Repainting Question

[BlueMermaid]

I am not comfortable working with Alex, or airbrushes. Do you think spray paint, or even fabric paint might work for repainting a latex tail?

[SilverSiren]

Createx makes a paint that cures with heat and can be used both with brush and airbrush. Just be REALLY careful about the heat, it can melt the latex I'm sure. Don't use silicon based paint for latex either, I've heard that mixing the two is a huge no no cause the silicon would never cure. I'm sure if you google latex paint you'll come up with a lot of info and companies who make paints for latex, many of them will be advertised for use with an airbrush but you can use just a regular brush. Be careful on what brushes you do use though, don't go cheap or you may get a hairy tail, lol. Also, airbrushes are not as intimidating as they seem, they are just mini spray paint guns! lol. You can get a cheap one that can be used with a air canister (much like a spray paint can!) and used quite effectively for what you want. Just give it a bit of practice on a piece of cardboard to get the feel for it, its a lot of fun.Heck, you may even find you like it so much you get a good one. I have a $500 one and I LOVE it. I've been using it now for years and love the fine detail and realistic quality you can produce from it, it just took the initial step of getting over the intimidation of it, and now its all I use for SFX painting and sculpture painting. Good luck!

[Spindrift]

You can also get those disposable airbrush cans, if you don't own a airbrush compressor.

[Winged Mermaid]

Not sure! No one has ever tried before. I think the spray paint could be a maybe, but very doubtful with fabric paint. If you want to give the spray paint a try, do a swatch test on a part of the tail that won't be noticeable. Give it water and abrasive tests, see how it holds up. You could try it heat set and not heat set, even.

However you know you can always hand paint the airbrush paint (createx) on! That's what I did before I (recently) got an air brush. It's a little more expensive that way, just becuase you can't cover as much surface area as you would with an airbrush, but it works fine!

I got a $8 airbrush kit and a $10 canned air (made specifically for the airbrush) on amazon, and that works fine if you decide you feel brave in trying airbrushing. Just make sure to get air brush cleaner and run it through first, and always after you paint. Otherwise .. well, screaming at your airbrush will happen. If you feel like investing they sell $50 mini compressors (that look like elephants) as well.

Either way, wait a few hrs for the paint to dry completely. Then heat set with a craft or tool grade heat gun, and try and wait 12-24hrs before swimming in it.

Good luck!

[BlueMermaid]

Well the tail was repainted by a friend of mine once before. I don't know what kind of paint he used, but I'm thinking it was Createx. It's peeling off, like a rubbery skin. Does that sound like createx? Anyway I'm currently working on removing the peeling paint and then want to fix it up a bit. I think I'll do as you suggested WM, and just try spray paint and then do some tests....see what happens.

Thank you so much for the replies!

[Winged Mermaid]

That sounds right for createx. However if it's not heat set right it scrapes and peels off really easily. Perhaps they didn't heat set it? If you experiment with the spray paint let us know how it goes, please! How are you planning on taking your paint off? I'm having to do the same to mine, and I'm thinking gently with the abrasive site of a kitchen sponge. Maybe after soaking in the tub for a bit.

[BlueMermaid]

I will keep you posted on how it goes WM.

For taking the paint off, I used a round bulb tipped tool to rub the paint off. I experimented with a sponge, but it didn't work very well. I tried scraping it with a flat edge, didn't work. My finger worked the best but it hurt after a while so I got this tool with a round edge and it worked good. Some pieces I was able to get ahold of the edge and just pull it off.

[BlueMermaid]

5829
This is what the paint looks like coming off, very rubbery texture, thin skin.

5830
This is what I used to rub off the paint.

[BlueMermaid]

Ok, so I spray painted the tail. It actually worked great! Now I'm not sure how it would work on a newer mertailor tail, as he has a different method now. This is an older tail that I got back in 2010 I believe. Anyway, I took it for a test swim and the spray paint stayed on. Now, there were some areas where I had added some silicone, and the spray paint would not stick to the silicone. But it stayed on the latex just fine! Unfortunately, I found out on the test swim that it's too big for me now. So it's now for sale if anyone is interested. Pics and video are in the classifieds section.

[Mermaid Crystal]

I thought i saw misfit say she used a disposable airbrush can....

[MermaidIvy]

I dont know anything about this kind of stuff, but i hope you find the answer you're looking for! xD