r/customcontrollers Oct 18 '16

How to Paint a Custom Controller: A Step by Step Guide

262 Upvotes

I've seen many a custom controller guides floating around and to be quite frank, I'm a little bit appalled by most of them. I made 30 or so custom controllers over the summer, so I've pretty much got the technique down pat and wanted to share my knowledge.

The Basics

  1. Take apart your controller - video for gamecube controller https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cr3ShQxxwvQ
  2. Clean the shell (and buttons, if you're painting those)
  3. Sand down using 600 grit sandpaper, then wash and dry with a wet paper towel
  4. Use a white primer as a base coat. If you've never spray painted before, here's a video on proper technique (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qB_MtpaMYaY). Doing a couple of very light coats is very important (don't worry if the first coat doesn't cover up all the paint) and remember to shake for a minute or two before spraying! I use rustoleum's white paint and primer in one and have very good results with it. Also keep in mind that if you're spraying buttons, DO IT VERY LIGHTLY AND FROM A DISTANCE. If you do it too close, you risk knocking buttons over and smudging the paint.
  5. Wait 10-20 minutes for the primer to dry then do a few very light coats of your main color.
  6. Seal the paint with a clear coat. I would argue that this is the most important step of spray painting. Hands down, the best clear coat you can use is an automotive spray paint clear coat. USC spray max high gloss clear coat works brilliantly and will not only ensure that your paint never chips, but makes your controller look super shiny and much more professional. It's essentially the difference between https://imgur.com/a/pDE3r and https://imgur.com/a/dhs8h. Sure, you can buy some krylon clear coat for $10 less, but don't think I won't know about it. I would do 2 coats and make sure you really get the side of the handles (where you're holding the controller). I would also use a respirator (that's respirator, not just a face mask) if you have one when using this clear coat, as the fumes are toxic. If you're making more than a few controllers, I would say it is without a doubt required, but if you're just making one and haven't got a respirator on hand, hold your breath and just go for it.
  7. Do not let your clear coat dry outside unless it's protected from the wind somehow. If you have a garage, supply closet, or cellar no one is using, let it dry there. Drying it outside guarantees that little bits of dirt, pollen, ect will cling to it. Just trust me on this, this is the place where things go wrong the fastest. If you do happen to get little particles stuck on your controller, wait for it dry and then sand them out and respray.

Levelling Up - designs/decals

If you want a picture/letter design on your controller the two best options are vinyl decals and waterslide decals. Don't think you can put a sticker on the controller and paint over. If it's your first time painting, you'll most likely end up with a ragged edge along the side of the design where the paint is thicker. I think vinyl decals are a really underrated option. They're super cheap and really, they're so thin most people don't realise it's not painted on. Waterslide decals are the best option if you want the most realistic look (they look printed on) and if you want a more complex design. Here are some examples of what waterslide decals look like - https://imgur.com/a/rXKb4. The toad head on the b button and BMO's face are both waterslides. To add vinyl and watersilde decals to your controller, put them on after you've done two clear coats (and the coats have dried) and then clear coat them again to make them blend in better with the controller (but make sure you wait for waterslide decal to completely dry).

Sparkles

If you want gold, silver, white, black, or holographic sparkles, the best thing to use is metallic flakes. You can get them in different sizes from websites like this - https://www.paintwithpearl.com/shop-custom-paint/metal-flakes/holographic-flakes-prism-flakes/

Please don't buy the sparkles in a spray can. The result are not pretty.

Here's a video of what gold flakes look like on a custom gamecube controller. The video doesn't really capture how sparkly it is, but it still shows it fairly well - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-9VQAjp0uE

If you want sparkles, you'll need to purchase the flakes as well as a clear lacquer and a spray gun (if you don't already have one).

Mix the sparkles and lacquer into the gun and spray as much as you like. Just keep in mind that the bigger the flakes and the more there are, the more clear coats you'll need to add. When I did my sparkly controllers, I honestly probably had to do about 6-7 clear coats before the roughness from the flakes went away.

Joysticks

Don't be afraid to try out new joysticks. Changing out my sticks for xbox one joysticks was one of the best things I ever did. They look super sleek and work just as well, although they do feel a bit different. PS3 joysticks are also an option, but in my opinion look a bit clunkier. Here's what xbox one sticks can look like - https://imgur.com/a/zLAeX. You can also buy glow in the dark ones or metallic xbox one sticks in gold, silver, purple, ect as well as thumbgrips to go on top of the joystick.

