Thundershot, Terra Scorcher, Fire Dragon & ThunderDragon re-builds

[taffer 948]

great news! 

have you tried phoning eBay to explain? (Probably won't get anywhere 😊)

[Baddon 860]

1 hour ago, taffer said:

great news! 

have you tried phoning eBay to explain? (Probably won't get anywhere 😊)

Yes, spent about 1 hr on 3 different phone calls till he eventually guided me to an email I can send to customer services.

I also sent one to PayPal as I raised a refund request at the time and was also found against me.

I have the sellers email from PayPal transaction so sent him a message and he has immediately passed to his courier asking for compensation for me and himself.....lol

All I was asking for for was an apology from the parties involved (except the courier who lied & did not do their job) who I have suggested owe me some compensation as I have re purchased some of these items in the 2 months since they chuffed up my delivery.

[Baddon 860]

2 hours ago, mman2005 said:

Please could you post a pic? 

Here you go 

 

 

 

 

 

[mman2005 443]

Drool! Thanks for humouring me 

[ThunderDragonCy 7878]

23 hours ago, Baddon said:

Here you go 

 

 

 

 

 

Holy ****balls that is a lot of Thunder goodness! 

[Baddon 860]

@ThunderDragonCy its why I was soooooo *******ed off when it went missing, that and I was out the money!

[Baddon 860]

been busy preparing eBay sales and sending items out, so finally back at this and I have the FireDragon shell all ready for paint. 

I know some of the edges look rough but they are all sanded smooth, its the peel of cover that is left that makes this look worse than it really is (least I hope thats what it is)

 

 

 

As all my cars are mainly for display and will have ESC and 2.4 radio gear (if used) I am not cutting out the arial hole or the Heat cover for the resistors. NOT....because it makes the cutting any easier!!!! but as it will look a little cleaner.

OK, OK its also because it makes it easier to cut out the bodies....

 

I have started the Thundershot now as well.

Just the Boomerang and BigWig to do before I have to think about the paint!!

[Baddon 860]

All shells are now cut and sanded ready for washing before masking for paint.

[Baddon 860]

Working on the Thundershot and BigWig shells together as they are the same colours (and Boomerang for the white)

Marked the blue white joint on the outside and started to mask (bear in mind I have been up since 7 building 2 gingerbread houses and a BigWig) when I went.....

 

Oh golly 

Oh Gosh

Opps

Should I not be masking this the other way round? I was masking off all the blue to paint white first.

BUT I am thinking I read it should be the other way round, paint the darker colours first. so I need to mask off the white and paint blue.

So threw in the towel for the day and am preping dinner for tomorrow instead!

[taffer 948]

How tricky was it cutting out the middle section of the tshot body?

(The nose is also blue as well!)

[Baddon 860]

30 minutes ago, taffer said:

How tricky was it cutting out the middle section of the tshot body?

(The nose is also blue as well!)

Tricky....I nearly needed stitches from a slip of the knife!!!! 

I drilled about a dozen holes near the corners to try and get the Tamiya Modelling curved scissors in. did as best I could then finished with a scalpel......that's when it all went horribly wrong. Held me up for about 4 days till the finger tip had healed enough to get back to it. The lexon in this area is sooooooo thin you have to be V V V careful. The advantage is its much easier to shave a hair at a time. Total pain in the whats its though. 

Its why on the TBG shells for my display I have not removed the antenna hole. 2.4 don't need em anyways. I also have not removed the area usually cut out for a resistor as again IF any are used it will be with an ESC.

On the nose I do actually have it marked but you cant see it in that photo.

 

[Baddon 860]

OK, so I stripped the masking off from the areas to be blue and re masked covering the white areas. 

I decided at the last minute to use metallic blue (had some left from my WT-01 Bush Devil and I love the colour) rather than TS-04 which I am doing the Bigwig with.

Set up my spray booth in the kitchen under the extractor and run it full blast to remove most of the fumes.

 

 

1st coats applied.

 

[Fabia130vRS 2098]

Well I believe it would be easier with a dremel to remove the inner section. That is how I trim/cut difficult areas or windows/holes sometimes. Even cheap 20$ dremels of ebay would do the job. 

[mman2005 443]

3 hours ago, Fabia130vRS said:

Well I believe it would be easier with a dremel to remove the inner section. That is how I trim/cut difficult areas or windows/holes sometimes. Even cheap 20$ dremels of ebay would do the job. 

Is a dremel not a bit aggressive? 

[Fabia130vRS 2098]

Of course in the wrong hands it may cause more damage then good.

I have a bunch of dremel tips, so I adjust to what I am doing, and you can adjust ste speed also. 

I cant imagine me, in this hobby without it. 

[Baddon 860]

9 hours ago, Fabia130vRS said:

Of course in the wrong hands it may cause more damage then good.

I have a bunch of dremel tips, so I adjust to what I am doing, and you can adjust ste speed also. 

I cant imagine me, in this hobby without it. 

with my not so steady hand I can only imagine the carnage I would cause.......plus here they are not cheap OR come with naff all ends.

