Painting gone too far....

[mud4fun]

Guys, after having spent what seems like most of the last week preparing and painting a rough rider shell I thought that maybe we all go a little bit over the top with this hobby of ours.....after a days soaking in Delta activator, followed by lots of sanding down to remove melting damage, filling, 3 primer coats and 6 top coats, rubbing down between coats and then a laquer......when I built my first Sand Scorcher back in '82 I painted the shell in about 30 minutes flat as I was desperate to get out and play with the thing! - Once I get a set of decals on this shell I'll be too scared to touch it!!!!

[DerAlex]

Lol []

What should I say.

I spent hours in the preparation of my Blackfoot shell.

And now after 3!!!! attempts it looks awful.

Yes, 3 attempts. I had to strip it 2 times because once I had problems with insects which liked the yellow colour and then something went wrong with plastic putty, filler and colour.

At least I had a body for bashing around on the last meeting []

Now I have bouhgt to new bodies (Midnight and Monster Beetle) in order to build to shelf queens. At least I don't have to strip it before painting []

[ideal2k]

I know exactly how you feel.

I used to just slab it up and get it out to run, but now I sit here painstakingly for hours on end.

[Scorchio]

Recenly had a similar dilemma but not the same, spent two weeks prepping my red/white RR shelf queen, then thin coat thin coat ect ect. It came out looking trashed. masking tape ate previous coat on white bonnet square (see showroom) the red bled tried another masking tape that ate dried coats TOTAL NIGHTMARE!!![]

Boshed out the blue runner one in a couple of hours, masking & drying times included Looks fantastic[]

[DJTheo]

Yes, I have learned that too the hard way, the more you deal with something, the higher the chances to mess it up, so I do very few coats now and immediately stop when it looks good, whenever I thought "I could make it here a bit better" I was messing it up in the end []

Cheers

[gunpowder17]

LOL Theo!

Yes i know all about this too.My trouble is that if it isnt perfect i have to fiddle,and in the end it finishes up a nightmare.Why do you think i like stuff thats camo?!

Ive only just unpacked the knight hauler.I did 2 coats of metallic blue on the roof before deciding to do it pearlescent black! The black looks good though.All i have to do now is the rest of the body...and build the chassis...and fit the electrics....and......

[mud4fun]

I have now given up using Tamiya paints, as wonderful as they are, they are just too expensive and seem to run to much for my liking (or patience!) so I'm now using automotive spray paints which don't produce such a fine finish but are less prone to run or be damaged by masking tapes. I use Halfords white plastic primer onto the bare rubbed down shell and this seems to provide a really good base coat for the Halfords car body paints which are half the cost of Tamiya spray paints.....As long as you rub down between coats and apply thin coats the finish is quite good. I use masking tape from B&Q/Homebase and it doesn't lift the paint at all as long as you have allowed 24hrs drying time beforehand.

[volksrod68]

if you go to Halfords, ask them about their new range of pearlescent paints. they put the base coat and lacquer into seperate cans while u wait, and badword them cans are absolutely gorgeous. not to look at, but i sprayed the sand rover shell with the base coat and one coat covered the shell totally, no runs, really really fine spray, and the spray pattern is adjustable.

the finish after one coat without sanding is extremely smooth.

im gona call in tomorrow and see if they can put any colour into the cans, ive got an ss shell to spray up and want a nice finish.

we'll see....

cheers

[mud4fun]

Those pearlescent paints are gorgeous, I painted my Bear Hawk with them. The problem is the colour doesn't show up properly in photos which is a shame cos' the Bear Hawk shimmers and changes colour in different lights - very cool! Halfords are (were) doing a 3 for 2 offer on their spray cans which makes them even cheaper. I just about cleared my local store out of white primer......the guy at the checkout was commenting on how many cans they had sold recently....I walked out with a big smile on my face!

[gunpowder17]

Ive always used Halfords paints.Even if you get a rough finish you can t cut it and make it look good.

By the way i painted the knight hauler in black.Then i realised the paint was a fit naff so stripped it in brake fluid and resprayed it met blue.Bet im the first person to strip a knight hauler body!! Thats painting gone too far for you!

[volksrod68]

i have just sand ed and resprayed my sand rover wi that pearlescent paint, cos i dont think i put enough lacquer on to make the most of the colour change effects.

expensive paint but will do about 5 or 6 shells i think, but thats only good if you like your cars the same colour [xx(][8)]

that said the guy behind the counter said the pearlescent lacquer can be used with other base colours to produce more effects.

top stuff.

[mud4fun]

Hi Volksrod68, did you sand the pearlescent paint down before you applied the lacquer? I was very dubious about that but tried it anyway and the result is great. If you don't sand down that top coat the lacquer just makes it glossy, after a good rub down to flatten it the pearlescent effect really works after a coat of lacquer.

[Gates Mini Racing]

DMS Racing do some polycarbonate two tone flip paint, which is very shock resistant... Made by custom colour, you can view them in their catalogue: http://www.dms-racing.com/

Hope this helps

Mike

[volksrod68]

ay up mud4fun.

i didnt sand the pearlescent paint before i applied the lacquer.

glad you mentioned it tho cos i have just applied the 3rd coat of pearlescent paint and was gona do the lacquer next.

cheers for that!

