Painting a lav mic

[aristotle_kumpis]

Have any of you painted a lav mic? I want to paint mine a different color, but I'm not sure which type of paint to use.

[Jay Rose]

Can you wrap it in white paper tape, and use markers? Lots more undoable than paint, and you can trim the tape with an xacto to make sure it doesn't get near the grill / input hole.

[nickreich]

yes, we do it all the time in the Theatre. The best paint to use for MOST lavs is the little cans of spray-on shoe paint. It's designed for changing the colour of leather shoes, so is still flexible when dry. First put a little square of Gaffa tape or waterproof first aid tape over the grille, hang the mic straight down then do multiple sprays from a greater distance then you would normally think - so it doesn't get too thick. We often use a couple of colours as speckled overspray to match performers hair colour.

A few brands of mic, such as the latest Sennheiser MKE-1 cable formulation, don't work as well with the shoe paint, and you have to use the little cans of model aircraft paint instead, but even that comes off in a week or so. Test your paint on a dead lav first if possible. We've tried the paper tape idea too, but it makes the lav to inflexible for head-mounts. May work OK for other types of mount.

[Lancashire soundie]

You could try plasti dip - http://www.plastidip.co.uk/

 

That way, if you don't like the colour, you can simply peel it off.

[studiomprd]

AK: " Have any of you painted a lav mic? "

yes.

EV used to make a model specifically for painting!

[aristotle_kumpis]

Thanks guys. I'll look into those options.