Tips on repainting a silicone tail

[The Water Phoenix]

Hey hey everyone! I want to give my silicone tail a bit of a touch up as some of the paint is peeling off of it. How do I go about repainting it and preventing the paint from peeling off? Any tips or advice would be greatly appreciated!

[The Water Phoenix]

More paint is flaking off the tail but I still am unsure on how to fix that. It seems like my threads always fly under the radar :thinks:

[Mermaid_Izzy]

Definitely not, but I am also curious about this same thing. I know Merbella’s does, but it’s a trade secret.


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[MissLunaBelle]

I was speaking to mernation recently, and older silicone tails receive a type of chemical bath (so the new silicone bonds with the old), and then are repainted/touched up :)

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[Mermaid_Izzy]

I wonder what chemical? Maybe smooth-on would know.


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[Mermaid Aerial Princess]

I haven't done it but I'd bookmarked this a while ago. Check out the 2nd half. https://m.wikihow.com/Paint-Silicone

Maybe use silpoxy instead of caulk or the Psyco paint from smooth-on.


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[Lily]

Silicone is very porous, so making the paint stick the second time around is much harder as contaminants may have soaked into the tail. Give it a very thorough scrub down inside and out with original Dawn dishsoap (the blue one, soak it in the tub for a few hours if you can), and then wipe it down with lots and lots of rubbing alcohol (the higher the % the better). Let it dry completely before painting. Use Smooth-On Psychopaint instead of Dragonskin as it sticks better. I can't guarantee 100% that it will work on your tail but that's the method I've used.

If it's just tiny areas, you can use silpoxy mixed with pigment and a little bit of naptha or toluene and paint it on with a brush.

[freyamaat]

Psycho Paint is just tinted Dragonskin. If you want silicone pigments try Silcpig which is also by Smooth-On. It may save you some money, I'm not sure, I haven't price checked eithet. Or just tint your own. It looks like you can custom color mix too.

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[MerFaire]

My wife painted her tail using a mixture of silicone Caulk GE1, Naphtha, and Pearlex. You can get the first two from home depot, and the third we bought off Amazon. The Naphtha thins out the paint. It dries in a couple minutes, so mix up a small batch and paint quickly.