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Frog Painting Guide For Brush On Tamiya Pc Polycarbonate Paints

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Here's how I am going with painting my Frog driver. I used the very tip (much less than 1mm worth) of my 0.6mm diameter brush when it came to doing the fine details, plus a magnifying loop, whilst holding the helmet clamped between a soft cloth in a very portable small table vice, and whilst bracing my hand against the vice or the table. I used Tamiya Acrylic Flat Flesh to get a lumpy flesh tone as the paint dries too fast as it's an Acrylic, and I used Tamiya Enamels when I wanted a gloss e.g. for the eyes (green, like mine!). The helmet is a problem since I wanted a cherry red to match the box art Frog but the Tamiya red Enamel is too dark so I need to go to the model shop and get some Humbrol bright red enamel paint.

The secret to being able to paint this minute detail is to use your cloth or fingers to make the brush into a sharp point by rotating it, so you get sharp detail, and only ever use the very tip of the brush and keep cleaning it at the tip, and only put the tiniest hint of paint on at once, and always look through the magnifying loupe whilst painting the details.

Of course I screwed up a few times around the edges of the face but I'll be correcting that when I get a minute.

Cheers,

Alistair G.

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Thanks Lee I really appreciate the kind feedback.

Cheers,

Alistair G.

No worries it must have taken ages to paint and do pictures as well not taking into account how long it takes type up text to! looks great in end very, i know the trouble with painting the drivers head from BC think i spent

longer on the helmet than on the whole body lol, look forward to seeing yours complete on the chassis.

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Here is the lower half section of the driver. I painted stripes onto his body in 2 tones of green to reflect the Frog theme of the car. At first I did the overalls in white but then realised it looked too "new" and re-did them in cream for that authentic vintage look LOL.

Cheers,

ARG

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Here is the lower half section of the driver. I painted stripes onto his body in 2 tones of green to reflect the Frog theme of the car. At first I did the overalls in white but then realised it looked too "new" and re-did them in cream for that authentic vintage look LOL.

Cheers,

ARG

This paintscheme is perfect for the Grasshopper I.

Ciao

Max

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Well here come the decals LOL. I have 2 original 58041 Frog decal sheets but I had some troubles with certain decals on the sheet, the issues were sorted out, as described here ;-

http://www.tamiyaclub.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=9044

The decals are best cut out with Tamiya Decal Scissors which are extremely sharp (usual disclaimer),

I apply the decals using first alcohol to degrease the shell in the position for the decal, then I use a cup of warm water with quite a bit of dish washing up liquid in it to make the decal be able to be slid around for positioning, which makes it easier (I apply the liquid to the body and then dip the decal in the liquid as well), however the sticky side is very tacky and after a few minutes (or sometimes seconds!) the decal can freeze in position and sometimes you can't get it off again without ripping or otherwise damaging it, so best to use repro. decals if you are faint of heart and / or financially challenged (I fit mostly in the latter category but the Frog was my dream buggy when I was 13 so I thought what the heck and did without other things to get them).

The decal issues include things like the original Frog Racing Team decal is too large so I used the re-re one. Also the NGK decal needed slitting with the decal scissors along it's every white radial line in order to conform to the compound curvature where it is meant to go.

In addition I split the Socal Fuel decal with the decal scissors along the bottom edge of the lowest black line instead of bending it so that it could be put in the exact position as dictated by the manual.

The Jackman Wheels and Pennzoil decals cannot conform to the compound curves at their positions and they can't be slit so you just have to live with it. Make sure to get the Jackman Wheels decal on the correct side. The manual conflicts with the catalog, but the manual is correct. See above topic.

Note how the No Glory! decal is unsupported in the 2 places where there are screw holes for the wing, and notice how applying that decal stops you from being able to remove the wing later on!

The Rapid Cool and NGK and Frog Racing and "1" decals caused me real grief in getting them in the correct position and level. Sometimes I measured off the manual drawing and used scale factors on the shell, sometimes I did it by eye. Luckily I had the real original 1983 manual for The Frog and not a low res. print out or this could have been even more tricky.

Finally, note that the Pennzoil decal has Pennzoil at an angle with respect to the decal and also note that I bent it over a clean edged ruler before I applied it since it has to go part on the side wall of the body and part on the shoulder where the pink lower section starts.

As can be seen I haven't decalled the right hand side of the car yet!

Cheers,

Alistair G.

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And that's all for now folks! The buggy still awaits a replacement Acoms MK1,2, or 3 receiver crystal in Green, Blue, or Orange (I have Yellow TX & RX & flag coming shortly) and the lights need painting and decalling and the driver needs cherry red Enamel paint for the driver's helmet.

