Painting/touching up original mego heads

[smonte00]

Hi all,
I'm making a custom Captain America for my son's birthday next month. I'm in the process of getting the costume done, but I'm having trouble finding a good original mego head. All of the ones I see on eBay have paint rubs. Is there a paint that I can buy, say at michael's to either touch up a beat up head or remove the paint and repaint it from scratch? All of my son's megos have soft heads (not resin) and I want to continue with that, so I guess I need a paint that won't flake off when you squeeze the head. Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

Steve

[samurainoir]

Tamiya model paints adheres to vinyl pretty well. I usually seal mine up with clear matte spray.

Automotive vinyl seat spray paint also works well (you spray it into a cup), but it's totally toxic so go well ventilated if you go this route.

[smonte00]

Can I just paint over the old paint, or should I remove the old paint first?

[boss]

any acrylic paint should work fine. I've always just painted over what was there.

[PNGwynne]

^ I use acrylics, too for retouching: I add a bit of satin or gloss clear acrylic varnish as needed to mimic the original finish, & sometimes a bit of distilled water.

I've found that the varnish makes the paint flow better and makes it more durable--I don't repaint the entire area or seal it otherwise.

I wash the head with dish-soap first, and give it a once-over with isopropyl alcohol, but I don't strip the original paint.