TF2 Glitched Items: Paint Glitches

This guide is part of a series on glitched items in TF2. For the purposes of these guides, the term 'glitch' will refer to an item that:

• Has a quality/attribute/level that is different from that normally possible; and/or
  
• Has a quality/attribute/level that is not normally possible; and/or
  
• Is missing an attribute that is not normally present; and/or
  
• Has only be seen as a result of Steam Support mistakenly (or purposefully) granting it

At the time of writing I know of 4 different glitches that affect paint (and paint spells), and they fall into 2 categories; (1) Painted Unpaintables, and (2) Team Paint Glitch.

Painted Unpaintables

▶ The Schema Mistake

The item schema dictates whether an item is paintable or not, and occasionally an item is mistakenly made paintable when it should not be. The mistake is usually corrected quickly, resulting in just a few painted items being made. As far as I know, the following is a complete list of these items.

★ Pencil Pusher ★	~100 exist
This item was paintable for about 4 months and is the most commonly seen Painted Unpaintable. The item is not setup for paint, so there is no visible in-game change.

★ Lucky Shot ★	~5 exist
Could be painted for ~24 hours, so very few were made. As with the Pencil Pusher, the paint has no visible effect in-game.

★ Cow Mangler 5000 ★	~15 exist
Probably the most famous Painted Unpaintable, it was only paintable for 27 hours and uniquely, could only be painted with team paints. Very few were made, and importantly, the paint shows on the weapon in-game (and used to affect the projectile too).]

Below is a render I made is SFM that shows the appearance of the Cow Manglers on each team. At present it appears that no Cow Manglers were painted with Cream Spirit, Operator's Overalls, or An Air of Debonair.

▶ Transmogrifiers

Transmogrifiers were introduced during Scream 2013 and could be used to turn one of the Scream 2013 items of a specific class into a different item for that class. Additionally, all attributes of the input item (quality, level, paint, etc) carry over into the new item. As a consequence it was (and still is) possible to obtain a Painted Unpaintable. Spells that are not normally able to be applied to specific items are also transferred.

★ Scream 2013 Cosmetics ★	common, >100 exist
Any item from the Scream 2013 update that is not normally paintable can have paint applied through the use of a Transmogrifier. Note that besides the Cow-Mangler 5000 the Horsemann's Hand-Me-Down is the only other Painted Unpaintable for which there is a visible in-game color change.

Below are images that show the default team colored patch, and a glitch painted patch.

Not Painted

Painted

Team Paint Glitch

Prior to June 23rd 2011, all paints had a single attribute that specified which color they were. After that date team colored paints had a second attribute to specify the color for the Blu team. It is possible for one or the other of these attributes to be missing.

▶ Blu Attribute Missing

This is the most common Team Paint Glitch. Prior to the update on June 23rd 2011 Team Spirit paint had a single attribute to specify the Red team color only (Blu team color wasn't specified but still works in-game). After the update a whole new value was assigned for the Team Spirit paint and I now refer to them as Team Spirit 'old' and Team Spirit 'new' respectively. Team Spirit 'old' does not have an attribute for the Blu team color, but both colors work in-game. Thousands of these 'old' Team Spirit hats exist.

Team Spirit - Old	Team Spirit - New
Normal paint splotch, but missing description of the paint on hover.	Normal paint splotch and has description of the paint on hover.

▶ Red Attribute Missing

Possibly the rarest paint glitch. For each of the team paints there may be less than 5 items that lack the Red attribute. Interestingly, for these items when playing on the Blu team the paint works, but when playing on the Red team there is no visible paint. Also note how the in-game paint splotch is missing the Red color.

An Air of Debonair - Red Attribute Missing

Paint splotch is missing the Red color and the paint description is missing on hover.

[Juan Cortez]

yo i have Team Spirit - Old of hound dog heavy hat is it rare ?

[JayTuut]

gimme pencil pusher

[BadJjoke]

Looking to trade my unusuals for Painted Cow Mangler

[OrangeKRUSH]

There's a glitched painted Muskelmannbraun Chicken Kiev on Backpack.TF
https://backpack.tf/classifieds?page=2&item=Chicken%20Kiev&quality=13&tradable=1&craftable=1&australium=-1&killstreak_tier=0#:~:text=35%20keys-,Haunted%20Chicken%20Kiev,-Bumped%20about%202

[Lulz_]

send trades on legacy items, wouldnt mind owning more

[Gnasty]

If anyone owns or knows anyone that owns a Red Attribute Missing Triboniophorus Tyrannus, please contact me!!

[Buhdeuce Official]

glitch on scrap.tf because its a new wairpaint

[Kit8Bit]

I've just seen a war paint that was listed as " unknown war paint War Paint" on Scrap.TF. The paint looks completely white but I haven't seen it on any weapons. Is this just a glitch on Scrap.TF or a glitched war paint in-game?

[System Of A Down]

selling https://steamcommunity.com/id/pyrokardes/inventory/#440_2_9164301687 this is legacy ts painted

[Pointless Striker]

Selling craftable green pencil pusher