

People have used vinyl dye (here and here). Some people have apparently also used RIT dye, though others swear it doesn't work.

That said, vinyl is highly toxic (carcinogenic, among other things) and RIT isn't exactly good for you either.

[anton1678]

Well, I think there is a technique called hydro-dipping that is good for plastics. It might work, though it leaves a film on top of whatever it paints, not good with LEGO.

I would just take out the parts that I have the required colour of.

I made a model once, an NXT Zamor Sphere launcher (under my username on EV3 Log ) and I tried multiple colour schemes.

I just took it apart bit by bit, replaced it bit by bit.

I look at models to build on the internet sometimes, and I always use the red-black-orange-dark grey colour scheme on the instructions I find.

[grum64]

  On 6/1/2014 at 2:29 AM, Hrafn said:

People have used vinyl dye (here and here). Some people have apparently also used RIT dye, though others swear it doesn't work.

That said, vinyl is highly toxic (carcinogenic, among other things) and RIT isn't exactly good for you either.

Sounds interesting although as these methods have potential health risks associated with them and it wouldn't be me doing it, it might be something to consider if all else fails.

Thank you