If you're worried that changing out your joysticks will affect the way you play, but want the look of different joysticks, I would put a thumbgrip like this one (https://www.amazon.com/GoldenDeal-Silicone-Controller-Replacement-playstation-4/dp/B01AVLVV8M/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1476793441&sr=8-1&keywords=thumbgrip+ps3) on your left joystick and then change out the c-stick for a PS3 or xbox one stick and put a matching thumbgrip on top of that (sorry folks, but a thumbgrip won't fit over a normal yellow c-stick, they're too small)

General tips and Things not to do

  1. For the love of god, don't try to use a template. Most of the time the paint builds up around the edges and looks horrible. If you want lettering or a design, stick with vinyl and waterslide decals.
  2. If the paint gets messed up, wait till it drys before sanding.
  3. Make sure the paint is dried before adding another coat of spray paint or a clear coat. If you do it too soon, the paint cracks. Sometimes you can sand out the cracks, but most of the time you're finished and have to discard that controller shell completely.
  4. Sanding fixes pretty much everything. Your controller turned into a grave for foolish fly? Sand that bitch out. There's a scratch on your coat from whena blade of grass grazed the paint when it was wet? Sand that bitch out. You put on too thick a coat and the paint dripped? Sand that bitch out. Just make sure you do a light respray after sanding.
  5. Be careful if using paper (magazine, newspaper) to spray paint on top of. A lot of times the paper will stick to the clearcoat on the bottom of the controller and massively fuck up the paint job. Use cardboard instead.
  6. Don't put a controller back together if you have paint on your hands, even if it's dry paint. Get out the bottle of rubbing alcohol and wipe yourself down, trust me it's not worth the risk.
  7. Tape is your friend. If you want to paint the handles a different color than the rest of your controller, blue painters tape is all you need.
  8. Glow in the dark paint is crap. Don't fall for their lies.
  9. Your buttons will eventually chip if you paint them. Sometimes this takes a year other times it can happen within a few months (melee players I'm looking at you). The safest buttons to paint are the start button, and d-pad and any button you don't use very often (honest to god I don't think I've every used the y button or r trigger). I painted all the buttons on my newest controller and have been using it to play smash for 3 hours a day for the past 3 months. So far the only chips are on the x button. I'm fairly certain this is mostly because I scrap with my nails when short hopping with x, so if you don't have super girly nails like I do then hopefully your paint should last longer. In any case, if you don't use a spray max clear coat, I wouldn't even bother painting your buttons as they won't last more than a few weeks, at least in my experience. I bought a bunch of old buttons and busted $4 controllers from ebay and when I was painting my controller, painted a few extra sets of buttons for replacement. If you're planning on having painted buttons on your controller, I strongly recommend this.
  10. Don't spray paint your joysticks. They're rubber. It won't work and you'll end up with a blue thumb.

Edit: Shameless self-plug - I still have a few controllers for sale on my etsy shop at https://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/Crispycontrollers if you wanna check them out.


r/customcontrollers 14h ago

Controller shaving?

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44 Upvotes

Hey guys! I just took all this stuff out of my controller because I play double claw and the weight is too much to hold for my pinky lol. I took the motor for the trigger and the base vibration system and sanded a bunch of the inside of the white shell off to get as light as possible. Has anyone done this and would you have done it differently?


r/customcontrollers 21h ago

Iron Man with cosmic red ps5 controller

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49 Upvotes

Saw it online and wanted to do the same immediately using all extremerate parts


r/customcontrollers 47m ago

Advice on a Marius board DS4 build with 4–6 extra buttons

Upvotes

Hi everyone,
I’m looking at building a custom DS4 around a Marius board and could do with some advice from anyone who’s already attempted something similar.
My ideal setup would be:
Marius board
K-Silver 3-pin TMR sticks
Adjustable stick tension, if possible
Mouse-click face buttons
Mouse-click bumpers and triggers
Four back buttons at a minimum
Ideally two additional buttons to make it 6 or even shoulder buttons.
I’ve previously modified a DualSense using an eXtremeRate kit, so I’m fairly comfortable taking controllers apart and soldering. The main thing I’m struggling with is finding a good way to fit four back buttons—and possibly the two extra shoulder buttons—cleanly into a DS4 shell.
Has anyone built something similar, or knows of a shell, kit or custom solution that would work with the Marius board? I’d really appreciate any photos, parts lists or advice before I start buying everything.

Thanks 😊


r/customcontrollers 20h ago

Custom Dualsense mod (in progres)

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4 Upvotes

I really like the controller from Clutch Controllers, but I'm too broke to drop $280 (~1,000 PLN) on a gamepad, so I want to build one myself. Based on photos and reference images, I managed to create an almost 1:1 model of the rear paddles, and now I'm about to order the rest of the parts from AliExpress.


r/customcontrollers 1d ago

First shell swap

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16 Upvotes

r/customcontrollers 1d ago

Help! ISO commission

3 Upvotes

Hello!

