Controller Customization Process - Detailed Log - Destiny Design

Supplies at the ready!

That would be;

1) The brand new, unboxed, PS4 controller (white so that the color of the paint will show up best)
2) A small screwdriver
3) 400 grit sandpaper (we have to sand the surface of the controller in order to prep it for paint)
4) Spraypaints (I have purple, yellow, and a semi-gloss clear up there)

All disassembled and laid out

So many tiny parts. They're all in a mug now so I don't lose anything. Those little screws are the TINIEST things!!

Close up of the front side after sanding

It's hard to see that the surface is sanded, but you can see that the sandpaper is definitely used haha

Taping down the inside of the back of the controller

I put a small piece of painters' tape (that way it won't damage anything when taken off) on the strip inside to tape it down before covering all of that delicate hardware with about a fifth of a tissue then taping it down to secure it. That'll protect the inside of the controller.

Protecting outside details

You definitely want to cover up that power cord port and the light bar. I went ahead and covered up the product information as well.

How I did this;
1) laid down the painters' tape over the parts
2) press the tape into the edges with my fingernail so that I can see where I need to cut
3) CAREFULLY cut into the grooves with an x-acto knife
4) slowly peel away

Voila! Protected and secure!
(we're going to be doing something similar with the designs later on - masking processes are fun)

Set up - back of the controller

I found an old folding chair, some old fabric to lay over it, and a box. The sticks are just some random leftover craft sticks I had laying around that I loosely taped to the inside of the controller. That way it was lifted and I could get to all the areas I needed to get to.

Back of the controller - now purple

When you're spraypainting this you want to keep your hand moving so that you don't have a concentration of paint once it's done drying, that'll make the surface look horribly uneven. I circled around the controller 3-4 times to make sure to have an even coat of the color.

I had to take this off the set up in order to do the front side and I set it on a worktable on top of a piece of cardboard to dry. In order to not touch the paint I had to carefully curl my fingers underneath the controller half and lift it from the inside.

Set up - front side

Rinse repeat!

Front of the controller - now purple

All done with that bottom coat now! This didn't use very much paint at all, I still pretty much have almost an entire can of paint left. So wash that nozzle and I've got purple spray paint for other projects! \o/

These will take about 4 to 6 days to dry, so check in on day 4 and see how dry we are. We want to make sure that it's COMPLETELY dry before continuing to the next step. That includes more tape and we don't want to ruin the nice, even purple coat we have.

All dry, so next materials at the ready!

I've got some regular old computer paper taped down on a piece of cardboard (to test the splatter distance and methods), a thin paintbrush, a dollar store toothbrush, and some tubes of paint.

Testing splatter

Tests went really well from the get-go! I didn't need to practice very much, but here's what the test looked like.

My fingernails still have a little bit of purple on them from doing this about a week ago lol, I should have worn gloves. But I bet the splatter was better from being flicked with my nails anyway. Oh well

Splatter front

I'm really happy with how this turned out. I actually added more purple after these pictures were taken because I used a different tube of paint for the back of the controller and it worked even better than the first tube I used. So the final product will have more purple than in this picture.

Splatter back

The back looks soooo good, I think. I really like it. I'm glad that no further details will be added to the back of the controller so that it can be seen exactly like this, haha

Preparing for cutting out the details

The liquid acrylic paint doesn't take near as long to dry, so we're ready for the next steps pretty soon after applying that workable fixative over the top of the splattered controller. (just to make sure nothing happens to the details)

I did these next few steps in front of my window (nice day out) so there's a weird lighting on the cutting board.

Materials;
1) painter's tape laid out and overlapping each other to make the masking pattern
2) an x-acto knife to cut out the designs
3) pencil to sketch (doesn't work too well on the tape honestly but enough to at least see where I need to put the marker).4) and of course the marker to actually draw the designs so I can see it well enough to cut

I switched from the fine point sharpie to the ultra fine after starting, these designs were small.

5) And finally I have the front of the controller so that I can measure it against the controller and eventually apply! \o/

Finished cutting

Design masks cut out!

Protected that baby!

The masks are now on the controller and I covered all the rest of it with tape so that it would be protected against the next paintjob. I kept having to re-stick the edges of the points that were cut out, so I'm a little worried about the edges of the designs. But we'll see when it finishes drying.

Painted yellow!

The designs are painted on now! [no turning back - oooOOOOOooooooo~~]

Fingers crossed that all the edges are smooth and look good. I had to edit the design just a little from the original sketch due to the smaller details not able to work with the masking process, but it looks like the tape stayed where it was supposed to when I sprayed it. So all looks well for now.

I'll be checking back in in a few days to make sure it's dried then masking off the parts that need to stay yellow before painting the white details on.

White details

Here you can see I taped off the parts that are supposed to stay yellow and only left the sections that needed to be white painted. Unfortunately I didn't take into account that liquid paint (painted with a paintbrush) would bleed under the tape. But!! I managed to fix it up, as you'll see in the next image.

Before and After shots of the details

Had to go in and edit with a toothpick for the straight edges haha, but it looks sooooooo much better

Finished sides!

Before re-assembly

Peeling off that painted on tape felt soooo goooood

I had totally forgotten about the protection I had put on the power cord port, light bar, and the product information. But ooohhhh man was that satisfying to pull away and reveal the clean areas~

Finished Controller!!

All done!

And my, what a handsome controller this is~

Back in its package

It almost looks like I could just go put it up on a shelf in a store haha

All done!!

Looks even better with a dark backdrop~

Thank you all for sticking with this! I know it was a long post, but I hope you enjoyed the step-by-step detailing the customization! \o/
To see more of my work (albeit, not custom controllers) here's my FaceBook art page and my DeviantArt:
-- https://www.facebook.com/AngelynStarr.Art/
-- http://hot-gothics.deviantart.com/