Preventing dye-jobs from bleeding through?

[Dropshipbob]

Is there anything I can do to stop this? I looked through my customs a few days ago and many of the ones that I dyed are now bleeding through the paint.

How can this be? I thought acrylic paint was the same as solid plastic once it was dry...shouldn't that have locked in the dye?

What about nail polish, would that work? Or would it flake off if the part flexes?

I really don't want to have to re-buy all the parts to remake these.

 

[Giga Bread]

I don't think there's a way to fix it. The dye can penetrate cured plastic, I imagine cured acrylic paint doesn't fair any better. My T'Gin Zu suffered the same fate but at least the brown I used isn't too distracting.

 

[K-Tiger]

I don't think there's a way to fix it. The dye can penetrate cured plastic, I imagine cured acrylic paint doesn't fair any better.

It does not, as I can attest to on my Covergirl.



I seem to recall, many years ago when I dabbled in 1:6, that the female Panzer Cop Takara did was susceptible to dye leeching from the balaclava. The remedy I heard was peroxide acne treatment and sunlight, much like is used on white Joes.

Maybe it could work here?

 

[The Willoughbian]

I have been asking around and have been told that dye bleeding into the paint is the result of the plastic spending to long in the dye. The trick, I am told, is to dye in short bursts. Just enough to get the color to take.

 

[Dropshipbob]

And that's another problem. I've tried that but the color always seems weak, and having to dye a figure over and over gets old.

I usually get tired of fussing with it and just dumping lots of dye in, or letting the figure sit for 10-15 minutes. And if you do that, you run the risk of parts warping or worse, shrinking!

Seems like a no win situation.

 

[The Willoughbian]

Not to sound like a total dick, but you may need to exercise enough patience and take the time to do it so as to avoid messing your parts up. It will pay off in the long run and you won't end up having to scrub and repaint your figures, which is the only course of action I can think of to fix the figures you are having trouble with. Soak them in laundry detergent and water and scrub the hell out of them with a stiff bristle tooth brush. This may let you salvage the parts. I know this will remove Tamiya paints fairly easily and Modle Masters with a bit more work. It may help to remove some of the excess pigment as well. I hope this helps you out.

 

[Dark Horse]

Use less dye.

 

[fogger1138]

After adding dye to the water, I add some acetone (about 1:100). Takes significantly less time to dye parts, but it takes some practice so you don't overdye them.

I haven't painted over much that I've dyed yet, so I don't know if it helps with bleed through.

 

[The Willoughbian]

So, I have been experimenting and think I may have found a solution.

What I did was purposely over dyed a figure. Rinsed it in cold water as per usual and let it dry. Then, I boiled some clean water put the parts I dyed in a bowl (helps if the bowl is clear) and poured some of the hot water over them and let them soak a minute and stirred them for another half a minute. What this did is leech out a good bit of the excess pigment. I did this two more times. By the third time the water stayed pretty much clear. Now, time will tell if this will really prevent the dye from bleeding through the paint, but considering how much pigment there was in the first two soakings, I would say that I have improved my chances.

Anyhow this is how I spent my Sunday evening. I thought I would share.