Painting Special effects in Lexan bodies

[Origineelreclamebord 45]

I hope the title gives a good impression on what this topic is about: Painting special effects in/on Lexan bodies.

The thing is, I have a TRF201 arriving tomorrow. I want to give the body a nice paintjob. I don't have an airbrush, so the possibilities are limited. However, I do have some nice ideas that I could try: Realistic looking water droplets, scratching/sanding back layers of paint, doing some kind of fades with translucent or smoke paint. I have some questions about the various ideas, as I never tried any of them.

1. Water droplets. You might have seen the trick before: Spraying some water on the object to be painted and then use a spray can. The water droplets make the paint dry differently than the rest of the paint, resulting in pretty realistic water droplets. On lexan, this would mean doing the water droplet trick first and the other things afterwards. I was wondering if anyone has experience and/or advice for me to make this job look as good as possible?

2. Scratches/sanding back. I just love bodies that have kind of a battered look or some weathering to them. I was wondering again if someone has experience with it or could help me out?

3. Fades. Considering the paint cans from Tamiya don't give an even finish with one light coat, fades may not look smooth using the cans. Putting them in warm water to increase the pressure in the cans does help a bit, but not enough I expect. Are there tricks to do nice fades with paint cans, possibly also with translucent colours?

If you have any other suggestions, tricks, special looking stuff, feel free to share it with the community in this thread!

[mad maz 20]

Hi alot of tc members are well into this type of thing i have done one of them on a tamiya hard shell brat the painting and sanding down method check out my pics , good luck along the way

[Origineelreclamebord 45]

That looks really cool! So that's 'just' sanding back layers you painted?

[Kevin_Mc 411]

Paul, there was someone on here not that long ago that painted a lexan Bettle shell to look rusty in parts and painted in others

EDIT: Mr Crispy's! here's the link - http://www.tamiyaclub.com/forum/index.php?...mp;#entry415159

[mad maz 20]

That looks really cool! So that's 'just' sanding back layers you painted?

Thanks mate yes it was just sanding back the layers takes time but worth it if that a look your looking for

[Will16 45]

Doing these special effects and weathered looks, are easier and look better on hard bodies. Like this one - http://www.tamiyaclub.com/forum/index.php?...y+sand+scorcher

I have an idea about doing raindrops as well though on lexan and hard. get the paint you want, water it down lots, and then blob it in place.

Will

[skywhelp 7]

hi if you haven't seen it yet check out def4x4's mad max sand scorcher. some of the best work i've seen on a soft shell and a lot of helpful tips on how to get the effects, master at work!

[Percymon 2183]

This is quite a good link on how to do it 'top down', although i'm not sure how'd you'd do it 'upside' down on the underside of a lexan shell.

http://theairbrushforum.com/tips-tricks-ho...rop-effect.html

Should be able to spray water, spray a darker colour at the low angle, but i don;t think you could then do the lighter colour from the opposite side easily. Think you'd be limited to one hit of darker/lighter colour and a base only.

Some spare lexan required to experiment !!

[matman 1495]

To do some of the things you want to do won't work as well as using the hard body .

As you need to do it in reverse & i don't think you will be able to.

The only way you maybe able to do it is if you can get some stickers done that will go inside the body ,

But that will take some time to do so , as you won't want to see the lines/joins . + i'm not sure if that would come out , or work .

Like hard bodys , you would put primer , color , water , color's etc <( high lights )then clear . But too do this in reverse could be tricky .

Sanding idea won't work , because the paint you want to sand won't be on yet . primer , color , color, color then sand

You may need to get some lexan to try it .

Good luck .

[Origineelreclamebord 45]

Thanks for the replies

I know lexan will make things say.... more challenging? Or impossible even! Anyway, I saw a really nice idea today (Link)

'Rust' on the inside like the Rusty Beetle of Mr.crispy, but then painting it on the outside with a normal colour. When it scratches or flakes off, rust will start to show on the body! I just saw he also tried it, and the rust is shiny, which of course is odd. However, it's a really cool idea imo, and one that uses scratches and use to it's advantage!

Another idea I had was to use sanding to sand down a layer or two of paint, using PS-14 Copper and PS-54 Cobalt Green: These two colours resemble Copper and corroding copper pretty nicely. Along with a flat clear it could look ace?

