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Silver Playmo.

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Sir Gareth:
Don't you all go getting to excited about the title of this post yet.

 For years now I have been trying to find a way of restoring the old silver playmobil weapons and accessories from the knights theme. I have tried several paints in the past and none of them have really given the shine that I want, although there has to be a paint out there somewhere that will do the job because that's all it is a painted finish, isn't it?

 My latest attempt to restore these items took me down a different path something that I have never done before. After getting the 30 year anniversary 4430 golden knight with his real gold finish it made me think about gold plating or gilding. So I looked up this method on the net and decided that maybe it was possible to Gold/silver plate Playmo. Now that sounds expensive doesn't it but there are gold and silver looking metal leaf products out there so I have used one of them called easy metal. The sheets are 14 x 14 cm each and the pack I bought contained 10 sheets + 4 free for £6.99 so about 64p a sheet and you can get at least 10 - 12 breast plates out of 1 sheet.

 The process is fairly simple.

 1) clean the item you want to cover making sure it's free of grease and dust, I polished the old silver off with metal polish and then removed the polish with Methylated spirits.

2) Apply a thin coat of size ( adhesive ) to the area to be covered. This has so far been my biggest problem, I can't find the stuff anywhere near me so I tried a substitute watered down copydex. The problem was I couldn't get it thin enough and as it dried it left ridges from the brush strokes so I didn't get an even surface and these showed through.

3) After about 15 minutes apply the easy metal and tamp down with a soft cloth or brush and leave to dry for 2 -3 hours.

4) after the drying time go over the area with a soft brush with circular movements to remove any loose metal to leave a smooth finish.

5) Then coat the area with a suitable varnish or shellac to protect the surface and to stop it oxidizing.

Sounds simple enough doesn't it, but like I mentioned above in stage 2 I couldn't find the right adhesive so I was left with ridges in my finished surface. also being a bit impatient I didn't give it enough time to dry and some small pieces came off when I brushed it. Also my brush wasn't soft enough and actually scratched the whole surface leaving it duller, the correct brush is made from real squirrel hair and expensive( how they get the squirrel hair is also of great concern to me).

However despite these problems I have had the best finish yet and will continue to look for the right adhesive and a softer man made brush and every now and then I will have a go at it. If I manage to get a good finish with the cheap stuff which isn't as shiny as the real silver leaf, I will then look at using the proper stuff. Who knows oneday I might be able to make a 24 carat gold plated klicky Oscar.

The pictures below are.
1) my pile of silver stuff you can see 2 old untouched breast plates and 2 painted ones that I did with plasticote chrome spray paint. The Crown shows how shiny the silver should look.

2) is of a cleaned breast plate.

3) is of the finished piece showing the glue marks underneath.
 
4) showing the colour comparison, on the left an untouched piece, the centre is the covered piece and at the end an old painted piece.

If anybody else out there has already found a way or a good paint to restore these please let us know.

Captain Henry:
Very interesting information Garry! Thanks!

I have had some success using the Plastikote chrome paint, but it was not to refurbish old armor, so I have not compared it to the original pieces. But it seemed to go on very smoothly and had a very nice shine. The gold was used for the handgrabs on my first class passenger coach, and the silver was used for the chrome on Captain Henry's jeep:

Tiermann:
Hi Garry,

I wondered what size is used for so did a search. It looks like it is used in woodworking. Here is something I found about it online: "Glue size is most commonly made of a watered-down, water-based, PVA adhesive. If you do plan to make your own, try something on the order of 10 parts (or a little less) water to one part white glue. "

So it sounds like you could try white school glue thinned out if you haven't already

Meg:
Have you tried using Nail Polish for a shiny look

I had an old silver sword/cutlass that I once used nail plish on, and I was rather pleased with the results.

But I havent tried anything else, since

Meg

Captain Henry:
I was looking more closely at the chrome finish on the jeep and comparing it to the silver armor (now that I finally have a silver armored knight, albeit one of the new ones), and it does not quite have the same shine.

Along the lines of the nail polish that Meg suggested, I will try to experiment giving the chrome paint a coat of clear gloss over it and see how that works. As it has been a bit chilly lately, and all my painting is done out of doors, it may be a few days until I can try it...

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