[mman2005 443]

7 minutes ago, Baddon said:

with my not so steady hand I can only imagine the carnage I would cause.......plus here they are not cheap OR come with naff all ends.

I would either freehand with a scalpel or use a reamer to cut large holes and then trim off the bits inbetween the holes 

[Baddon 860]

mask off, started the white

 

 

[Baddon 860]

Between coats I have also washed all the remaining shells that need paint.

These include:-

Terra Scorcher ( will be doing red same as Fire Dragon)

Fire Dragon

ThunderDragon

 

[Baddon 860]

Window masks on after drying.

Have to say Either I am totally pants at fitting these OR/AND they are not a great fit. Each needed some trimming and/or masking to extend them. They are VERY easy to trim with a scalpel. Spent over an hour getting these for above fitted.

Here are the Terra and Fire Dragon ready for first coat of 

 

RED

 

[Baddon 860]

Finished painting Thundershot, Terra Scorcher, Fire Dragon & ThunderDragon. (also BigWig, Winger & Boomerang)

 

 

[Baddon 860]

Started work on the Thundershot shell and though I would do a bit of a HOW I DO IT on the decals.

I spent a long time looking at uTube video's and reading how to guides and this is how I have come up with to fit decals.

1, Get a clear work area with all tools you need. In my case this is - Headtorch, glasses, cutting mat, Tamiya fine masking tape, New blade in scalpel, Tamiya curved scissors, Sharp dress making shears, Metal ruler Decals sheet, Tamiya instruction and a laptop with the box art on screen.

2 Remove window mask and protective film. Cut a few different lengths of masking tape and stick to the tape dispenser

3 Either cut out as you go OR do all the cutting out of decals first. I do a bit of both. 

I had the main strip for one side cut out to mark the paint joint / mask line so this was already cut out. I just trimmed it as CLOSE to the decal as I can to reduce the clear edge lines. If decals are close together this reduces or eliminates overlap and in my opinion keeps the shell tidier.

4 get the big jointing lines out of the way FIRST while your brain and eyes are fresh as both will get tired. Even with fresh eyes I have made a mistake here though I did not realise it till later, follow on till we work it out and see what I ending up doing!

5 position the first stripe and adjust until happy, then tap into position and check.

Then when happy start to remove the backing. On a long critical line like this (or the BigWigs) I only remove a section of backing and leave masking in place.

press this down and then remove masking tape and in this case I did another small section.

stick this down and then remove last piece

It was at this stage I was looking at the red line and wondering what the ******* as there is white under it......OH OH. there is supposed to be a white line under the red line and I have part removed it. Its sort of even and thin EXCEPT fot at the bend where I have not cut an even depth......

This decal does not go all the way to the bottom of the shell and you have to cut out a second part. I ended up trimming most of the white off it as well to make it match as best I could. 

Good news is ----this is me letting myself away with this mistake - I am displaying the cars facing left so this side will not be seen. As I ONLY cut this one out the other side I can get correct.

Anyway to finish this decal and take rest of night to join my good lady for a film on the sofa as the kids are now in bed.

 

 

 

[Baddon 860]

looking at this again I suspect I will spend some time with my scalpel and see if I cant even up the white at the bend and reduce it after the join so its more even.

I will also need to get some Tamiya Polycarbonate cleaner as the white for the window is not as crisp as I would like it. I know there is a black line to add here so will see how it looks when all decals on as I may not need it as much as I think.

I have checked its not available locally as its not approved for distribution as some of the contents are harmful....

[Baddon 860]

Well this shell is proving WAY more problematic than any of the others so far....

The decals all more or less morph into each other so if ONE is slightly out of location then it effect ALL the others.

I should have fitted the rear window one FIRST to set the main body lines.......

Look at this, and this is after trimming, cutting and shunting for a semi decent fit.

As I had the red main body curves in place I had to work round them. As this rear window decal also follows the window, masking the paint line its not got much it can be moved. It also effects the red strips that run on down the window......NIGHTMARE. see what I had to do to try and make it look half right.

On the lower red parts that run parallel I also had to cut a new line to match the adjusted blue line......

I now need to fill in the gap in the blue........

I will finish the decals and see whats left or maybe see if I have a marker near enough colour to take bad look of it. I think the Tamiya god is trying to tell me to leave my old shell on this one!!!

Anyway now to finish the rest of the canopy surround...MORE FUN

Not happy with this area at all.

So the black lines for front of the canopy are WAY to long so cut a bit off and extended the front one back towards the antenna dent out.

 

**** the line is thicker.....Whats that all about then? so a bit of scalpel trimming.still not happy so will need to close the gap as well. Trusty black marker!

not perfect but better than the paint fuzzy line!

Ok on to the bit at the front of the canopy. Again wont match all the curves so had to cut and overlap.....

Not enjoying this one at all.

How the ******* as a kid did I do this? No masking tape just fit it first time....and with the excitement to wanting to get out and use it I can imagine I did not take to long over it..

 

 

[Baddon 860]

All cut ready to finish lets see if I can get this done with no more chuff ups?