My custom Kaossilator, Arik

Greetings everyone, just thought I'd share a couple pics of Arik's fresh paint. I used Tamiya metallic blue and green and a nice wet clear coat. This sucker coupled with a kaossilator is a real winner for synth FX!

All the best,

-Christophocles

i was thinking about painting my oxygen 8 controller but i don't know how i'd go about doing that,...

  On 2/8/2010 at 8:53 PM, yek said:

i was thinking about painting my oxygen 8 controller but i don't know how i'd go about doing that,...

Go to your local hobby shop and get some Tamiya spray paint cans. I used to be really into RC cars as a kid and trust me that stuff is the best. You'll need primer, a couple colors depending on what you're trying to achieve, and clear coat for gloss and protection. Also pick up some fine sandpaper. Should cost you around $20-$30 total.

Take apart the controller completely. If you want to have text on your finished product, open up a word document and type out all of the words on the face of the unit. Save that. We'll get back to it in a minute.

Once you have the controller gutted of its electronics, clean the plastic with some hot water. Sand it down lightly so the paint molecules have an ideal surface to stick to.

If you have a garage, you're in luck. You don't want a bunch of dirt in the air in your painting area.

If you can, nigrig a system of fishing line so you can suspend the pieces, thusly enabling your beam of paint to get every nook and cranny, as opposed to having the pieces sit on the ground, where you'll be a sad panda when you rebuild your unit.

Shake those cans like you are finishing one off and someones at the door. Before you contact the precious pieces with the spray, make sure you give the can a good few shots. You don't want spatter on your gear. When spraying paint, keep an even distance. ~2-3 feet works well.

Spray down your primer on your clean, sanded plastics. The primer coat is the foundation for all of your color coats to stick on. Once it has dried (give it a cool hour), lightly sand that bastard.

Spray your base coat. In the case of Arik, I did a blue base coat to make it a sort of sea final. It's crucial that you do many light coats as opposed to a big, drippy, orange-peely load. You'll cringe every time you see the finished product if you fuck it up.

At this point you probably don't need to sand any more. But, if you see any bumps or imperfections, sand those suckers down.

Spray many thin coats of your color. Remember that unless you are doing a heavy matte coat, there is some opacity to be found. So, if you have a jawbreaker style layering, a little bit of the coat underneath will shine through and give a more complex tone.

Once you are done spraying color, do a few coats of clear. You will find that the whole process is incredibly satisfying and fun.

After all the paint is thoroughly dry, rebuild the controller, and be proud. Or pissed. The first time you paint something you will probably mess up. Don't fret. You can always resand and man up this time.

Cheers,

-Christophocles

thankyou for the write up. i might just do this.

very nice job

I did this but didn't put nearly as much thought into it as Ramses... just had the cover off to restore the buttons anyways, taped over the led windows, propped it up, and went at it. And now I kinda want to sell the thing.

thanks for the tutorial, i've always thought about doing something like that but have never known where to start.

i'm curious to hear more about this:

  On 2/8/2010 at 9:07 PM, Ramses said:

If you want to have text on your finished product, open up a word document and type out all of the words on the face of the unit. Save that. We'll get back to it in a minute.

Nice work!!! Is that a grey metal fleck paint or did you achieve the effect by spattering layers?

Love this kind of stuff. Here is a custom Gameboy paint job I did a while back for an ex-bandmate.

  On 2/8/2010 at 11:06 PM, uptowndevil said:

thanks for the tutorial, i've always thought about doing something like that but have never known where to start.

 

i'm curious to hear more about this:

  On 2/8/2010 at 9:07 PM, Ramses said:

If you want to have text on your finished product, open up a word document and type out all of the words on the face of the unit. Save that. We'll get back to it in a minute.

Hey man, I forgot to finish what I started there.

Crack open that word document and format it with some sick text and colors (if you have a color printer available)

Print it to clear sticker paper. Could probably pick some up at the local target.

Cut them out, and apply them the step before spraying clear coat.

THEN spray gratuitous layers of clear coat. I don't mean glob it on- as always, use those thin, multiple coats. Voilà!

NICKATINA MOTHAFUCKA YEAH!!!

  On 2/8/2010 at 11:59 PM, Superstix said:

Nice work!!! Is that a grey metal fleck paint or did you achieve the effect by spattering layers?

 

Love this kind of stuff. Here is a custom Gameboy paint job I did a while back for an ex-bandmate.

Looks fantastic! Very nice work.

I achieved that effect by spattering mainly matte black, then a VERY light coat of blue that you can't see in these blurry iPhone pics. The forum blows em up pretty big- but you get the idea anyways.

Cheers

i decided to paint today and since in didn't have any of the proper stuff mentioned in this thread i used my friends acrylic paint.

it looks fucking ghetto but i'm happy with it.

  On 2/9/2010 at 4:28 AM, ieafs said:

ha acrylic will just coming off almost immediately surely?

i don't know... hope not

the internet told me it's ok. i'll wait for this thing to dry but i'm feeling positive about this paint job

Acrylic will scratch off like a motherfucker. You need to put some clear spray or something on top.