Painting joysticks, and some other questions

[The cranky hermit]

I'd like to paint my joysticks. I have two Happ Supers, and a Ms Pacman/Galaga 4-way.

1: Is this at all possible?

2: What colors should I use? I want to use the colors that will most match the characters I'm controlling. The 4-way is used almost exclusively for Pac-Man, so yellow is the obvious choice. But what color is most frequently used for P1 and P2? I'm guessing that most games use red for P1, and blue for P2, but I'm not sure.

3: What kind of paint should I use, and how would you apply it?

[1UP]

Black is a standard color on 2 player cabs.  I really wouldn't recommend painting anything that gets handled constantly.  Even if you use several coats, let each coat dry for several hours, then let the whole thing dry for a couple weeks to completely cure, it's just a fact of life that the paint will wear off from the constant friction of your hands.

Happ makes several colors of joysticks.  You would have been better off ordering them in the colors you wanted...  

[mmmPeanutButter]

As far as what kind of paint, I would recommend Krylon Fusion paint.  It is available in a bunch of different colors.  It bonds really well to plastic (I saw it make an old Mac bright red).  I haven

[Tiger-Heli]

OSCAR did this on his bartop cab.  He thought it worked well:

http://www.skum.org/bartop/index.shtml

[The cranky hermit]

Thanks for the info. I'd still like an answer to #2, if anyone would.

[pointdablame]

I'm not sure what you mean by "match the characters I'm controlling."  There isn't a set rule of player one is a red player, there are just some trends in some games, so there is no real set answer.  Some games used Red/Blue combos, some use other combinations. It's really just what you like best. I guess the red/blue would be most common, but still not very common when looked at as a whole. Most games will have black joys.

[zzsprade]

This is very similar to what I was thinking about doing before... so I may just have to keep an eye out for that Fusion paint, which may be difficult to find in Australia.

Anyhow, I was originally planning to dye some joysticks with rit dye.... I am not sure if it is possible or if it will work... but I may experiment on a spare handle or something.

Then I thought this week... gold joysticks and buttons.... that could be done with paint. So hearing that Oscar has done it and that it is possible then I may just have to give it a go. I'd be curious to see what he says about constant wear and the paint coming off?

Any ideas on how to speed up the curing process, very little heat in an oven so that the plastic won't melt???

The cranky hermit if all else fails consider rit dye. People use it all the time to dye frisbees and plastic things.

-Alex

[OSCAR]

Then I thought this week... gold joysticks and buttons.... that could be done with paint. So hearing that Oscar has done it and that it is possible then I may just have to give it a go. I'd be curious to see what he says about constant wear and the paint coming off?

http://www.arcadecontrols.org/yabbse/index.php?board=1;action=display;threadid=12072;start=msg94368#msg94368

[zzsprade]

Well I'll be... Oscar you are a good man!

-Alex