[wriggleandgiggle]

When I sprayed my Isuzu Mu I used 12 coats in total (Albeit super-fine coats)

The base coolour was Ford Mettise Blue followed by a couple of 'duster' coats of alcad UV to blue pearl then another couple of 'duster' coats in Mettise blue and then 3 coats of clear laquer. It looks superb, it doesn't flip like mad but you can see a very subtle change in differing lighting.

I know it sounds like a lot of coats but the finish hasn't softened any of the body's fine detailing at all. It looks like a 1:10th scale version of a 1:1 paint job, if you know what I mean.

I've actually prepared and painted 1:1 cars quicker than this car took me (Admittedly not to a very high standard) but alot of time went into the Isuzu and it shows.

[mud4fun]

Hey wriggleandgiggle, I too sprayed my full size Land Rover quicker than one of my R/C car shells.....admittedly that was in NATO green paint and the finish didn't really matter as a weekends off roading would soon leave it wrecked again!

[mud4fun]

BTW volksrod68, don't over do it on the rubbing down of that last coat!!! very fine grade paper and just enough to 'flatten' the surface. I found it worked best when the top coat looked 'matt' before applying the lacquer.

[wriggleandgiggle]

I did an old landrover of mine in Nato green, they look superb in that colour. My hobby used to be playing with and modifying them.

My favourite one was a 6 cylinder 1 Ton LWB one that I absolutley cherished. But they cost much more than R/C cars to do!!!

[Deano]

I've found that if you use 1200 grade wet "n" dry just to flat off the second to last coat of base paint, and then spray the lacquer and then again with the last coat of lacquer the results are superb![]

Takes a lot of elbow grease but the results speaks volumes[]

[mud4fun]

Wriggleandgiggle don't get me onto the subject of Land Rovers.....my favourite hobby but sadly one that I can't afford now I have wife and kids [] Have you seen my current project vehicle? piccy on my TC Homepage. Glad you like NATO green too - my wife doesn't, she says it looks too military???!"!!!**** duh!

[wriggleandgiggle]

Likewise Mud4fun, I've had 4 so far. I got my dad into them too, he's just bought his 3rd one, I started him off with a petrol series 3 he then bought a Manual 90 defender 200TDi which we converted to 4 speed auto using a range rover 'box' and he's just bought my mum a Freelander TD4 auto. A mate of mine had a stage 1 fitted with a 3.9 litre motor and a garret turbo. That thing was evil!

That 90 looks very nice, I keep searching for a dead 110 pickup to play with but they just don't come up at a price I can afford..

[mud4fun]

I've got a hybrid 110 V8 sat in my garden at the moment, it started life as a stage1 V8 but was converted to coils. Bought the thing for £600 as a non runner and after spending £100 a new fuel pump it now runs fine!!!! [] Previous owner wasn't very technically minded!!!

[purplerob]

wow all you guys talking about spraying with spray cans and using all those coats of paint , wow i was amazed, w&g 12 coats [] .

now im not saying im a expert here but ive done some prffesional painting on real cars, and ive had both pearl and rage colour changing paints and know about base coats etc. my unlce has been in the trade for about 20 yesrs and gives exellent advice, ive just got my self a shed at thebottom of the garden soley for painting etc , i have all the proper gear from compressor to paint guns & airbrushes, been doing it quite a while,. and one thing id NEVER do again if use a arresol can . the are the worst thing to use, if i need a specific colour from halfors etc i will by that colour and spray the contents or how much i need into a jar then to my airbrush/ spray gun . if anyone is painting with arosols i would really like ot suggest STOP!!!!!!!! and buy your self even a simple airbrush which will give out sufficient paint , depending on the shell ! take example of my clod i just painted , which i will add to my prof for viewing. that was a red shell and i was painting red so i simply didnt prime or under coat and therefor only needed one coat of paint , one coat of paint is good because then you havnt got to let it dry so much b4 applying your laquer, i wait anough time as it takes to knock up som laquer and clean my gun and then im away and its all painted in one go , this is not for speed but purely because its what is done on real cars , if im genorous with my laquer as im sure ppl who talked to me know i might wet and dry with 1200 the laquer and give another coat , and i find this way by far gives the best results. sorry to bore you all there but i love spraying , and consider my self good at what i can do and know . ill put my clod pics up asap . its a shame photos dont do the shine justice

Rob

[purplerob]

o yer! i dont think people go to far on painting if they achive the result they want and set out for lol []

[wriggleandgiggle]

I've got an airbrush and compressor, the airbrush is only a basic one for painting whole colours, its not a detail brush, the compressor is a Clarke thing that's pretty small but does the job really well.

The reason for using cans on my Isuzu was the fact the perfect colour I had been looking for was found at a car boot sale, they were Halfords cans which are in my opinion, the best you can get. These cans came in at a miserly 25p a can, i bought 8 of them and some laquer whilst I was at it.

I normally use the comrpessor/airbrush system when painting shells, but this was THE perfect colour for what I wanted.

I'm currently working on my other Mu's paint job, but theres a bit more work to go yet, much more than just paint, I might get some pics of it up tonight as a taster.