Optima Series Box Art Paint Questions

[terry.sc 16]

I always wondered how Kyosho got the tiny black pin stripe that separates the colors.

You want Kyosho Micron line tape. Paint the body then hide the paint edges under the tape on the outside.

[RichieRich 685]

You want Kyosho Micron line tape. Paint the body then hide the paint edges under the tape on the outside.

Really? That's what I did with my Turbo Ultima. I thought I was cheating. LOL!

[Live Steam Mad 17]

I asked the guy at Optima House http://theoptimahouse.blogspot.com/2007/03...collection.html and he mentioned that the paint used on Jurgen's car was an "official Kyosho color from Kyosho Germany". I suspect that he is referring NOT to the Kyosho Polyca "Blue" but instead maybe to the Kyosho Polyca "Sky Blue" which was one of the 12 Polyca colors. I just checked and Kyosho Germany have only got Orange left. I saw red and blue at Kyosho USA, and yellow green at a site in Ukraine! Alas no Sky Blue anywhere...I have tried every Kyosho distributor on earth and done web searches...

Cheers,

Alistair G.

[Live Steam Mad 17]

Is it just me or is there (I just noticed) 2 shades of blue used on the box art, look up and to the left of where the number "5" is ;-

Or maybe it's a decal or something. Odd since I never noticed it on the Optima decals that I have originals of ?

Cheers,

ARG

[Live Steam Mad 17]

I could really use a reasonably high resolution scan of the box pictures. Can anyone with an original Optima box please oblige?

Cheers,

Alistair G.

[Live Steam Mad 17]

Well I got word back from Jurgen who painted the above box art Optima at http://theoptimahouse.blogspot.com/2007/03...collection.html about the paint and he said "Hello,

the colour is original Kyosho calsonic Blue and yellow. The Number 5 I made it in some houres with knife and paper. A difficult job but looks very nice.

greetings from Germany".

I looked up Kyosho Calsonic Blue and the official product name for this stuff is " Mini-Z Air Color Calsonic Blue " and it is item code : MZW150CB and appears to be only available in Japan. The yellow is " Mini-Z Air Color Yellow " and is item code : MZW150Y . If there are any kind members in Japan who would be willing to obtain a bottle of this stuff for me then I would gladly Paypal in advance for it.

The stuff is a bottle of paint NOT a spray and looks like this ;-

(I have shown front, back, and the thinners etc. below).

If it looks a bit small of a bottle, don't worry as there is 30ml there, which is plenty. For example a 23ml bottle of Tamiya PC1 white was enough to provide 2 thick coats of brush paint on my Frog to make the color very opaque under the strong desklamp etc. (you can only see a shiny smooth gloss coat form the outside of course) plus have some left over. Brush marks don't show as long as you know what you are doing and use an Acrylic retarder such as a drop of Glycerin (these paints are Acrylic like Tamiya's PC series, I assume) as I show here where I learned how to do this properly ;- http://www.tamiyaclub.com/forum/index.php?...c=52345&hl=

Micron Line tape is also needed and I have found that in black but will need some blue as I think one of the lines is in blue so I'll do some more searching.

Best Regards,

Alistair G.

[mugenbulldog 3]

Is it just me or is there (I just noticed) 2 shades of blue used on the box art, look up and to the left of where the number "5" is ;-

Or maybe it's a decal or something. Odd since I never noticed it on the Optima decals that I have originals of ?

Cheers,

ARG

I think its some kind of black striping. Can't remember if I saw it on a box scan, or the catalog scans from theoptimahouse (which are good sources and high res scans), or from the ryo's box art optima (one of the best I've seen). It could be a decal that isn't included... If I can get a better look at it I can make a decal. I am thinking about making a "missing box art" decal collection.

[Live Steam Mad 17]

I am thinking about making a "missing box art" decal collection.

Excellent idea!

