Best way to darken plastic grips?

[jd pilot]

I picked up one of Puppetboy's PFC Bapty revolvers, and it's really a nice looking piece. With that said, I would like to darken the grips to a more walnut color. The ones it comes with are just a little too light for my tastes.



They are lighter than what the pic above shows (This is Todd's pic from his thread). What would be the best way to darken them? I've thought about painting, or even kind of a wash over it, but I hesitant to try it in fear it might rub off quickly if handled (pun slightly intended). Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!

[Rook]

You could do a black wash over them, and then use a clear spray sealer to "lock" it in.

I've done that before and it works pretty well. Krylon makes both a clear gloss sealer
and a clear matte finish version... which is actually more like a satin. On grips, I prefer
the clear gloss. But that's just me. Put a couple coats on 'er and you'll be set.

Russ

[jd pilot]

Thank you sir! What do you like to use for the black? Anything inparticular?

[Rook]

On armor I've just used plain old black acrylic paint, and then clearcoated over it. It seemed to work fine.

Russ

[jd pilot]

Got ya. Thank you sir!

[RaiderZee]

There are some nice S&W N Frame Vintage grips for sale on a well-known auction website. $49.99. Silver medallions instead of brass, but that's any easy fix. And they're real wood.

RaiderZee

[jd pilot]

Wood grips would be better, but I'm trying not to spend any more than I need too I did see those, and they are 'almost' correct, but would be a good substitute for the actual grips.

Ok, what I ended up doing was painting the plastic ones a darker brown, gave it 3 acrylic washes, and hit it with a matte clear. I should have left the last step off, but with a little rubbing it weathered it a bit more and I was happy with the results. I'll snap a few pics and post 'em in a bit.

[John Vaughan]

On armor I've just used plain old black acrylic paint, and then clearcoated over it. It seemed to work fine.

Russ

This works very well on just about anything. acrylic is a water based paint so if ya don't like it wash it off, and start over.

[jd pilot]

So this is the color of the original grips:



*picture from todd's thread.


And this is the color what I finished up with. This was the closest color that I could get in a pic.



This pic is to show the weathering on the coin...pay no attention to the grip color, it's actually more brown. Coin is weathered with brass black and sand paper.




Where it doesn't look exactly like wood, it does look a lot better color wise, in my humble opinion

[John Vaughan]

Well, your humble opinion is right on. Looks great Bro. That's just in my humble opinion tho'.

[jd pilot]

Thank you sir

[moviematt1989]

If your still itching for a woodish look, try re-doing the paint job like so

::

do a black underlayer.

Then with the correct brown paint, mix with tamyia paint thinner, very conservatively, then apply brown paint, let stand for 40 seconds, then whip with a tissue or brush to have the black undertones come through. then seal it with a clear coat. It's a modeling technique I've used and found works well.

[jd pilot]

That's interesting... I'll have to give that a try Thanks!!