Before beginning to paint, the pieces must first be prepared. 

Step 1:

Using an Exacto knife or a blade, remove any flashings.  These are the ‘extra’ bits which may appear along the edges of your piece.

Step 2:

All the pieces of plastic must be washed to remove the surface residue so that it will accept the paint.  This is true for any type of paint otherwise the surface will be too slick.  You can use Windex, Fantastic or just plain soap at water.

Place your items in a bowl of soapy water, and gently scrub.

Step 3:

Allow the pieces to air dry on a paper towel

The paints which were chosen are water-based, only for ease in cleaning up and because some people have allergies or are sensitive to oil based and other paints. There are many manufacturers of water-based plastic paints, such as Polly Scale, Model Master, etc.  The other paints, not water-based,  do work equally well, and if you don’t have an aversion to them, please try them out.  Regular acrylics, like the type purchased at Craft stores, do not work well.  Please read the labels or ask a store clerk if the paint you have chosen will work on plastics.  Railroad shops are a good source for paints which work on plastic and there are many different types, so ask them for assistance.

Decoration

As well as painting, your pieces can further be decorated using Flocking and Accent paints.

Flocking is a very fine masses of fibres or ‘fuzz’, which comes in many different colours.  Flocking can be obtained from stores which sell stamping supplies, some miniature shops, ceramic shops and ebay.  If you’ve never seen it before, use Google to look it up.  It gives a fine velvet texture to items.

Accent  paints are those which leave a raised surface, or even using acrylics in small amounts.