Cheers,

ARG

[Live Steam Mad 17]

The closest that I have come to getting my hands on this paint that Jurgen used which is very close to the box art paint is that I e-mailed Hobby World in Japan , a company that I have used before in the past that sent me some Tamiya Enamel paints (before HW stopped shipping paints a few years back due to postal restrictions), and who speak reasonable English, and I said ;-

"Hi,

I would like to buy the Kyosho "Mini-Z Air Color Calsonic Blue" item code

" MZW150CB " and Kyosho "Mini-Z Air Color Yellow" item code " MZW150CY "

from you.

They are both 30ml bottles of paint, NOT sprays, and they are water

soluble, non toxic and not flammable, and should be safe for sending to me.

They are shown as being still available, on the Kyosho website here ;-

http://www.kyosho.com/eng/products/rc/acce...mp;s2=&sx=1

I am in England, UK. I cannot buy these paints in my country.

I can pay using either MasterCard credit card or Paypal.

Please help!

Sincerely,

Alistair Gutcher"

...and they replied ;-

"Thank you for your inquiry.

We haven't treated Mini-Z Air Color.

Other companies that produces paints such as Tamiya, and GSI Creos said that

even their water based color is prohibieted to ship by EMS nor SAL.

We would like to confirm to Kyosho, so please give us some more time.

Once we they reply to us, we will let you know.

Thank you for your understanding.

Best Regards,

Aiko Oishi

-------------------------------------------------

HW JAPAN

http://www.hwjapan.com/

Address: 12-3 Ryutsu Center, Aoi-ku,

Shizuoka city, Shizuoka

420-0922 JAPAN

Fax: +81-54-263-9001

E-mail: hwj@mail.aoshima-bk.co.jp

ooishi@mail.aoshima-bk.co.jp "

...so I might yet get my hands on them?

Cheers,

Ali. G.

[rcjunkie3000 2]

For the black pin stripe on the Optima, Turbo Optima and other cars, would it be OK to use pin stripe tape on the outside of the body? Has anyone painted a thin black pinstripe line close to perfect from the inside of the body or do a majority of you use tape? If so what tape do you use that won't let paint leak underneath. I am thinking of "cheating" and using pin stripe tape on the outside of the shell. The black pinstripe line adds is that extra detail that separates the really nice bodies.

[Live Steam Mad 17]

After requests for box art scans I just received these very helpful pictures from Tipsy , what a diamond geezer! Excellent. I don't know if I could complete it using these but I can always ask for more at some later date LOL as I'm currently decalling my Frog at the moment!

I have cropped them and used the optimum file size and resolution that I can to fit into TC's limits.

Thanks Tipsy!

ARG

[optimaforever 87]

After requests for box art scans I just received these very helpful pictures from Tipsy , what a diamond geezer! Excellent. I don't know if I could complete it using these but I can always ask for more at some later date LOL as I'm currently decalling my Frog at the moment!

I have cropped them and used the optimum file size and resolution that I can to fit into TC's limits.

Thanks Tipsy!

ARG

After a deep check of the scans I understand now that there are some "loose" work on the micron line tapes

For my own box art I used only Tamiya PS and PC series (found on my local hobbystore and ebay). Some taiwanese or chinese shops accept to take the risk of sending PS by airmail (which is forbidden by EMS but strangely not by regular airmail). I tried Pactra and Fascolor but was very disappointed by the final output (not to mention their "smoke" spray... a catastrophic nightmare), to finally realize that simple Tamiya PS were perfect. I dunno why I messed it with US paints but my skills must be more japanese style lol

I have all the Tamiya blues. I used PS4/PC4 (blue) for my box art optima, but if I should do it again I'd use PS30 (Brilliant Blue) because it's less dark and matches more the Kyosho box art.

PC3/PS3 (Light blue) is too light and has a shade of yellow (while PC4/PS4 blue is slightly too reddish and too dark) to my eyes.

PS1/PC1 White is perfect, as are PS5/PC5 black and PC5/PS5 yellow. PS19 camel yellow is too orange.

btw I used XF1 Flat black on the outside for the black parts (window side rollcage).

Micron line tape 0.4mm black on the nose, 0.7mm and 1mm black on the tail (along yellow) and around the windows.

