Latest Nipper Project (A Nipper Makeover!)

[Jerry B.]

Here's my latest Nipper project. He's one of the last generation of Nippers and he plastic. When this type of Nipper was manufactured the features, like ears, nose, collar, etc., were painted directly to the plastic. I doubt if the plastic was prepped for paint and very few of these Nippers still have good features. The features are either faded or flaking or both. I've wondered if they were almost a disposable Nipper and not intended for long term display.

This particular Nipper came to me painted white. To make matters more difficult the white was applied without preparation and was already flaking. Another problem were some cracks in Nipper's body. I drilled small holes at each end of the cracks in hopes of stopping further cracking. I try to do a good job with any project and the only way to do this project justice was to strip off the white paint. After about a four hour investment Nipper was free of paint. As you can see in the photos, Nipper's body is discolored. An accurate restoration on a plastic Nipper would require painting the features directly to the unpainted dog. But a plastic Nipper looks terrific if you first paint the body followed by painting the features. This dog will look very much like a paper mâché Nipper when finished. That's my goal. This project is not a Nipper restoration. I'll call it a Nipper makeover.

The photos show progress through day 2.

Jerry Blais

[AZ*]

Great job, Jerry. I look forward to the final result. I'm pleased that you found and are using the correct products. I've used similar products when replacing automotive interior plastic trim that is molded in one color, but needs to be painted with the correct automotive color for plastic trim to match the car.

No this isn't a "machine," but no complaints from me about this post appearing in this sub-forum.

[Jerry B.]

I am using acrylic paints for the features. The final step was to spray Nipper with a satin clear coat. A couple of the photos show two Nippers. One is an unrestored paper mache next to the recently painted Nipper. In my opinion a painted plastic Nipper looks a great deal like a restored paper mache Nipper. Jerry Blais

[alang]

Great makeover and a stunning result. I admire your artistic talent. This would look great in any Victor Salesroom (or collection of course).

Thanks for sharing.
Andreas

[fran604g]

I always enjoy seeing Nipper being resurrected by your careful work, Jerry.

As always, very nice!

Fran

[MTPhono]

Stellar restoration! Bravo

[travisgreyfox]

Awesome work! I need one for my shelf at home.

[JohnM]

Great job, Jerry!
Just for future reference, some plastics require an adhesion promoter to take SEM paint. Standard practice is to razor blade-off a thin sliver of plastic and drop it into water. If it sinks, no adhesion promoter is needed, but if it floats it needs a promoter. The memory device is: ‘If it’s a floater it needs a promoter’.

[phonogfp]

It looks great, Jerry - - probably the nicest plastic Nipper I've seen! Your paint covered the subtle translucence seen on the plastic variety, and made it resemble paper mache. Nice work!

George P.

[barnettrp21122]

I'm so glad you got the eyes, nose and markings right! We've all seen some bad examples!
Very nice work!
Bob