Painting vintage plastic

[charlie8575]

I have a small number of 1960s-vintage kits I'd like to start building.

My concern is painting plastic that old. I'd like to use MCW paints on them, but I'm not sure if they'd be too strong for the plastic. I'm not even sure if something like Testors paints is a little too much.

Has anyone attempted painting kits from this era with these products now, and what have the results been?

Charlie Larkin

[jbwelda]

ive been building vintage kits and spraying them, out of the can, with model master, tamiya, etc paint with no negative results other than self-induced that is. i always primer first and thats with modern materials as well, but not sure that does much as far as protecting plastic. if nothing else,cut some sprue off the kit youre working on and paint it to see what happens.

hope that helps.

[roadhawg]

I'm not a chemist, but I seriously doubt the age of the plastic has anything to do with its ability to tolerate paint. I just finished an early 60s era '49 Ford, using Duplicolor primer, Testors color, and finished it with a urethane clear coat and had no problems whatsoever. Just treat it as you would any other project and you should be fine. MCW paints are lacquers, so use a good primer for sure.

[RatRod]

I have been building vintage plastic for years too, and one thing I have noticed is that 40+ year old plastic doesn't like modern solvent based lacquers very much, but I use Plasti-kote Sandable Primer on everything. Make sure it is the T-23? number, not the Super Primer T-2?. When painting let each coat gas out a little longer before shooting the next coat. Spray light even coats instead of heavy coats, and you'll be OK. Here's a 45 year old AMT Vicky molded in black plastic, airbrushed with HOK Lime Gold pearl, and cleared with Dupli-color clear from the can.

[charlzrocks]

I gotta agree with the other guys... the plastic should be fine if primered....the only thing that old plastic sometimes becomes is brittle with age, just like my bones