I should have used blue 1mm tape for the wings but unfortunately I hadn't them at the time so I relied on painting.

The "5" typo are decals, custom made by my friend Hagar on french forum vintagerc.org

Of course the original decal sheet is uncomplete and I had to scavenge Tomahawk, Turbo scorpion, Plazma, Javelin, Optima pro decals sheets to try to mimic the box art.

By "box art", I mean a mix of the art on the Optima box AND from the 86 & 87 Kyosho catalog (which are slightly different).

good luck!

[Alecito 0]

Well I got word back from Jurgen who painted the above box art Optima at http://theoptimahouse.blogspot.com/2007/03...collection.html about the paint and he said "Hello,

the colour is original Kyosho calsonic Blue and yellow. The Number 5 I made it in some houres with knife and paper. A difficult job but looks very nice.

greetings from Germany".

I looked up Kyosho Calsonic Blue and the official product name for this stuff is " Mini-Z Air Color Calsonic Blue " and it is item code : MZW150CB and appears to be only available in Japan. The yellow is " Mini-Z Air Color Yellow " and is item code : MZW150Y . If there are any kind members in Japan who would be willing to obtain a bottle of this stuff for me then I would gladly Paypal in advance for it.

The stuff is a bottle of paint NOT a spray and looks like this ;-

(I have shown front, back, and the thinners etc. below).

If it looks a bit small of a bottle, don't worry as there is 30ml there, which is plenty. For example a 23ml bottle of Tamiya PC1 white was enough to provide 2 thick coats of brush paint on my Frog to make the color very opaque under the strong desklamp etc. (you can only see a shiny smooth gloss coat form the outside of course) plus have some left over. Brush marks don't show as long as you know what you are doing and use an Acrylic retarder such as a drop of Glycerin (these paints are Acrylic like Tamiya's PC series, I assume) as I show here where I learned how to do this properly ;- http://www.tamiyaclub.com/forum/index.php?...c=52345&hl=

Micron Line tape is also needed and I have found that in black but will need some blue as I think one of the lines is in blue so I'll do some more searching.

Best Regards,

Alistair G.

the pactra is similar to micron line tape, and you can find it in colours.

[Live Steam Mad 17]

At the moment my biggest obstacle is getting hold of the Kyosho "Mini-Z Air Color Calsonic Blue" item code " MZW150CB " and Kyosho "Mini-Z Air Color Yellow" item code " MZW150CY " that Jurgen used. I could really use help on this one. I am still waiting to hear back from Hobby World Japan who actually speak fair English (Rakuten don't speak English, they were the only other seller for the paints that I found that I could work out how to contact since the only links that I found to this paint were in Japanese!).

If any TC subscriber in Hong Kong would care to help me out with this I would really appreciate it and would Paypal in advance. In the UK it is not possible to obtain this paint.

BTW for my Scorcher projects I got my TS8 and TS16 from an Ebay HK seller. Unfortunately I have never been able to find the Kyosho paint above on Ebay anywhere in the world.

Help!

Best Regards,

Alistair G.

PS I just got my Kyosho Micron Line 1.5mm tape in black. There is a roll on Ebay right now. I will need the other widths and they are not on Ebay but that's OK since I it looks like I will maybe have a source for them in a week or two's time. Only in black though.

[RichieRich 685]

Wow, they really did use a lot of micron tape!

[optimaforever 87]

Wow, they really did use a lot of micron tape!

micron line tape is THE secret to achieve box art quality!

there are many in Kyosho.de website.

In Japan they have lots of old stocks but it's not easy to find them.

I went to Kyosho Ometesando shop last time I went to Japan but they had no tape, no paint.

I guess Kyosho doesn't focus on selling their paint in Japan.

If they don't market it correctly in Japan, why should they abroad?

[Live Steam Mad 17]

Here are some scans that INTEGRA FAN sent me that might well be useful for cracking the secrets of Optima box art. He's a great guy, he's done a lot for us Vintage Kyosho fans.

