Painting rubber berets and caps

Just a word of warning so others don't make the mistake I have made.

I had a couple of British paratrooper berets which had faded to pink. I asked on here if there was a fix and amongst the suggestions was to paint them with acrylic paint. Off I went and bought artists acrylic paints. I gave one beret a couple of coats of red. The paint is flexible but remains tacky weeks after it was applied.

Unhappy with this I bought some Tamiya Acrylic to paint the other. I gave it one coat last night. It has covered very well, very even with no brush strokes and has dried over night. I will be stripping the other paint of the other beret and re painting it with the Tamiya stuff.

All acrylic paints are not the same as I wrongly assumed. The Tamiya stuff seems very well suited to the rubber used in the manufacture of VAM stuff, I was so impressed I have been out and bought some more to paint a dark green beret for my marine and re paint the German officers cap details which I removed with over zealous use of nail varnish remover.

Usually paint remains sticky because a very thick coat is applied, or a second coat is applied when the first one is still fresh, so the outer coat in contact with the air dries, sealing the fresh one underneath and not allowing it to dry.

Remember, always wait a few hours between coats. If you're using enamels, wait 48 hours to be sure

Acrylic will stay sticky , as i explained i paint the beret with acrylic then coat with a water based matt varnish, never had a problem.

I had not realised the significance of the varnish. I thought that was to get a matt finish - my mistake.

However, the Tamiya acrylic paint is very thin, leaves no brush strokes and has dried to a great finish, so I am going to try and stick to using them where possible as I am happy with the result.

great tip mate

PH5121, everyone has their preferences, it's all a bit trial and error. Glad you found what suits you and looking forward to seeing some pictures.