Hi, everyone. I’m looking to restore a few of my Kenner Ghostbusters figures and the Ecto-1. Egon and Peter’s hair is a little worn off. Does anyone know the best paint colors to use to touch them up?
The Ecto-1 is in pretty good shape. The claw in the back is missing the two-prong piece but the string and everything else is in good shape. I ordered a replacement claw from ebay and it should arrive soon. Does anyone have experience replacing the claw? I’m thinking of removing the two-prong piece from the new claw and attaching it to the old one-prong piece. This way I won’t have to remove the original string or metal brackets, which I’m hoping to keep if possible. I’m not sure how much stress the plastic claw can take. I don’t want to crack it.
To match colors, I usually just take the action figure in my pocket to whatever store sells the tubes of acrylic craft paint, and compare it to the selections. If you’ve got a hobby/modeling shop in your town, they’ll have more shades of brown and green than a Wal-Mart or Hobby Lobby craft section would.
Failing the elusive in-store perfect match, just buy a bunch of different colors and learn to mix paint by eye until you get a match. “Hmmm… this brown isn’t quite right for Chewbacca’s fur. It looks like it needs more yellow.” Add a few drops of yellow at a time and mix it thoroughly until it matches. “Oh no, now it’s too light. Let me darken it with a drop of black.” Etc.
Don’t forget that it isn’t the wet paint that needs to be a match, it’s the dry. So do a small test and allow it to completely dry before committing yourself to doing an entire repaint.
I’ve no experience at swapping out the claw or string on an Ecto. Sorry.
Alex
Yeah, don’t use those horrible $1 paint tubes at walmart. They’re for old lady crafts. Plastic is not ceramic.
If you want it to look good, hit your hobby lobby and grab some Vallejo paints. There won’t be a basic match, you’ll have to mix the colors to make it work. I recommend repainting their entire hair part. Just mix a brown as close as you can. Repaint the entire part so it all matches. Kenner paints use a satin finish on their older toys, so you’ll either need to brush a satin finish over the thing when you’re done, or just repaint the whole hair part so it all matches.
The plastic claw is polyurethane plastic. It can take stress all day and not break that easily. It will show a ton of white stress lines, though. If you have a heat gun or an industrial blow dryer, you can usually remove the stressing in the plastic by heating it. Don’t melt it, though.
Why don’t you just untie the string from the car’s axle? That would be the easiest way. If I remember correctly, the claw just snaps together. There’s a chance the gray plastic on the replacement claw won’t match your car if they haven’t been aged in a similar environment. One may be more yellowed. I would just swap out the entire claw and retie the string. No reason to make it more complicated than tying a knot.
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Hey FT!
They’re both wrong. :lol: Citadel Paints made by Warhammer are what you want to use. I did a restoration job on a set of Kenner figures. I show the colors that I used and how I mixed them to match. Here’s the link:
Now, as to the paint to use. You want to use an Acrylic Paint for the restoration of your figures, not an Enamel. A good grade of Acrylic Paint will stay flexable and bend with the plastic, Enamel is a bit harder and will tend to chip, besides not all Enamels play well with plastics.
As to the brand of paint, everyone has their own favorite and we could fill up page after page with arguements and not reach a winner. Just don’t go cheap and buy Dollar Store.
As for the Claw, just snip the old one off and tie on the new one. You won’t loose that much thread.
I use Citadel too. Vallejo are just better quality…Citadel have gotten worse since they tried to revamp their line. Their flats look oily. You can’t beat Vallejo’s flat tones. Citadel just excells at metallic paints.