The only thing is the scans are rather low res. compared to the ones I was sent above by Tipsy LOL.

Cheers,

Alistair G.

[Live Steam Mad 17]

micron line tape is THE secret to achieve box art quality!

there are many in Kyosho.de website.

In Japan they have lots of old stocks but it's not easy to find them.

I went to Kyosho Ometesando shop last time I went to Japan but they had no tape, no paint.

I guess Kyosho doesn't focus on selling their paint in Japan.

If they don't market it correctly in Japan, why should they abroad?

Interesting that even in Kyosho's official shop at OMOTESANDO they had no stock of paint or tape . This is the shop to go to since it is run by Kyosho and actually does sell RC cars (albeit they concentrate on MiniZ cars).

The website for the shop is at ;-

http://www.kyosho.com/jpn/shop/omotesando/index.html

I already tried e-mailing them about the paint, they don't respond. Not a suprise since the website is all in Japanese with no English section it seems.

They also have a shop at Akihabara ;-

http://www.kyosho.com/jpn/shop/akihabara/index.html

Again no luck e-mailing them, they didn't reply.

Kyosho Japan at Atsugi Operations centre didn't reply to my email either...

Kyosho have an online shop at ;-

http://www.e-shopkyosho.com

...but yet again it's all in Japanese. No English.

Kyosho's product code for the paint (which is what I am after really since I can get the tape easier) is MZW150CB and MZW150Y and if you Google it or put it into Ebay you will never find it outside of Japan (and non on Ebay anywhere in the world). The only time I see this product code and pictures of the paint are exclusively on Japanese only websites.

HELP!

Therefore I would have thought that it was nearly always effectively a Japanese domestic market product. So I would have thought that the one place that would have good stocks would be Kyosho Japan's shops! Apparently not.

I am still waiting to hear back again from Hobby World Japan. They do speak English, which helps me!

BTW about the box art scans, I have no magazine or catalog sources or box for scans so I'm grateful for any help I can get on this one. I do have an original Optima decal set and a used original body and driver doll (I have stripped the paint already).

Best Regards,

Alistair G.

[optimaforever 87]

Interesting that even in Kyosho's official shop at OMOTESANDO they had no stock of paint or tape . This is the shop to go to since it is run by Kyosho and actually does sell RC cars (albeit they concentrate on MiniZ cars).

I am still waiting to hear back again from Hobby World Japan. They do speak English, which helps me!

BTW about the box art scans, I have no magazine or catalog sources or box for scans so I'm grateful for any help I can get on this one. I do have an original Optima decal set and a used original body and driver doll (I have stripped the paint already).

Best Regards,

Alistair G.

The potential problem with the Mini-Z paints you mention is that they're acrylic paint for plastic, not for polycarbonate/lexan.

I already asked my contacts in Japan for the polycarbonate paint but even in the biggest modelshops in Japan the Kyosho paint seems to be missing. I guess Tamiya's too strong in the japanese market.

I own fluo orange Polyca bought from Kyosho Germany; the paint is very old and it's very difficult to get consistent color (oil and pigments tend to dissolve apart, and even a good shaking isn't enough, I must mix it manually each brushstroke).

This definitely convinced me to never use old stock paint again.

[Live Steam Mad 17]

The potential problem with the Mini-Z paints you mention is that they're acrylic paint for plastic, not for polycarbonate/lexan.

That's OK. If I do one to that standard I'm not going to race it. I would then do one to a maybe slightly lesser standard and use that for vintage fun races etc.

Jurgen managed to paint his Optima with the stuff so I don't see it being a problem. I used Tamiya brush on paint that looks to be an Acrylic on my Frog, but that is definitely a Polycarbonate paint because it says so on the bottle (PC not PS). As long as I clean with Alcohol first (IPA) then it will be fine for the shelf.

I would imagine that if I used an abrasive pad of about 1200 grit (in my case I would use P1200 Silicon Carbide abrasive sheets bought for 40p each from a local car paint shop) used wet (but not on the windows LOL) then it would provide enough of a key for the paint so I could maybe use Kyosho MiniZ paint the with fair success for a body that I could use in vintage fun races?

