Thanks for the kind words.
As far as the painting...
I almost always use spray paint for the primary color and then use acrylics for the details. The only part of the body I usually stick with all acrylics are the heads.
I'd done a few NS figures before, but was always frustrated by the horrible chipping (compared to ARAH figures) as well as the never-quite-dry feeling on the more rubbery parts of the figures (arms mostly).
Then I got bored and started tinkering, leading me to this:
Two techniques used together have really brought the chipping down to an acceptable level and completely done away with the stickiness:
1. Using a "bonds to plastic!" kind of spray paint. They all seem to work about the same
2. After putting on each coat, all of the pieces are set in front of a space heater for about 30 minutes and then left alone (without heat) for at least two hours.
For the not-quite-camouflage effect, that's not texture paint, but two different colors of spray paint. In this case, a "bonds to plastic" white and a regular brown. I sprayed the white followed immediately by the brown.
I've been mixing spray paint colors for several years and have learned a few tricks to keep the parts looking right:
1. lay the pieces out flat, but next to each other as they will be when reassembled. That way, if there's a bit more of color X than color W on the right shoulder area, there will also be on the right upper arm. When put together, the XW color will appear to have continuity between the pieces.
2. ARAH figures- spray paints generally blend with each other. I assume this is some kind of chemistry magic based on the different kinds of plastics used, but I don't know. Actually, the individual colors don't blend, but bead up into minute little spots so tiny that the figure has to be within a few inches of your eye to notice. In other words, if I were to take the same white and brown and put them on a ARAH figure, the paint wouldn't appear speckled, but as a flat tan.
3. NS figures- spray paints sometimes "fight" each other. This is what creates the not-quite-camouflage effect. Not always, though. I just made a Munitia using the exact same technique, but with different colors, and they blended together nicely.
4. I don't disassemble the upper legs from the lower legs before spraying for ARAH or NS. This ensures color continuity between the inside and outside upper parts and the lower leg. It also keeps the knees joint from chipping- don't understand that at all, but it works.
I don't waste money on sealants or fixatives. $1.50 for a can of Aquanet hair spray. This has a surprisingly long life, too. The first custom I did as a grown up was a Steeler that I posted recently. It still has a semi-gloss effect from being sprayed ten years ago. The only weird part about hair spray is getting a strange look at the supermarket checkout lane.
Likewise, I stick with $.99 bottles of acrylic paints from Michael's for the detail painting. I'm sure the expensive Japanese model paints are amazing, but simple works best for me. Mkodadek's technique of mixing superglue into paint has worked nicely for me, too. Just remember if you try it to work quickly and use a paint brush you can part with.
Hopefully that information will be of use to someone. I like what everyone's doing with the 25A figures and I'd like to see how that spraypaint technique would work on them. I just can't bring myself to make a custom by breaking open a figure.
