Plastic, Tempera Paint, Modpodge, yes?

September 9, 2019 1:55 PM

I want to paint a piece of plastic with tempera paint. I don't want to sand it because I'm lazy and it's a small fiddly piece of plastic. I will be using modpodge as part of the same project. The moppodge website claims that it bonds anything porous to anything non-porous (including plastic). So I'm thinking tempera paint is porous and plastic is not, so that's porous on non-porous. Can I paint the plastic, coat it with modpodge and leave it at that?
posted by If only I had a penguin... to Media & Arts (7 answers total)

Best answer: I may be misunderstanding the sequence of events, but wouldn't the order be to modpodge the plastic, then paint the modpodged plastic?
posted by hepta at 2:04 PM on September 9, 2019 [3 favorites]

Best answer: A spritz of spray primer will help the tempera stick to the plastic, then the modpodge can seal it over.
Or what above said about modpodge first; basically use the modpodge as primer.
posted by Pastor of Muppets at 2:10 PM on September 9, 2019 [1 favorite]

Tempera is water-based and will bead up if the paint is too thin and you don't sand the plastic. Mix the paint with the Mod-podge to get some adhesion.
posted by yeahlikethat at 2:34 PM on September 9, 2019 [2 favorites]

I'd add a layer of gesso to the plastic to prime it for paint.
posted by aclevername at 2:55 PM on September 9, 2019

Do a test on a scrap of plastic.
posted by theora55 at 7:16 PM on September 9, 2019

Tempera is water based and will crack and separate from the plastic as it dries. Unless it is acrylic tempera, which will adhere fine to plastic. You can transform water based tempera into acrylic by adding some clear acrylic painting medium.

I'm not sure what's in mod podge, so not going to give an opinion on that.
posted by effluvia at 3:42 PM on September 11, 2019

Response by poster: So yes, I guess modpodge first makes sense. I did plastic painted with modpodge. I let that dry. Then I painted with tempera. It didn't bead and it didn't crack when it dried. Once dry I added another layer of modpodge to seal. It seems to have worked fine. If (future reader) you wanted a super nice, flat, even finish, then this probably isn't a good solution. It looks sort of worn/industrial, but I'm building a bus barn, so worn/industrial is actually perfect.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 8:12 PM on September 11, 2019