I've finally graduated from cardboard to acrylic, or at least I will have when my order arrives...

The templates I've ordered come etched but not painted, and naturally I want the numbers to stand out a bit better, so I am planning to paint them. I'm already aware that there are effectively masks in place, so I was wondering if garden variety, flat enamel spray paint would have any problems bonding to the acrylic. I've never painted on acrylic items before, but I've had experience with enamel not bonding to certain surfaces.

Any input would be appreciated.

Okay, this is going to sound like a sarcastic answer, but I promise it isn't! I would suggest acrylic paints for your acrylic templates... It's one of the easiest types to get hold of, doesn't have any nasty chemicals (apart from the aerosols in spray form) and dries nice and quick.

While I have no reason to suspect enamel sprays would have any adverse effect, I've never used them, so it might not be ideal. If you have any spares, try it on one first and see.

However, I picked up some etched acrylic ship dials just for my epic ships, tried spraying them rather than painting by hand, and found that when the masking came off, the paint in a lot of the finer etchings came off with it. If you have very fine etching on anything I would be tempted to use acrylic paint, watered down, and applied in several coats by hand to make sure. But that shouldn't be an issue for most of the movement templates I've seen.

Good luck!

Any of the usual lines of mini paints that your FLGS stocks should be fine (water based acrylics)

Reaper, P3 (privater press), Citadel (games workshop), Vallejo

Use several thin coats before you remove the paper masking

Congrats on the purchase.

I actually posted mine last week and noted how I painted in the post. Take a look for reference.

https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/223440-my-new-acrylic-templates/

Good luck!

Yeah I'd say standard acrylic paint should be fine. If you don't have any, then craft paint from Walmart at like $1.50 a bottle would work fine.

Another note. I don't think spraying will work as the sides of the templates are not masked.

Thanks to all for the input. Having abandoned STAW some time ago, I had their templates laying around (useless for any other game) and tested a few different types of paint. The spray I had in mind worked fine, but as noted above, the edges being exposed is a problem.

I'm hesitant on using a brush, since I want to do white on black templates, and I don't like the look of hand painted white, usually. (Works great for little details and dry brushing, but I've never liked the look of it brushed over flat surfaces, especially if there's no shading. Might just be the perils of using cheap paint from Walmart, since the nearest game store is around three or so hours away...)

On the litko site it says to use markers. No bs.

I used sharpie brand paint marker. Went over the are and wiped off the excess.

Hand painted white is fine, as long as you slightly water down the paint, do 2-3 coats and leave it to dry fully between each coat. The citadel base range is very good, so I'd suggest Ceramite White. It's designed as a base coat so has good coverage. You can always use some masking tape or blue-tac/putty to mask the edges if you really want to spray them though.

Sharpie markers should be fine. You can get different colors.

i used thinned out acrylic and a sponge. I dabbed the engravings full then cleaned up the mess with a tissue (that sounds so dodgy when I read it back). let the filled in paint dry then did it again.... Dab, wipe, dry repeat

Using a paint marker is actually a nice, no hassle alternative to using a brush and paint or spraypaint. You can get them in different colors and sizes. I would stay away from the cheap acrylic brands myself. They are going to require more coats and tend to have poor adhesion and wear resistance, although since the painted areas are all etched and recessed a bit maybe it won't matter. GW makes some nice white base paint, and even watered down a bit will go on better and last longer than cheaper stuff.

Sharpie will work, the the process sucks. Painting with water based (acrylic) paint is much easier.

I just painted GW's Ceramite White on mine, not very carefully. Turned out good when I removed the masking tape.

One step that I would ad though that the others haven't mentioned: put some varnish on the paint after you're done! I didn't do this and noticed that the paint chipped somewhat after use. I varnished them afterwards and have had no problems after that, but it would have been less time consuming had I done it while the masking tape was still on!

Although to be honest, touching the paint up later isn't really a problem - any you get on raised areas can just be scratched off with a fingernail after it dries.

Any of the above suggestions will work; I used white Zig Posterman markers from markersupply.com simply because I have buckets of them laying around for the freelance work I do.