Controllers: The Wild Side

The perfect color for your Xbox controller color exists — it just might not be sold by Microsoft. If the standard-issue hues don’t match your personal tastes, consider finding your next controller color from an auto shop. We’ll explain how to easily spray the perfect hue to match your eyes, couch, or favorite zoo animal.

A Word of Warranty Warning
There is no way to disassemble and paint your controller without voiding its warranty. Anything you do to alter your gamepad will be entirely at your own risk. If you have any doubts about your hacking skills, don’t do this project. If things go poorly — if you lose a part, or break something, or simply don’t like the mess you’ve made when it’s all painted up — you’re not getting a new controller from Microsoft or OXM. That said, if you follow the instructions as stated and you’re willing to take the risks, well, we wouldn’t offer these instructions if we hadn’t tried them ourselves. 

Stuff You’ll Need
TOOLS:
Philips 0 screwdriver
Torx 8 security screwdriver (only for wireless controller)
X-Acto/hobby knife
Computer with Photoshop or other image editor*
Printer*

SUPPLIES:
Masking tape
Medium- to heavy-weight matte printer paper*
Vinyl dye spray
Glue sticks (the school supply kind)

Step 1: Plan a Design
Plan the new look for the controller. If you’re doing only a simple, solid color or limited matting with tape, sketch out a rough plan on paper and then move ahead to step 4. If you want to stencil a face, iconic image, or repeating pattern, track down reference images online, or snap a photo with a digital camera.
[IMAGE: zebra_pattern_working_cutout filter.psd]

Step 2: Size Up the Image
Fire up Photoshop (or your favorite image editor, but we’re using Photoshop for this tutorial) and open the images. Create a new document that’s the right size for your printer paper (ideally 8.5” x 11” or 8” x 10”), and move the best reference picture into that document. Select all. Use Edit > Transform > Scale to re-size the picture to fill the whole page. (Hold Shift to maintain the original aspect ratio.)

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