According to the pip-boy stats it doesn't work when modding power armor with for example vault-tec paint charisma. Is it just supposed to look different or is power armor bugged?

Are you painting ALL the pieces? The paints that add to SPECIAL will not work unless the whole suit is painted with that paint scheme. It is stupid I know.

The whole thing was vault-tec and didn't add anything!

If what you say is true, then yours is bugged. Its been working for me for a while.

Just tried it again with the 60b set and all was vault-tec, after entering charisma was still the same. (PC 1.2.37)

Are you sure you're not wearing something that boosts Charisma before you get into the Power Armor? If you are, you would see no change when stepping into Vault Tec Power Armor, as the Charisma boost from your clothing would stop applying when getting into the Power Armor; at the same time, though, the Charisma boost from the Power Armor start applying, so you would end up with the same Charisma you had before at best, and lower Charisma than you had at worst.

Yes the clothing has + 1 charisma. So painting all power armor does not yield more than +1? Seems expensive for the cost.

So all the other bonus in power armor is worthless too! Or if one power armor piece has same bonus as another it is futile, seems like a game bug.

He's just saying that bonuses inside the suit don't stack with bonuses for outside the suit (suit proper) which makes sense, you're in a tin can. No one can be mesmorized by how good your hat and suit looks on ya because, again, you're wearing a tin can

Mystery solved, not bugged, nothing to see here.

Just checked and it seems that when wearing power armor all cloth bonus including poison are lost. It's just normally expected that when putting armor on top of armor that it stacks. So it is a bug.

I've got three different suits with the Vault-Tec paint job, and I get the extra charisma when wearing it. There must be something bugged on your end.

Actually, nothing from your armor applies while in Power Armor: resistances, armor effects, and legendary effects are all ignored. If only one of these was ignored, I'd be inclined to agree that it's a bug; since all of them are ignored, I would say it's working as intended. Thankfully, the advantage to playing on PC is mods: you may be able to find a mod on the Nexus that makes armor effects apply while in Power Armor. Unfortunately, I can't personally guarantee this, as I'm perfectly fine with the system as it is now (why should I get a Charisma boost from a Clean Black Suit when no one can see it?); I've therefore never gone hunting for such a mod.

This.

Damage resistance, energy resistance, radiation resistance, and legendary perks of your skin armor get voided out while wearing power armor. It does not stack with your power armor. If you're wearing a +1 charisma item prior to getting into the power armor, you'll lose that +1, but still get the +1 from the power armor itself. This seems like a poor game mechanic in some ways, but honestly it really isn't. Power armor is already incredibly powerful. The fact that it doesn't stack means that when you're wearing power armor, you should leave all of your regular armor behind. Just wear a thin outfit (or no outfit, if you're so inclined) beneath your power armor. Your skin armor takes up a sizable chunk of your carry weight. When you leave behind your regular armor, you're going to have a bunch of extra carry weight freed up, and you'll have automatic 11 for your strength while wearing the power armor. This typically adds up to a considerably better carrying capacity. Canceling out legendary perks like charisma boosting sunglasses makes complete sense though. When you're wearing power armor, nobody can actually SEE the sunglasses, so where would the extra charisma come from?