Originally Posted by bg4533
I have read a lot about painting plastic computer parts. Generally vinyl die is what is best to use. It comes like spray paint and partially absorbs into plastic rather than just sitting on top and if done properly it wont flake off. It is frequently used for cars, so an auto place might be your best bet.
well, IF you decide to paint it, i think you need to do your homework and find the right paint, because the 2 problems are:
1) paint damaging the helmet
2) "normal" paint will crack and look crappy
back in college someone gave me a motorcycle helmet (i already had a few). it was some nasty 70's color so i created a design - red and black - and masked and painted it. it looked REALLY good for about a week and then the paint started to fade and chip a little... and this was one of the fiberglass/hard plastic helmets or whatever so it was easy to sand and all --- most of the bike helmets have vents and so are not a flat surface so easy to sand or for the paint to stick well.
as bg4533 said, you need some kind of paint especially for lightweight platic.
for my motorcycle helmet it was ok to paint as the crappy paint job looked better than it had before... and with the thick hardshell of the helmet i think it was less likely to damage it (the paint never got close to the padding inside)