Professional Lego Painting (parts not arts!)

[Munty]

Hey folks, am here with a query I'm hoping someone out there can help with. Well... I know someone out there can help with it so I guess rather what I'm hoping is that one of those people will see this topic and respond...

 

Anyway.

 

I've got a number of projects in the pipeline currently (as always) and several of them are going to require existing parts in non-existent colours... That really only leaves me with one option, painting.

 

For starters I don't want to hear 'you shouldn't paint Lego' from any purists out there. I'm a purist too but sadly there are some things that exist in the Bionicle universe that don't have official brick counterparts! 

 

So the question is, what's the best way to get a good looking result when painting parts? I'm going to need various matoran parts (rebuilt) and masks too so they're all very funky parts as far as shape and colour goes! I've done masks before but it was a very quick, not very good job, plus I only painted the front as it was easier than trying to figure out how to do the back as well!

 

Ideally, I'd like to find someone in the UK who can just do this for me. I'm happy to pay for good results... Otherwise I just need some advice from those who have done this before. How do I hold the pieces? How do I match the colours? How do I get an even result? 

 

If anyone can offer any help at all I'd very much appreciate it! 

[Kopekemaster]

Personally, I haven't painted any, but I feel like spraypaint would be the best way to go. It's thin, so it (hopefully) wouldn't really interfere with the building aspect of the pieces, and it would be pretty easy to do a bunch of pieces simultaneously and consistently.

[Munty]

Thanks for the response KM, I used spraypaint on my really quick repaint and I think it would've worked fine if I'd been more careful. I sprayed from too close so it ran and pooled a little in places. Left some slight marbling which I'd rather avoid on my future attempts, especially as some of the parts are much trickier than the first one I tried and I imagine pooling could be a much bigger issue! 

 

All of that said about my first try though, it's pretty uniform and I think a second coat would conceal most of the flaws in the first application. I just don't really want to try coating it again for fear of ruining it completely!

[Crunchyn]

Didn't know LEGO painting services exist (besides Modalt's Masks, of course ). I'd suggest if you can't find any, broaden your search. Look for professional painters that specializes in Gundam/Resin Kit/Action Figure which do exist. That'll also help if you're looking for tutorials on painting, too.

[Munty]

Thanks CbN, that was kind of my point I guess. Should have been clearer! I can't imagine there's one particular person out there who pays the mortgage by painting Lego so I guess someone at the Gunpla forums or similar would be a very sensible place to look! Thanks for the suggestion!