Is full case painting worth the hassle or just stick with shell swaps?

I was at a mod meetup in Austin last month and someone showed off a PS5 they'd fully airbrushed with a custom Elden Ring scene. Looked killer, but they mentioned it took 14 hours including prep and clear coat, plus they had to redo the top panel once when dust got in the paint. Meanwhile my buddy just snapped on a $35 clear shell and called it a day, took him 20 minutes and it still turns heads. I get the appeal of total custom art, but the risk of ruining a $500 console versus a cheap shell swap feels like a big gap. Has anyone here done both and regretted one over the other? What's the real payoff for the time spent?

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claire_butler14d ago

How much of that 14 hours was actual painting versus waiting for coats to dry and fixing mistakes though? Tbh the payoff only really kicks in if you're doing custom art nobody else has, because a clean single color job is something you could mostly get from a shell swap anyway. But here's the thing people miss, that painted console becomes a one of a kind piece, and if the art is good it can actually hold value or even go up, while your buddy's clear shell is worth exactly 35 bucks the second he snaps it on. The catch is you have to be honest about your skill, because a bad airbrush job is worth less than stock and now you're out the console too. So for me it comes down to this, shell swap if you just want a new look, full paint only if you actually have a design worth the risk.

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