Painting/cutting Lexan Bodies

[mr. Rallying]

I'm curious to know... Do you prefere to cut out wheelarches and holes for bodyposts before of after you've painted the body?

[OCD]

Tamiya instructions often have you cut first, paint second, I suppose to avoid damaging the paint.

Occasionally I will do it the other way 'round, so I can later decide what chassis I'm going to use and then cut to fit.

Do a search in the forum for 'Olfa' -- They do a circle cutter that is perfect for this application.

My best advice is try to score the Lexan rather than cutting it: The plastic will always tear cleanly along a well-scribed line.

-S

[TamiyaDan]

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[VagabondStarJXF]

I used to paint first the cut and ream afterwards, then I changed to cut first, paint then ream before I finally figured out that I can do all the cutting and reaming first so that I can test fit everything before painting. Most bodyshells have overspray film so doing it this way is great. I too recommend a dremel to do the edges. I cut first then tidy the edges up with a fairly low RPM to help avoid costly mistakes. Just remember to remove the overspray film before you add decals! I'm sure I'm not the only one who's wasted a decal or 2 by forgetting the overspray film is still there!

[Sayer]

Hmm, I usually paint then cut. It only recently occurred to me that I could mark mounting holes on the overspray film before painting (after I very nearly butchered a body trying to line up body posts through paint). I'll definately be adding the dremeling step to my bodies to clean up wheel arches etc.

[Origineelreclamebord]

On the Tamiya shells the edges are marked pretty clearly, and so it's relatively easy to see what you're cutting off if it's still clear With some manufacturers I did have problems with it, especially when I tried to dremel out everything along the right lines (after having cut out most of the lexan).

[knotty]

when you wash the shell before painting do you let it air dry or towel dry?

[TamiyaDan]

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[knotty]

Just another quickie on lexan and silver paints.Ive just done an HPi landrover shell in silver(complete pain to mask all the arches and stuff by the way.but another story for another thread) given it a full can of silver polycarb paint and i have never seen owt so see through since the mrs got ready for bed last night!!!

It looks ok looked at obliquely on the table or such but with light behind it its still completely see through.Is there something im missing here? or is it just a case of more layers till the thing is solid?

[Jonny Retro]

Just another quickie on lexan and silver paints.Ive just done an HPi landrover shell in silver(complete pain to mask all the arches and stuff by the way.but another story for another thread) given it a full can of silver polycarb paint and i have never seen owt so see through since the mrs got ready for bed last night!!!

It looks ok looked at obliquely on the table or such but with light behind it its still completely see through.Is there something im missing here? or is it just a case of more layers till the thing is solid?

Most poly paints seem to need three coats, regardless of brand, colour, or whether it's a spray or a brush paint ... as you've already used a full can, I'd suggest "backing" it with another colour (probably white) to give it a bit more solidity.

That said, how often do you look at a shell from the underneath, against a light source?

Quite a lot, the way I drive - but I think you know what I mean.

[Chain Driven]

I usually back the paint with tamiya silver as it covers extremely well.

J.