How to paint?

[zeello]

I am strongly considering painting my blue 3DS XL a different color.
I'd repaint only the blue parts, and after removing it from the rest of the system.
I'd probably paint it black so the system can be one solid color. (minus SD card slot... dun dun dunn)

I used Testors paint on models when I was younger, would that work here?
I don't want to use spray paint, well I could but I'd rather not accidentally paint my room.

One other thing I'm worried about is that the paintbrush will leave streak marks; showing my strokes. I seem to remember that from my modeling days, at least with gloss paint. Spray paint might be worth it just to avoid streak marks.

What do you do for painting systems/cases? What would you recommend I do?

 

[grossaffe]

viewtopic.php?f=8&t=7232&p=97153

 

[zeello]

primer, paint, clean finish
dunno what that means but I might go with what that one user says to do:

Montana Gold, spray light coats 10 minutes apart.
Done.

wondering what color to use.. Looks like I HAVE to go with black, because the SD card slot is blue so there are already 2 colors in total.. 3 if you count the slider.

 

[watsug]

Don't forget to use clearcoat, otherwise the paint will chip

 

[zeello]

good thing you told me then!
do I need primer?

but it looks like I'm paying close to 20 dollars already on paint and clear coat. I might put this off for a while..

 

[shadaboot27]

If you want it to look good you cant use a paint brush. You need to use some sand paper to rough it up a bit first otherwise the paint wont stick properly, 600 grit would be best for this. After that you need to prime it, give it 2-3 light coats of primer with 10 mins to dry between coats. then you need some base coat (whatever colour paint your using), you want to do 3 light coats of that with 10 mins to dry between coats again, and make sure that everything is covered nicely by the third coat and you cant see any primer anymore. Then you need to do about 2 coats of clear coat (lacquer), this time you want to do the first coat then do the second about 5 mins later before the fist coat has fully dried, otherwise you will probably get an orange peel texture to the clear coat rather than a nice smooth finish, but you need to try not put it on too thick otherwise you will get runs in the clear coat. Once this is done you want to leave it to dry over night and make sure you don't touch it until the next morning. All of this needs to be in a dust free area as well. I work painting cars and this is how you paint small items using spray cans to a high standard. If this all seems like too much or too complicated then you don't have to do it like this, but depending how good you would like it to look depends on how much time, money and effort you put in.

I hope this helps.