Trying to paint leather/pleather

[Merc]

Hi,

I've been trying to paint a Dollsfigure leather trenchcoat using some Citadel acrylic paints. I'd successfully painted two trenchcoats from Gangster Kingdom figures using the same method, but this one keeps splitting and flaking anywhere the material folds. I've tried watering down the paint a bit, and even tried it as straight paint, but both had the same result.

Anyone have any tips? Is there a way to seal while still having it be usable on a figure?

 

[SirGor]

Try Liquitex soft body paint, and you don't necessary have to seal it.

 

[Merc]

Hi Merc,

With acrylic paints you need to use a sealer - they're available in gloss, semi-gloss and matte. I don't know how well they would do on material, and I have no specific brand in mind. However, you can get fabric paint - which is basically acrylic paint formulated just for use on fabric. I don't know how different it would be from what you're using already, but if you can't get it to work even with a sealer (the sealer stops it from crumbling and flaking, at least on an inflexible surface) then you'd have nothing to lose trying fabric paint. But try the sealer first and see how that works - if you can get it from Citadel, I'd recommend going with the same brand only because that's what i like to do when I can, otherwise do a little looking on sealers and which brands are available in your area and would probably serve best (customer reviews can be very useful here, on sites like Amazon, etc.)

Good luck!

Kind Regards,
Ken

Try Liquitex soft body paint, and you don't necessary have to seal it.

Thanks for the tips! Just waiting for the paints to arrive

 

[OutLander]

Hey Merc, could you post what your results were. I have a coat I need to change the color of?

 

[duck of death]

It sounds to me like the paint is reacting with the surface of whatever kind of pleather Dollsfigure uses which must be different from the kind used by Gangster Kingdom. The paint should bond to the surface with no need for any kind of sealing and without an splitting or flaking. So I would definitely try a different paint to see if that's what the problem is. I wouldn't use a sealer since that will affect the flexibility of the material.

 

[Merc]

Hey Merc, could you post what your results were. I have a coat I need to change the color of?

I ended up picking up some Angelus leather paints as well as some Angelus leather preparer. The results were good and stable. I'm not sure if it was the preparer removing something that was preventing the regular acrylics from sticking, the special leather paint, or both together that made a difference. The colour isn't exactly a match though, so I'm attempting to use my original acrylic paints over top of the Angelus one. So far it seems to be sticking.

One warning about the leather preparer though, I'd use it sparingly and test it on an unseen section first. I tried it on another piece (1/6 black leather/pleather pants from onesixthkit) and it ate right through it

 

[OutLander]

Thanks for the update.