Dying the F550 Flame wheel arms

[Joffa_Dan]

About to order a F550 kit. Not a big fan of the Red/White colour scheme though
Anyone tried dying the plastic arms with RIT dye or something similar? ig:

 

[ksrimoungchanh]

Have not done any painting or color changed, but if you google for "black rm550" There options.. I personally have not tried but seems like you can get a hell of a deal.. on it from rctimer.

hope that helps..

 

[Dreamweaver]

In europe and asia they sell the black/white version....you could try to get that then order two extra black arms.

FWIW the red/white will grow on you plus it really helps with learning to fly it face forward.

 

[fayrwerks]

done that... just dont over boil the plastic red is now black and white is now yellow...

 

[Joffa_Dan]

^that looks sweet, exactly what I'm talking about.
Why do you say don't over boil the plastic? You mean don't leave them in too long? Can't see how boiling water could hurt ABS plastic but you obviously know something I don't. :02.47-tranquillity:

 

[ChrisViperM]

In my time with RC-Cars we dyed just about everything made of plastic....and most of the time we used fabric dye...like RIT dye. Just make sure the parts are absolutely free of oil, fingerprints ect. For me silikon remover spray worked best. Make sure the water is just close to boiling, otherwise you plastic could become deformed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKhGBpOZrwU&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLC_yI7Nsuk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFif1YXe6CE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOy7JbIKEkg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GywJPuoyTAE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JzPrNjE5o-w

Sometimes I had to cook the stuff for hours to get a deep black...

Chris

 

[Dewster]

Is that the same as Hydrographics/Hydropaint? I was thinking about modding colors for a future build. Check out these Youtube videos:

http://youtu.be/iP7BKHU4WUc

http://youtu.be/YB9YtesgL2Y

http://youtu.be/OM02sJhV_Bw

I think it would add some interesting patterns/colors to the craft that we see today. I was thinking about just spray painting the arms to the colors that I wanted until I saw these videos.

 

[fayrwerks]

^that looks sweet, exactly what I'm talking about.
Why do you say don't over boil the plastic? You mean don't leave them in too long? Can't see how boiling water could hurt ABS plastic but you obviously know something I don't. :02.47-tranquillity:

Chrisviper is right on.... make sure you clean your arms first before dyeing..

one technique i learned from boiling my buggy parts are to after you boil the water/rit dye solutionon a pan is to turn off the stove and drop the arms and let it sit there for 20 minutes... you can do this several times like i did on my yellow arms the first dip was bit too pale and it took me 3 reps to get the color that i wanted. just be informed that the dye penetration will be somewhere in the 1-2mm range if you crash and suffered some deep scratches the original colors will be visible on the scratches...

 

[Kilby]

You can also buy black arms. They are only $4 each now.

 

[ChrisViperM]

Dewster: No..it's not the same. The videos in my post show how to dye plastic with the use of fabric dye...the stuff you use if want to make your yellow t-shirt go black.
Hydropiant is completely different...
I can sing you some songs about spray painting plasics...it will never work, regardless what you try....
The hydropaint is some cool stuff and I tried it a few times....but I found out it is fairly easy on flat parts or parts with slight curves...but the more complex the structure of the part is, the more complicated it gets to get a good result...takes some training to get there.

fayrwerks: Looks like some buggy veterans met up here....:nevreness:

Kilby: That would be the most logical option, but sometimes you need to fool around with this things...is just fun to try and find ways to make things work your way...

Chris

 

[bobandris]

Dan,

I like my F450 and F330 with the port two arms red and the stbd two arms green. You know, nautical and aviation navigation convention. I just used Tamiya spray paint, neon red-orange (brighter than red!) and neon yellow-green for the arms and also the props while I was at it. Looks great and no guessing which side you're looking at out in the mist or overcast.

Bob

About to order a F550 kit. Not a big fan of the Red/White colour scheme though
Anyone tried dying the plastic arms with RIT dye or something similar? ig:

 

[Joffa_Dan]

Sounds cool Bob! You should post a pic, I'm keen to see how it turned out!

 

[spackletoe]

Awesome dye job there, fayrwerks! Shot in the dark, was there any slight weight change to the arms once you dyed them?

 

[v84x4]

Been Dying for 25 years now
I'll give you my secret sauce :friendly_wink:

The Best Way to Dye Plastic is use Sharpie permanent markers .99 cents each
or you could use "Indian Ink" which is much more expensive

Any Color You Want

Remove the Inside Ink cartridge from the Marker
For small parts I use 2 Markers to a 1/2 cup of water in a small sauce pan
Bring to a boil and place the Ink Cartridges into the water and squish out the ink with a spoon
Depending on how dark you want it, small parts take 2 Ink Cartridges
where as larger parts will take up to 5 cartridges............

"RIT DYE" = $3.99 a bottle with only 8 colors
"Sharpie" = .99 (or less) any color you want even Gold


Best Regards, Rick

 

[spackletoe]

Hi all! If anyone is interested in color DJI arms for the flamewheel frames (or other frames that use these same arms) We offer a handful of colors (purple, orange, green, pink, yellow, and more to come).

For an affordable price, we can save you a lot of hassle of the different ways to perfect the dying process (and also the possibility of a messy kitchen ;-)

Check out our selection at wildpilots.com/store

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