Painting or otherwise refreshing old bricks

cglittle

I’ve recently bought some very vintage Lego models, cc 40 years old or more.
Successfully freshened up white parts before but looking to help old blue parts that are quite discoloured.
I could use new parts of course, but then it wouldn’t be a complete “old” set.

Is it viable, and acceptable to paint old parts with model making paint such as airfix... and if so, is there a perfect colour match?

cglittle

Sighs....
I’ve just realised I asked an almost identical question last year... and received answers.
So, painting, yes....
Its for my own display models. Not resale.

One_Click_Off

White parts look new when you put them in Hydrogen Peroxide with UV exposure- the yellowing is because of the fire retardant in them that makes the yellowing affect- subjecting them to hydrogen peroxide does not cause a loss of that fire retardant. Blues are known to age in color- there is a process of using acetone on a blue to "mix" a Lego paint of that same color on a brush and then apply but this will, no doubt, be visible as an added coat- it applies to all old colors, red, yellow, etc...just a technique that is well documented.
Grays show the age as well and can be refreshed by hydrogen peroxide as well but apparently do not need UV exposure to do so.
YouTube videos and other Forum posts plus personal experience...
Our legacy is Space Police- how much time we spent recapturing the white parts and so stellar the results!

Calibrick

For what its worth, you could probably airbrush the paint on to have a nice, thin coat, and avoid any brushstrokes. I did this when I parted out my old UCS Millennium Falcon and refused to pay $200/each for the two back "rigging" pieces over the engine. So I bought black, PRIMED them, then airbrushed them with a variant of ghost gray to come close to the light stone gray I parted her out in. It actually came out really nice (I then airbrushed a clear top coat).

The nice thing about airbrushing is it's thinner than handbrushing, yet if you use quality lacquers or enamels (I would avoid water-based paints if you're clipping stuff onto them, e.g., I had to get that rigging into the tiles w/clips) you are less likely to have the paint chip off when popping them in. I prefer Tamiya paints, generally, though good old Testers makes great enamels (just thin them to blow through the brush).

You can get a cheap single-action airbrush on Amazon if you don't have one, and then you really just need an air compressor...

I used to do a lot of model kits <s> (heck, I still do!).