> I already asked my contacts in Japan for the polycarbonate paint but even in the biggest modelshops in Japan the Kyosho paint seems to be missing.

Which Polycarbonate paint did you want? Which brand and name of color? I might be able to do some detective work and find it for you

>I own fluo orange Polyca bought from Kyosho Germany; the paint is very old and it's very difficult to get consistent color (oil and pigments tend to dissolve apart, and even a good shaking isn't enough, I must mix it manually each brushstroke).

This definitely convinced me to never use old stock paint again.

Now that sucks

However bare in mind that I recently bought some Tamiya Pink PC11 Polycarbonate Brush on paint in a bottle for my Frog and it was quite old (NOS, = New Old Stock) , I could tell it was some years old because the label read 628 Oshika and that's the address that Tamiya printed on their more vintage items from years ago, and the white paper of the label was yellowed a little. But it was perfect, there was no pigment / binder / thinner separation at all, and the finish that I achieved on my Frog was flawless (on large areas only AFTER I had first used an Acrylic retarder - in my case 1 drop of Glyrcerine to 20 drops of paint) when looking on the outside of the Lexan

Best Regards,

Alistair G.

[Live Steam Mad 17]

BTW the Calsonic Blue and Yellow paint is still listed as being on sale on the Kyosho Japan website, so fairly new stock of it is still available somewhere I assume?

Cheers,

ARG

[optimaforever 87]

BTW the Calsonic Blue and Yellow paint is still listed as being on sale on the Kyosho Japan website, so fairly new stock of it is still available somewhere I assume?

Cheers,

ARG

These are the ones I asked my mates in Japan. None of them were available in the biggest shops in Osaka and Tokyo.

Hobby Japan may have some but I guess they don't send them by EMS.

That's funny because I went the same path several weeks ago when I wanted to paint my box art optima. (Jurgen->Kyosho.de->google->Hobby Japan->kyosho.co.jp->rakuten.jp->yahoo japan->japanese chaps->dead end)

I'm very curious to see if you can find any...

[Live Steam Mad 17]

These are the ones I asked my mates in Japan. None of them were available in the biggest shops in Osaka and Tokyo.

Hobby Japan may have some but I guess they don't send them by EMS.

That's funny because I went the same path several weeks ago when I wanted to paint my box art optima. (Jurgen->Kyosho.de->google->Hobby Japan->kyosho.co.jp->rakuten.jp->yahoo japan->japanese chaps->dead end)

I'm very curious to see if you can find any...

If you have contacts in Japan, I can't quite understand how come they can't order the paint for you from the Kyosho online shop here where the paint is shown ;-

http://www.e-shopkyosho.com/shop/ProductDe...do?pid=MZW150CB

http://www.e-shopkyosho.com/shop/ProductDe....do?pid=MZW150Y

Or from the page for it at Hobby World Japan ;-

http://hobbyworld.aoshima-bk.co.jp/scripts...k_code=KYO79571

If I could speak Japanese I would get some for you myself.

Best Wishes,

Alistair G.

[INTEGRA FAN 12]

Thanks Alistair for your kind post, just wanted to share a photo from Kyosho catalog which shows what appears to be a box artist doing his job

Here are some scans that INTEGRA FAN sent me that might well be useful for cracking the secrets of Optima box art.He's a great guy, he's done a lot for us Vintage Kyosho fans.

The only thing is the scans are rather low res. compared to the ones I was sent above by Tipsy LOL.

Cheers,

Alistair G.

[optimaforever 87]

If you have contacts in Japan, I can't quite understand how come they can't order the paint for you from the Kyosho online shop here where the paint is shown ;-

If I could speak Japanese I would get some for you myself.

Best Wishes,

Alistair G.

The e-shops may send the paint to my friends but after that EMS refuses to send paint and thinner material to Europe by airmail.

I'll buy some myself next time I go to Japan. (my list is growing)