Painting aqarium plants, advice needed

[Kikuchiyo]

Looking to build some jungle terrain for my Burma project. Last time I used aquarium plants I made a bit of a mess of them with the paint flaking off once I started sing them.

Has anyone had better luck adding a bit of depth and colour but retain the ability to handle them

[has.been]

On the recommendation of someone on LAF (sorry forgotten who/when/where)
I used a green designed for plastic garden furniture. It works well as an undercoat,
then light spraying of other greens & browns, with some detail picked out with
thinned acrylics.
Mine has been around for over a year & is still going fine. It has helped that
everything is based in clumps & I NEVER pick them up by the foliage, but always
by their bases.

[SteveBurt]

Artist acrylic in tubes do well on flexible plastic

[Kikuchiyo]

Thanks I'll give them a try

[FifteensAway]

I suspect they should be washed first and then primed with a rattle can spray primer, warm to hot water with a drop or two of detergent and then a very thorough rinse and just as thorough dry.  And once painted, a good seal coat of a matte spray seems critical for long term durability.  If you have access, the dead flat camouflage paints seem a good idea but a very limited palette. 

[SteveBurt]

In my experience spray primers do not work well on soft plastic. They peel off; tube acrylics form a flexible skin which doesn’t flake and takes paint well

[Cat]

Scrub with toothbrush and bit of detergent in the water.  Rinse and dry.  Krylon Fusion (US) spray paint works well on soft plastics.

[FierceKitty]

Just off the wall, but what about coating them with a layer or two of epoxy resin before painting?

I've had acceptable results doing up stems of soft plastic with an indelible board marker, leaving the leafy bit in the unattractive but authentic green it came out of the packet wearing.