Astute Restoration

[Grastens]

That looks very nice! Hopefully the paint will stick, but the layering should mean that it holds up!

[Xeostar]

Very nicely done! One question though. You mention that you are using waterbased paint. Does this stick on Lexan?

Hi, yep its water based but fine for Lexan, I've used it on many RC cars in the past. Also its water based but when it cured its water proof.

This is the range of paints I use.

http://www.everythingairbrush.com/acatalog/Createx_Paint.html

They are very well known for painting RC bodies, here is some info.

http://www.createxcolors.com/airbrushcolors.html

[z00ter]

that was a spectacular paint job esp for someone who says your not great at it, makes me think I should give it a go ... maybe lol

[mheald]

I like the fact that you've got a nice inspiration photo in your workshop too, always good to have the end goal in mind!

[wildwillydriver]

Love this kind of topics! Very good job!!

Bye

WWD

[Xeostar]

I've started on the main body, got it cut out and sanded down. I might do a bit more triming though as its a bit of a tight fit at the moment.

[Xeostar]

Next is a trail fit to the chassis and a think about the windows.

I'm not sure if I should paint them black or leave them clear? Normally I don't like blacked out windows but the box art does have them black? What do you chaps think?

[Xeostar]

Also the more I think about this body the painting is a bit tricky, well the paint order anyway.

I want to paint the main colour areas, black, red, blue, white and the small yellow and silver stripes.

I'm not sure but I think I'll go:-

Black

Blue backed with white (red area still masked off)

Yellow,

Silver, also backing the yellow

Red

Remove the final white masking and back it all with white.

[Grastens]

I think you should leave the windows clear or at least translucent. They should definitely be clear if you fancy a driver figure - if you do feel ambitious and are running an ESC, the plastic MSC bracket could potentially accommodate a driver figure from something like the Buggy Champ. It was a project of mine that never really got completed as my car is equipped with Super Astute parts that move the battery to the centreline of the chassis, but it looks entirely possible. A different, more modern head would be in order, though.

If not, then a layer or two of PS-31 Smoke should produce a nice tinting effect - but be careful with the paint as it has been known to behave badly on other projects...

[Thommo]

Also the more I think about this body the painting is a bit tricky, well the paint order anyway.

I want to paint the main colour areas, black, red, blue, white and the small yellow and silver stripes.

I'm not sure but I think I'll go:-

Black

Blue backed with white (red area still masked off)

Yellow,

Silver, also backing the yellow

Red

Remove the final white masking and back it all with white.

That sounds challenging but it's a great idea if you succeed. I don't think you will need to back with white after blue though. My thinking is this: Black - Blue - Red - Yellow (just a little puff where needed) - Silver. So just leave the silver until last and back the whole job with that rather than white. Leave it for a day then remove your window masks and spray the PS-31 Smoke over the windows. Use PS-31 Smoke with care, very light coats one coat at a time and allow some extra drying time between coats. Good Luck !

[jeekelemental]

I've been a Astute estimator from the good old days but I never owned one, you did a great job! I like the underbody and I will look forward to see what you chose for the body.

[Xeostar]

That sounds challenging but it's a great idea if you succeed. I don't think you will need to back with white after blue though. My thinking is this: Black - Blue - Red - Yellow (just a little puff where needed) - Silver. So just leave the silver until last and back the whole job with that rather than white. Leave it for a day then remove your window masks and spray the PS-31 Smoke over the windows. Use PS-31 Smoke with care, very light coats one coat at a time and allow some extra drying time between coats. Good Luck !

I think you are right about smoke, I think that will look best. Although I'll have to do the smoke first as it'll remove the water based paint, but that's no problem I can mask over it.

I was saying to back the blue with white as its translucent and if I spray the red I think I'll end up with purple rather than blue.

I think you should leave the windows clear or at least translucent. They should definitely be clear if you fancy a driver figure - if you do feel ambitious and are running an ESC, the plastic MSC bracket could potentially accommodate a driver figure from something like the Buggy Champ. It was a project of mine that never really got completed as my car is equipped with Super Astute parts that move the battery to the centreline of the chassis, but it looks entirely possible. A different, more modern head would be in order, though.

If not, then a layer or two of PS-31 Smoke should produce a nice tinting effect - but be careful with the paint as it has been known to behave badly on other projects...

I like that idea, I think I'll take a look a few driver options and see what I can squeeze in. I wonder if I could chop down an Avante cockpit set?

[Xeostar]

Hi again,

I took your advice and smoked the windows this evening. First off I masked everything but the windows they gave it a few light coats. This isn't the normal way I've done smoke but the solvent would destroy the water based paints if I did it at the end.

Doing it this way does mean I next have to mask off the smoked area very carefully around the edges before I start the next coats.

Starting the masking.

Got the main windows edged and started blanking the big areas.

All masked.

And after a few coats of smoke

[Klausen]

I am absolutely no painting expert at all, but shouldn't you have painted the rest before the windows? At least, that is how I usually do it, when I paint the windows with the "smoke" color.

[Grastens]

I am absolutely no painting expert at all, but shouldn't you have painted the rest before the windows? At least, that is how I usually do it, when I paint the windows with the "smoke" color.

As he explained it, the solvents in the PS-31 Smoke would have wrecked the finish of the water-based paints he was using for the rest of the body. If he was using standard Tamiya paint all over, it would have been more practical to paint the windows after every other layer.

[Klausen]

Aha, my mistake. I should read the whole thread before posting stupid questions

[biggamehunter]

folowing with great interest , great job so far

[Xeostar]

Thanks for your comments chaps.

Got a bit of an update, I've done some more of the body.

First off got some masking done of the smoked windows

Then outlined the remaining areas, the yellows going to be the white stripes eventually.

Then masked all but the blue areas.

[Xeostar]

Then I got the first blue coat done.

with all the blue done.

and then backed with white.

[Xeostar]

Made a bit more progress today, not all good progress but l'll show you that in further on.

First removed the masking for the blue.

Then I liked how the black edging worked on the tray so I thought I'd edge some of the blue. Thsi time I used pearl black as it flows a bit better than opaque and I thought I might get a more uniform shading.

[Xeostar]

Next up the red.

and removed the masking for the white.

[Xeostar]

backed with white.

At this stage I've still got the yellow and silver stripes to do but I'm being impatient so I start to removed the window masking. This is where things go wrong. The mask on the windows has done two things, left loads of sticky residue behind (guess the solvents interacted) and removed some of the smoke!

[Xeostar]

After a bit of ohhh ***% what a waste of time, effort and money I thought I might as well give a repair ago. So with a load of cotton buds and some electrical contact cleaner I set about cleaning the windows.

This was a slow process, the smoke didn't really want to come off and I had to be careful not to damage the red. But after ages it did come back to something like.

[Xeostar]

The other thing I'm not impressed with is the white square on the front. The edges are really poor, not straight and had a bit a bleed. This was a simple flat area and I thought I wouldn't be an issue So I guess I didn't give it enough attention and concentrated on the hard areas.

Anyway here it is so far. I've still got the yellow and silver to do but I think I might brush these.

Any comments and ideas to improve it very welcome :-)

[z00ter]

absolutely brilliant job, I cant fault it, what country are you in? id pay for a paint job like that !!