Coloured diamonds new technique!!

[Bflower]

Hi all, I'm a model maker by trade and have access to alot of machinery. I've painted my front and rear diamonds black along with bullets and other such bits, you all know. It came to Painting my wheel diamonds and I basically couldn't be bothered to sand the chrome and key them up as I thought the paint is Gona chip so easy so I've been trying to find a more durable method of colour coding wheel diamonds and it will work with anything pretty much, Dash strips bullets etc.

I have a vac former at work which is a machine that heats up and shrink wraps plastic around an object. I placed the wheel diamonds into the former and stretched 1mm black plastic around the diamonds and they look superb took 5 mins per diamond and basically the end result is a diamond coated in hard plastic so the colour is more durable and it won't chip off etc.

I think they look superb, you can also pretty much do any colour

 

[todd100]

looks good, edges look a bit rounded tho, do a bigger badge see what it looks like?

 

[Bflower]

Bigger badges and objects with less undercuts and edges work best but there good enough for wheel diamonds

 

[gunner3011]

i tried this in school about 9 months back on a diamond but it looked more bulky and less shapely so i just painted it in the end.

also tried it on the 'clio' badge but that didnt work so well!

 

[Wick]

Good find, and although slightly rounded....think the quality looks good!

 

[Bflower]

Just fitted the diamonds to the car, love em

 

[Bflower]

Just fitted the diamonds to the car, love em

 

[gunner3011]

Look good mate. are they matt black though?

 

[tonksy26]

I like the first picture, its different with the big rounded smooth edges. I think it looks quite impressive even on the larger diamonds tbh

 

[Bflower]

the first picture on the thread is a small wheel diamond, its just a very close up picture, so everything looks rounder. Once on the car, you cant tell the difference between mine and a painted set. if you were to do bigger diamonds it would be easier to wrap because the opening in the center of the diamond is bigger so the plastic would wrap inside easier if that makes sense

 

[Bflower]

these are like a satin black, depends what plastic you want to use, plus you can lacquer straight over them if you want to make them gloss. the lacquer may chip though (but the colour will never)