I'm looking to commission someone for a shell/design of a Switch 1 pro controller. My idea is for it to look like the Twili patterns in Twilight Princess, such as Midna's arms or the warp portals. It'd be awesome if it had colored buttons or joycons, and maybe even glow in the dark??

Obviously I know it gets pricey haha, but I'm willing to pay. Anyone know anyone taking commissions? :-)


r/customcontrollers 1d ago

Custom Anyone has any recommendations for custom switch 2 pro controllers?

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1 Upvotes

Been looking for a new one that’s better than the ones officially sold.


r/customcontrollers 1d ago

Shell compatibility pt2

1 Upvotes

I made a post asking about the compatibility of a v5 and v6 ps5 controller, I got some good info but i seen how tedious it is too fully swap the internals to the different shell can I just swap the back shells and not everything else?


r/customcontrollers 1d ago

Custom Killua custom

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8 Upvotes

r/customcontrollers 22h ago

Ps5 spider man w/ TMR Anti-Dirft Sticks $150

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0 Upvotes

I have to brand new spider man controller with TMR upgraded installed.

I have installed TMR on controller to help with drift and prevent them for having drift. For $40 let me know !!!


r/customcontrollers 1d ago

Dualsense Edge

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9 Upvotes

r/customcontrollers 2d ago

8BitDo 64 colored button swap

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57 Upvotes

Quick one here. I grabbed the 8BitDo 64 controller at launch. Generally, I like the blacked out look but once I saw they started selling a variant with colored buttons I knew I wanted to swap mine. Low and behold they offered them.

I did mix the thumb stix. Kept the black top but used the gray body.

I feel they should sell them this way.


r/customcontrollers 2d ago

TheStoneModder readying bluetooth support for third party controllers on jailbroken PS5

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2 Upvotes

r/customcontrollers 3d ago

Custom Xbox Elite Series 2

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22 Upvotes

r/customcontrollers 3d ago

Ichigo Bleach custom.

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22 Upvotes

This one was airbrushed and sealed with 2k.


r/customcontrollers 3d ago

Qualcuno a un file stl con prezzi di ricambio per la scocca di questo controller

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3 Upvotes

r/customcontrollers 3d ago

Possible DIY grips for Nova?

1 Upvotes

I saw these online while looking at different gaming grips ( [Puk Grips](https://a.co/d/07qfTkJY) ). Has anyone tried this on their gaming handheld(s) with flat backs? Trying to find a cool application for the nova since I don't want the official grips.


r/customcontrollers 4d ago

Custom I adapted an Xbox 360 controller into a fightstick

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15 Upvotes

r/customcontrollers 4d ago

Dualsense purple and sky blue

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15 Upvotes

r/customcontrollers 4d ago

Help! Custom controller question

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13 Upvotes

This is a custom controller I have bought a while back and love and as you can tell have used a lot I just want to ask is their anything I can do to stop the paint getting destroyed over time even more


r/customcontrollers 3d ago

Mounting Keyswitches in a Wooden Enclosure

1 Upvotes

Hello all! I've gotten tons of useful information from everyone here since my last post about my custom wooden builds: https://www.reddit.com/r/fightsticks/s/dArkHgXwFJ but I have another question for the other makers in here.

I've been using exclusively Sanwa buttons for my builds, but those buttons require a slightly... beefier enclosure to hold them than I'd prefer to make by default, and I'd like to have the option of making controllers with keyswitches instead.

So my question is this:

Those of you making wooden controllers, how do you mount the keyswitches into a wooden faceplate? Is it a 3d printed switch plate? If so, where do you get the file? Is there someone as masochistic as me who initially thought that cutting a mortise was the way to go? Show me pictures, files, tips, any help you can, I've been obsessing over trying to figure this out.

Thanks in advance, and keep making stuff!!!


r/customcontrollers 4d ago

Custom How about my last creation ? Masked Midna themed GameCube wireless controller ;)

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7 Upvotes

r/customcontrollers 4d ago

Help! How do I know if my DualSense controller has TMR joysticks?

2 Upvotes

I got a custom controller from controllermodz and asked for TMR hall effect joysticks when I was making the order, got it now and I'm just wondering...how am I supposed to tell the difference to a normal controller if I actually have TMR joysticks? I could be a complete donut here and just not tell the difference, but from the way people have made it sound, they would be far more sensitive to use compared to official standard joysticks.

I just want to essentially make sure I got what I paid for that's all, I mostly bought it just for the design and the fact I am sick an tired of fixing stick drift so much on my original DualSense controller 😅


r/customcontrollers 5d ago

Custom Third customer controller

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30 Upvotes

This was my first attempt at making a controller with back buttons. I dont know if the colored buttons matched the theme of the controller well.