I am about to start on a runner Frog (!)...

Note that the Fox uses a very similar roll bar painting scheme to this car so the painting instructions could be used for that too.

The modern re-re Frog uses black decals to "paint" the roll cage with from the outside but they can peel off and I'd rather paint it. However it is I think an acknowledgment by Tamiya as to how hard the paint job actually is LOL.

Cheers,

Alistair G.

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Well I finished the Frog finally and here are a couple of pic's. I had a devil of a job figuring out how to paint the Frog Spot lights until I finally worked it out ;-

http://www.tamiyaclub.com/forum/index.php?...c=57365&hl=

The driver is fixed in and it's had every decal applied as per the manual. Now I'm doing a Sand Scorcher (1979) which I've been wanting to have a go at since 1981 when I first saw the Scorcher on the back of a UK model mag. in an advert. I'll also be doing a second Frog for a runner (this one pictured is for the shelf), I have a 2nd original decal sheet and I just need a set of shocks now. I bought some used ones for the runner for a couple of quid but they are missing some parts internally :lol: So if anyone wants to sell me a pack of original (not re-release) Frog Shocks which are complete, contact me!

Cheers,

Alistair G.

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Hi Alistar,

please dont use original Frog decals for a runner. Use the re re ones. Also the original rear shocks... don't use them for a runner, they are rubbish.

Good job the Frog.

Max

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Well I finished the Frog finally and here are a couple of pic's. I had a devil of a job figuring out how to paint the Frog Spot lights until I finally worked it out ;-

http://www.tamiyaclub.com/forum/index.php?...c=57365&hl=

The driver is fixed in and it's had every decal applied as per the manual. Now I'm doing a Sand Scorcher (1979) which I've been wanting to have a go at since 1981 when I first saw the Scorcher on the back of a UK model mag. in an advert. I'll also be doing a second Frog for a runner (this one pictured is for the shelf), I have a 2nd original decal sheet and I just need a set of shocks now. I bought some used ones for the runner for a couple of quid but they are missing some parts internally :( So if anyone wants to sell me a pack of original (not re-release) Frog Shocks which are complete, contact me!

Cheers,

Alistair G.

Great job on the Frog!

I think i must get mine sorted out.

Cheers

Alex

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Hi Alistar,

please dont use original Frog decals for a runner. Use the re re ones. Also the original rear shocks... don't use them for a runner, they are rubbish.

Good job the Frog.

Max

Hi Max, nice to hear from you. Sorry but I have to use original decals with the Frog, this model means too much to me to use anything else, I always wanted to have a Frog runner and when I used repro. decals on my XLT it started to irritate me after a while. I had 2 original Frog sheets so I might as well use them. The runner won't get any bashing anyway. And the one on the shelf is staying right there LOL.

I thought the original rear shocks on the Frog were state of the art on their introduction? As it shows in the Frog vintage promotional video ;-

...shows the Frog shocks at 3m08s.

side note: This was given to me on DVD, I don't have the original commercial VHS tapes that the recordings came from which were distributed to shops in the 1980's. From the looks of my DVD recording, the whites are heavily clipped and the gamma is set way too high. I have tried to correct it but the white picture information is gone so I can't restore it. BTW from the looks of Tamiya's remastered version of the other Frog video, this was I assume filmed and then mastered by Telecine onto something like 3/4 inch U-matic / U-Matic SP professional video cassette format. If I ever get my hands on the originals or better versions of these I'll be uploading them ASAP. If you are reading this and happen to own the commercial original VHS please upload it and give us all better quality. If you own an e.g. UMatic master tape of them then get in touch!

>Great job on the Frog!

>I think i must get mine sorted out.

>Alex

Many thanks Alex, have you got any pictures of your Frog? What stage have you reached with yours yet?

Cheers,

Alistair G.

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please dont use original Frog decals for a runner. Use the re re ones. Also the original rear shocks... don't use them for a runner, they are rubbish.

Good job the Frog.

Max

If you or anyone else want to sell me some original rear Frog shocks because they are considered to be poor, I'll gladly buy complete ones.

Cheers,

Alistair G.

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Such an amazing paint job, looks better than spray bombing.   Incredible.

 

I'm thinking of doing a reverse box art paint job -  top side pink, and white stripe along the bottom.

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meh, you might wanna photochop those colours to mockup before breaking out the paints. You'll just have a pink Frog... IMHO it don't look too good in mostly all pink. Had a wreck once that somebody's painted all pink, even the wheels were pinked. Ugh, it's a Frog not a Pig (insert relevant Kermit inside Miss Piggy joke here). :) 

 

 

Happy 10th Birthday to LSM's thread! :P 

 

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