Vinyl Dyes - Idea Thread

[SavaTheAggie]

I just wanted to take the moment to suggest other uses for Vinyl Dye and LEGO elements.

'Cause it isn't just about armor.

While the color palette is limited for Vinyl Dye, there are quite a few colors out there.

And the nature of Vinyl Dye is that it is absorbed, unlike spraypaint; it doesn't leave a layer of color. This is important, because no detail is lost when you dye an element. Even the 'LEGO' on the top of the stud would remain crystal clear.

Imagine:

Hair in colors that never existed - white male hair, or pony tails, or any other hairpiece in any dye color available. Yellow hair anyone?

Plumes in any dye color available - black plumes, tan plumes, green plumes... possibly even purple plumes.

Horse helms, either design - black, tan, brown, blue...

Any element can be Vinyl Dyed. Anyone else have an element in mind they'd like to see in a new color?

--Anthony

[Recluce]

Anthony, I think you could perhaps cover the bear design on Rascus' armor with tape, but to the proper shape, and that will keep the dye from being absorbed into that area. Then, when done, simply peel off the tape. I suggest a masking or painters tape. That could also be used to create patterns and shapes on a piece. Like, for the euro armor, create a "cross" shaped piece of tape, apply it to the front of a colored armor (red would look good), and then spray. Remove the tape and you've got a red cross and grey armor! And it wouldn't rub off; I think that has potential.

[Suvied]

Not specifically. Though I would like to see the effects of it on different parts.

When used on a long brick or plate, will the treatment wrap the part and will it be able to support an equal weight without warping (like in star destroyers)?

When used on the softer plastics what changes are noticable. Will the dye be to much for the less rigid abs such as new swords, wavy flags, or whips?

Does the dye alter prints to become unseen or will patterns still show through?

If I had to pick a part it would be either a western or islanders shield. They are completely useless to me as they are but if they were in a gray scale color, even white, they would be much more useful.

[Luís]

Anyone else have an element in mind they'd like to see in a new color?

Maybe classic swords (sees price of black sword coming down with less offer).

And perhaps that is the paint Lego uses .

[ottoatm]

Different colored flags/pennants might be cool... you could have pretty much any colored faction you wanted... and if you were to color the shields the same color, it would be easy to institute a faction based on orange, black, silver, gold, etc...

[SavaTheAggie]

Different colored flags/pennants might be cool... you could have pretty much any colored faction you wanted... and if you were to color the shields the same color, it would be easy to institute a faction based on orange, black, silver, gold, etc...

Unfortunately, AFAIK Vinyl Dye does not come in any metallic or neon-esque colors. For those you would have to come up with an alternate solution.

--Anthony

[JoshWedin]

Great discovery, Anthony. This stuff seems have real potential. Hair and plumes were the first things that came to mind, but how about animals? Specifically, horses and hippogryphs. What colors does this stuff come in?

Josh

PS.

Maybe classic swords (sees price of black sword coming down with less offer).

Classic swords sound good, but I highly doubt it would bring down the price of the black sword at all. There will always be purists (like myself) who are willing to pay the price for genuine LEGO. However, that doesn't stop you from making your own black sword...

Josh

[SavaTheAggie]

Great discovery, Anthony. This stuff seems have real potential. Hair and plumes were the first things that came to mind, but how about animals? Specifically, horses and hippogryphs. What colors does this stuff come in?

Josh

The colors that I saw were black, (very) dark blue, off-white, stone grey, 'silver smoke' (the kind I bought) and tan.

According to the websites of different manufacturers, it also comes in blue, red, green, brown, some sort of lighter grey and a few other colors and varying shades.

Hippogryphs would be excellent candidates, but I don't know about horses. Until I test it, I don't know how the vinyl dye will react with LEGO decals and paint, and so the horse' eyes, reigns and mane might disappear entirely, and would have to be somehow reapplied.

Birds, rats, frogs and all other non-decaled animals would be perfectly acceptable.

--Anthony

[Drucifer]

Different colored flags/pennants might be cool... you could have pretty much any colored faction you wanted... and if you were to color the shields the same color, it would be easy to institute a faction based on orange, black, silver, gold, etc...

Unfortunately, AFAIK Vinyl Dye does not come in any metallic or neon-esque colors. For those you would have to come up with an alternate solution.

--Anthony

The trick here is that you can mix dyes while they're wet to create these colors. I haven't done this myself, so I'm not sure of the exact process. I've seen a couple of computer mods, where the modder would mix a layer of wet colored dye (say blue) with a misting of silver dye to get a more metallic finish (in this case, metallic blue). Obviously this would take a little trial and error to get the color down exactly as you wanted.

What would be really great is if vinyl dye could be used to restore yellowed white bricks. I've seen white vinyl dye, so maybe somebody should try that next?

[SavaTheAggie]

What would be really great is if vinyl dye could be used to restore yellowed white bricks. I've seen white vinyl dye, so maybe somebody should try that next?

Just FYI, soaking in Hydrogen Peroxide (3%) in a sealed, plastic container in the dark for one month will restore 99% of yellowed white bricks to white.

--Anthony

[HenrytheV]

I've already done the white hair piece, but Recluce's idea sounds great for Templars or something.

[Drucifer]

Just FYI, soaking in Hydrogen Peroxide (3%) in a sealed, plastic container in the dark for one month will restore 99% of yellowed white bricks to white.

--Anthony

Cool, I remember the thread about your experiment, but I didn't realize the results were so good.

I was just sort of thinking that if vinyl dye could restore white pieces, then maybe we could find some vinyl dyes that match some of the other colors that "yellow". I've got some light gray and blue pieces that really could use a freshening up.

[Sir Brithead]

I bought some of this stuff at an Auto Paint Superstore this weekend after reading the posts about it and it worked great. I got a metalic gray color that was pretty close to the original armor color with a little metalic fleck and all the KKII face masks look sweet in a normal armor shade. I need to do all those KKII swords next.

The colors are to match most interiors to cars, so all the thirty or so colors were shades of brown, tans, and greys to black like previously mentioned with a few colors like red and white(not actually a color, but you knowwhat i mean). There were a few lite yellows that would do blonde nicely. There are a few greens, but like mentioned custom colors, that are a bit pricey, can be made.

It is amazing how much better than paint this stuff looks on legos.

[Suvied]

I was wondering if anyone was willing to try this on softer plastics/rubber like the beard of hagrid or some of the bionicle parts that are softer?

Post a picture if you do.

[Lord Mikal]

Baseplates.

Dye the 48x48 baseplates different colors, specificaly green and blue. We could even take the road baseplates (which are less expensive) and paint on rivers that won't scratch or otherwise wear off.