I hinted in the other post of a 1:1 project, and here it is. I had taken apart my son's PS4 controller and gave it a repaint. I like painting rust effects, so thought this might be a cool time to give it a go.
Main reason behind the paint to be fair was that his buttons were beginning to stick, and getting progressively worse. Once I had it all apart ( thank you YouTube and other crazy modders! ) I could see that the buttons had maple syrup on them. And that as it was drying, hardening, it was causing the buttons to stick lower and lower inside the controller. Down/upside of a Canadian household I guess... always having a bottle of Maple Syrup around.. though not always going where you want it!
Once I had gotten past the part of tearing the case apart I was able to separate the top half from all electronics. Making the paint work area easier, and less dangerous of breaking the controller further ( though prior to opening it, we had decided that if it died, it died for SCIENCE!!!! ).
First layer was the grey auto-body primer from Halfords, and then multiple layers of ModelMates rust effects.
I don't know why I went with an off-blue/grey coloring for this, but after several coatings of the AK Chipping Fluid, I gave it some nice gradient black to white with blue in the middle coats.
Once that was done, it was pretty simple to just go and begin to slowly chip off the top layers with a warm warm soaked brush. Slowly working certain ares to remove paint. It allows the top layers to be removed, but keeps the bottom layers in tact ( mostly.. depends if you did the chipping layer properly ).
The effect gives a proper look/feel of an aging controller.
The bluetooth headset was much easier as it came with additional faceplates for it. So I just took the spare and gave it some different rusty effects here.
Both were fun little projects to spice up my console gaming set up, and make Junior feel a bit more special ( and less sad about breaking the controller with Maple Syrup in the first place ).
Now I threaten to paint the PS4 console itself.. but maybe when I have more confidence to take it apart without breaking it fully!
ByronM: So this is your 1:1 project... Nice!
Very cool demo of what can be done around the home, I love the results, and I am sure your son does as well! It has a very Fallout 4 look to it. I would go for it with the console, they are dead simple to take apart and there are lots of tutorials on how out there as painting them is fairly common.
Cool stuff Kyle - hope he's pleased with his custom console :)
ReplyDeleteThat's so geek! Hurry and go back to serious hobbies...like painting miniatures!
ReplyDeleteWhile I love the results and think they look spot on, I have a question as well (I just didn't want to put it in my comments on the story)...
ReplyDeleteSo if something gets old and battered like that, we all just throw it out and replace it because its junk, but if we purposefully paint it like that, or buy it "distressed" it in the case of furniture, everyone pays more for it and loves it.... WTF??? I am sure that is a comment on the state of society, but not sure what that comment is exactly.
I agree with you on this, but then again well.. I have already been asked a few times on social media if I would be willing to do this to their controllers ( PS4/XBOX ).. so there is a market for it as you said.
DeleteWhereas for myself, it just started with a broken controller which needed fixing, and I decided to give it a custom paint work while it was taken apart! Glad you like it though!
Very cool. Question: do you scrape off the overcoat while it's wet or after it's dried?
ReplyDeleteI'll answer for him Michael, since I use that AK chipping all the time (the Mig brand is equivalent too). You apply it over the colour you want as the base, let it dry completely (over night) and then put the top color on and let it dry completely as well. Then any time later (I have forgotten items for days) you go back wet the surface layer (blue in this case) and then just start brushing it with a stiff brush and it starts flaking off and leaves the under layer there. The longer you left it before doing this, the longer you need to let it sit wet again before it will flake off. It is an amazing product and makes so many things easier! vehicles are a snap with it! Well worth checking out.
DeleteWhat Byron said, but I would recommend for best results that you don't leave the top layer ( in this case blue ) on for too long before you begin the chipping. And less is more. Don't just soak the entire thing in water, and then hope small sections come off. Entire panels will slide off if you do that. So its just soaking little spots with a stiff ( GW Drybrushes work good here ) brush, and rub in a circular motion. Or use toothpicks.
DeleteHighly recommend that you varnish it with gloss and then matte afterwards to seal it in. Cause even just holding the pieces could be enough to warm up the top layer to remove it later on ( not that I know from experience or anything lol )...
Cool project!
ReplyDeleteNow that is a knotty one - how do we score this?
ReplyDelete; )
Apparently you can't :) It's too cool for points.. plus how many points are there for 1:1 scale projects ;)
DeleteNifty project!
ReplyDeleteThe envy of his mates, you did a cracking job on it too
ReplyDeleteIan
For the ones that know that it was done, yes.. envy indeed. More envy with their dad's atm though, and getting more than a few messages asking how much to do theirs ;)
DeleteThat's fun
ReplyDeleteWonderful work. Here in the states we contend with peanut butter in our kids controllers vs maple syrup.
ReplyDeleteYou should consider re-entering this as part of the Home Terrain bonus round - it would get my vote!
Hahaha.. yes we have the peanut butter issue here also, but just not as frequent as maple syrup :D
DeleteGood idea on the home terrain comment.. didn't think of that. Will have to chat to the powers that be ( Curt and Byron our Wednesday minion ) about that... thanks for the idea!
I love seeing our hobby skills used in not entirely hobby ways.
ReplyDelete