Now here's a bizarre question ..........

[Andy1672]

Does anyone know if it is possible to dye body parts ?

I often have trouble when moving knees and elbows etc on customised jointed figures, it dosnt take much for the paint to start to wear.

I was wondering if anyone has experimented with ink dying parts ?

Im sure if I spilt black ink on my minty white stormshadow I would be unable to remove it ? could this be applied overall ?

just a thought ............ ?

[Malcolm Orr]

Not that possible, but there's two techniques that are useful

For joints, shave a thin layer off the inner ring and then use fine sandpaper - it buys you a mm or so of space for paint and the sandpaper gives a rough surface for paint to grip too but will be smooth when the paint goes on.

The second thing is to use sandpaper to just shave down any other rub areas. The Rihanna custom needed both so that the afrocarribean skin didn't rub off when arms moved.

[Andy1672]

Not that possible, but there's two techniques that are useful

For joints, shave a thin layer off the inner ring and then use fine sandpaper - it buys you a mm or so of space for paint and the sandpaper gives a rough surface for paint to grip too but will be smooth when the paint goes on.

The second thing is to use sandpaper to just shave down any other rub areas. The Rihanna custom needed both so that the afrocarribean skin didn't rub off when arms moved.

Thanks for the top tip ! I may try that one next time.

[Malcolm Orr]

The Sparrowhawk custom for example had sandpaper rubbed almost everywhere so that when repainted the paint would stick better. I used several coats of paint and then varnish to that rub shouldn't be a problem. The joints were all done as above so that the deep blue didn't show through when I painted black.

I HATE paint rub!!!

[The Kraken Wakes]

Jointed figures can be dyed with ritdye, available in the states... Ive seen a few people use it but you can only dye darker and the colour of the original has some bearing on the finished result...

I think ritdye is a fabric dye, ive tried it with fabric dyes available over here but it doesnt work at all...

The only joints I ever have trouble with rubbing are the elbow joints, all others are always ok for me, thats why most of my customs have bare elbows or "shirts" over the original colour like the wolverine driver / breaker...

[Andy1672]

Hmm dosnt sound like a cheap option then ?

oh well ... at least it has been tried, saves me getting my fingers stained !

Cheers

[Andy1672]

Found some on ebay .... bit price tho for an experiment.

although if it does work then opens up some new avenues, especially for vehicles.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... :IT&ih=009

[GI Joe Heaven]

I have not personally done a lot of custom work, but Ritdye does work. When I did mine I went to JoeCustoms and searched for it to find instructions. The general idea is to boil/simmer the parts in the dye. There are a lot of variables such as the original color of the piece and the color you want to obtain. Generally 1/2 hour is a good starting point and then can boil longer if you want a darker color. An important part of the process though is to keep the figure parts up off of the bottom of the pan (colander works well) to help keep them from warping. If you can loosely assemble the pieces before dyeing this will help to keep them from warping as well.

This is just a brief overview from my experience at it so check JoeCustoms for more in depth information.

[Andy1672]

I bought some ritdye from ebay, so I will give it a go when it arrives .... Cheers !

[SteveD]

I'm intrigued! Look forward to seeing the results (to both the figures and the pans!)