[gozone 30]

A funny effect on lexan-shells, without using airbrush can be obtained this way:

Spray some paint into the lid of the spraycan, then, using a straw, (yes, the ones for drinking), either thick or thin or one of each, and use it to "suck" a drop of paint, (you know, put the straw in the paint, place a finger on the end of the straw to keep the paint inside), and then make "drops" on the lexan. Immediately after placing the drop, you must blow though another straw, onto the paint-blob, making it spread in funny patterns inside the shell. Perhaps only placing one blob at a time will make it easier, and be careful not to "spit" in the straw, as this will go onto your shell. This blow" can also be achieved by using compressed air, just be careful not to have TOO much pressure on it, experiment on a scrap piece of lexan first..

Anyway, when doing this, you will be able to achieve a pretty cool "splattering" effect-type of paint on your shell, and if using lots of different colours for the blobs, and then finishing of with a coat of pure white, you may end up with a shell that looks like it has crashed through an icecream stand, lol..

Cheers..

Michael

[Kevin_Mc 411]

Thanks for the replies

I know lexan will make things say.... more challenging? Or impossible even! Anyway, I saw a really nice idea today (Link)

'Rust' on the inside like the Rusty Beetle of Mr.crispy, but then painting it on the outside with a normal colour. When it scratches or flakes off, rust will start to show on the body! I just saw he also tried it, and the rust is shiny, which of course is odd. However, it's a really cool idea imo, and one that uses scratches and use to it's advantage!

Another idea I had was to use sanding to sand down a layer or two of paint, using PS-14 Copper and PS-54 Cobalt Green: These two colours resemble Copper and corroding copper pretty nicely. Along with a flat clear it could look ace?

Mr Crispy started using a matt varnis on the outside of his lexan shell to take the shine off the rust, it's on the next page of that thread

[Origineelreclamebord 45]

Mr Crispy started using a matt varnis on the outside of his lexan shell to take the shine off the rust, it's on the next page of that thread

Sounds like a good idea - but when using another colour on the outside, it would still shine when stratched away: Perhaps some P600 sandpaper will do the trick. I will have plenty of lexan scraps from the wing(s) and body, so plenty of surface area to try out stuff.

And I will need them all I think, as the idea with the straws and splatter sounds really good as well!

[VinceVegaUK 0]

Nice thread

this got me thinking!

What if you spray the inside of the shell silver and the outside of the shell the colour, then when you do scratch it you will reveal the colour on the inside?

I have hover sprayed a translucent red then backed it with gold which came out really nice, i will try and find a pic when i can.

Later

VV

[markbt73 4773]

What if you spray the inside of the shell silver and the outside of the shell the colour, then when you do scratch it you will reveal the colour on the inside?

I've done this with an HPI Land Rover body. It worked out pretty well, but the paint I chose for the outside didn't scratch. It was Rust-Oleum paint made for plastic, which works really well on lexan, but it's a really tough finish. It chipped in a few places, but I didn't get the realistic scrapes and scratches I was looking for. Maybe a different kind of paint would work better.

Another trick I've seen is to do simulated woven carbon fiber - lay a piece of rough burlap fabric inside the body (make sure it lays flat), hit it lightly with gunmetal gray, then remove the burlap and paint it black.

[Yonez 180]

How about this for a TRF201 Shell:

[Origineelreclamebord 45]

How about this for a TRF201 Shell:

http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m56/jon.../Picture378.jpg

That's awesome! I was looking at a similar layout in regard to the lines (not the colours), but though it looked ok, I couldn't find the right balance between putting an accent on the curves/shapes of the shell without actually using the curves and lines themselves.

[Origineelreclamebord 45]

I tried the water spray/droplet, the splatter and the sanding method. I made samples on all 3 (which I'll post pictures of soon) and in the end I decided on...

The splatter method - The edges are very sharp and the splatter looks so realistic... because it is actual splatter I'm now busy doing my TRF201 body and I already have the first coat of the final colour/spray coat on the wing. I absolutely love the result, but I have to be very patient to let the (relatively thick) layers of paint dry first.

I had a look at the strength/bond of the splatter and it seemed to hold/bond well on the test patch I made, even when bending it extremely. I was a little concerned it wouldn't adhere well as the splatter does get in contact with high amounts of moisture because you're blowing it out of the straw, but it didn't flake off even after bending the lexan in a permamently different shape.

The other methods had mixed results. The sanding method looked good but just not as good as the splatter, and I didn't like the water droplets at all. No airbrush means no even application of paint, but many small droplets of paint. The result looks kind of droplet-like, but way too grainy, so to make the result better, I would need an airbrush or a huge load of experimenting - the last of which is too expensive for me.