Optimistic Box art attempt

[DennisM]

It doesn´t allways end up as planned - But the colours match!...... Almost.
It´s amazing, I didn´t throw away more than 6-7 hours on this
Next time I´ll outsource it

[kink]

Looks sharp!

I love how low the front shocks are on the original Optima. There is virtually no tower at all.

[markbt73]

Looks good! But you should do the white letters on the tires. That's what always seems to make the paint job "pop" on these.

[Coelacanth]

Yes, looks pretty good for one of the more difficult box-art cars! I'd have a closer look at your directional wheels though, it appears that you have (at least on the driver's side) front & rear wheels pointing in opposite directions.

[slapshot1979]

That looks fantastic. Great job

+1 on the white wheel lettering

[SFC K]

That does look sharp! I aggree that the tire would look great with lettering. Nice job!

[GoMachV]

Love it!

[keithrc]

That's a bloody good effort for the amount of time spent on it! Well done. Needs more stickers on the sides though. How did you go about doing the body mount holes?

x3 on the tyre lettering, I still have to get a paint pen to do mine.


Keith

[DennisM]

Many thanks for the kind comments -

Seems like I´ll have to swap the front wheels, apply some more stickers and do the tires.
And to add to the fun, install new suspension arms - then it´s a complete new parts build.

I knew Marc would comment on the front rims - just glad he can´t see the chain direction

[DennisM]

That's a bloody good effort for the amount of time spent on it! Well done. Needs more stickers on the sides though. How did you go about doing the body mount holes?

x3 on the tyre lettering, I still have to get a paint pen to do mine.


Keith

Thanks

Regarding the mounting of the body.
I cheat and do the cutting and adjusting before I paint it. That way, it sits where its supposed to and I don´t spoil the paint with my scissors.

[Coelacanth]

That's a bloody good effort for the amount of time spent on it! Well done. Needs more stickers on the sides though. How did you go about doing the body mount holes?

x3 on the tyre lettering, I still have to get a paint pen to do mine.


Keith

Thanks

Regarding the mounting of the body.
I cheat and do the cutting and adjusting before I paint it. That way, it sits where its supposed to and I don´t spoil the paint with my scissors.

No doubt, I cheat too. With Barney, I had to remove my custom carbon fiber rear shock tower brace and shave it down as it wasn't allowing me to mount my Optima body smoothly. The fact that it's a TBG copy-of-a-copy, and perhaps 3% smaller dimensions, makes an already finicky body fit into a total adventure. I finally got finished tweaking the fit last night, and if I'd had to do it with the body already painted, there would've been a lot of places where the paint would've been scraped off.

I'm glad that job is complete.

[Hcp22]

Good work Dennis!

[keithrc]

What I meant was, how did you actually cut the body mount holes as in tool/s and method?

I wouldn't say it's cheating by doing them before painting though, anything to get the desired result.


Keith

[Coelacanth]

What I meant was, how did you actually cut the body mount holes as in tool/s and method?

Round holes are easy. I start them off by spinning a #11 X-Acto blade until it makes a hole in the Lexan that's a couple millimeters in diameter. If it only needs to be a big larger, I use a small round needle file to open the hole up. If it needs to be more than 5mm wide, for example to clear an antenna mount, I use a tapered cone-shaped Dremel bit; the more you push it in, the wider the hole gets.

For rectangular holes, it's a bit more tricky. I use the X-Acto blade tip method above to make little holes at the 4 corners of the proposed rectangular hole, then cut between them carefully to get a rough rectangle. I then carve the edges smoother and finish up with a flat needle file.

[marlo]

I'm not big on Kyosho, but your car did catch my eye, very nice work.