Painting My Way

[NomadRacer]

I am, by no means a professional painter but have painted lexan bodies in many scales over the years... many years. I've done 1/24 and HO scale slot car bodies, starting in the late 60's.

This is going to be as much as a step by step of my way of doing things. It may be right, may be wrong. I'm self taught so don't take anything you see me do as "gospel".

The first thing I did was mount and trim the body to what I considered perfection. I got some help from Jeff (GoMachV) regarding the easy way to cut for the front body mount post. You can find that thread in this section of the forum. All the edges of the body are sanded/near polished. Most tears in lexan start from a rough edge so I make sure that my edges are perfect before even thinking about painting.

These are my basic tools for masking...

Metric steel rulers
Tamiya scissors (very sharp and precise)
Red Sharpie pen (you might like a different color)
Cut down x-acto knife with #11 blade (cutting the handle down makes it easy to get around inside the body)
Tape- I'm using some wide, Tamiya like tape that I bought years ago. It's branded as KAMOI TAPE.



I use the Sharpie pen to outline (on the outside of the body) the area I want to mask for no paint. I burnish (rub down) the tape well, then follow the Sharpie outline on the inside the best I can with the knife. I don't use a lot of pressure and try not to depend on the tip of the blade to make the cut. Cutting mostly with the tip can cause a ragged edge. I use a new blade for each window, that's just my preference.





Once all my masks are cut out I'll use some denatured alcohol to remove all the Sharpie pen outlines.

This thread will continue as I move on to the next step, masking for graphics.

[joey_zrl]

Great tutorial so far, and with great attention to detail. I can't wait to see how you do the rest. It's always nice to see how others go about doing things. Bookmarked!

[NomadRacer]

Thanks, mate. I'll be using those type of masks that have the transfer tape. The mask is sort of intricate so should be of help to more than a few guys that want to try it. No worries here, I bought lots of spares in case of a *%#& up.

[joey_zrl]

Anytime Nomad. I just got back into airbrushing after a long break, and I've been thinking about giving thin masking tape a try instead of using liquid mask. You can see through the tape with a bright light, so you can see where to cut it by the lines on the body. Liquid mask is way easier to make a mistake with, imo. I just bought a bottle of Createx Wicked White to back my colors with. Just need to figure out a design for my JC Detonator body. Glad to have run across your thread on here.

[NomadRacer]

Hey joey, thanks for the encouragement to continue the thread. I love to use Tamiya brand masking tape. It sticks good and is nice and thin.

I was on vacation for a week so will be getting some action going on the body.

After getting all the window masks on I got to looking at the side ones. They are sort of big. To break them up, I removed some to create pillars. I think it looks better that way. The red Sharpie lines are there to help with alignment for the next masking step. I like to use a red pen, easy for my old eyes to follow. The lines wipe off clean using denatured alcohol.



These are some of the colors I'll be using. The rest are on they way.

[NomadRacer]

This morning's mail brought the body main color... Tamiya PS-23 Gun Metal. For what I have planned, a "spray bomb" will do nicely. If your more comfortably using an airbrush, you can decant the color into a jar. If you need some guidance on that, let me know, I've done it many times.



This is going to be the graphics I'm going to use. The mask was computer cut to my specs. I had them done as a mirror image so the dragon faces the same on the right and left side.





A little peek, peeled back corner.

[joey_zrl]

Those red sharpie lines are a really idea man. Up to this point, I have been 'eyeing' it o keep things uniform. I might have to try that one. Unfortunately, painting my WC body is on hold because of too many projects going on all at once. I'm still following your thread though! I'd love to see any updates as you progress.

[NomadRacer]

Excuse me for the lack of updates, things got in the way... vacation to the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia for a week!

I did a test "squirt" of the holographic and gunmetal paint this afternoon, digging it to say the least. I'll takes some pics tommorow in the daylight.

[NomadRacer]

This is my first time using Spaz Stix brand paint for lexan. It's their "Holographic", backed with Tamiya PS-23 Gun Metal. There were no strange interactions using the two different brands of paint. You might get a different look if you backed with the recommended black as a backer. I like it and will use it again on the B4 body.

[joey_zrl]

The Blue Ridge Mountains... That's close to home for me. The holographic paint looks like something I'd like to try out. I just can't figure out a paint scheme yet. Your dragons and hologram paint will for sure turn into something cool. Painting bodies is a past time of mine, and I would love to get back into it. Money symbols and clocks would be a perfect paint scheme for me.

[NomadRacer]

I went and trimmed another body for this thread. It was sitting a little bit crooked. Sometimes, cutting on a mold line does not yield a straight body.

I'm seeing a small window of opportunity to, maybe, get some paint squirted this week. I got into those reverse, mirror image dragon masks at sunrise this morning. Man, those were tricky as heck to do! If they had been on a flat surface, no problem. I'm getting set to burnish all the edges down tight and go for it tomorrow.

[NomadRacer]

Well, I was going to get all fancy like and use an airbrush but my equipment was in sad shape... bummer. I'll have to pick up a new one or try to rebuild it. To keep moving forward and have a painted body for this month's (Feb) build contest I busted out some spray bombs!