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Is doing non box art blasphemy?

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18 hours ago, isomer1 said:

Trying to imagine an outing where everyone has box art... seems like a recipe for madness.

Growing up I don’t think I remember seeing. Anything expect maybe a Lunchbox or a monster beetle 
monster Beetle ever painted box art. Even then the lunchies were Painted a unique color with box art decals 

Almost every RC buggy  I saw was at the track and everyone had a unique personal paint job . This was for obvious reasons.

The idea of “correct” box art paint job never even occurred to me until I joined this forum. 

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4 hours ago, Ferruz said:

As already said by others, I think that people should do whatever they want with their model, box art is nice but it's not mandatory. I agree with @TurnipJF on it being a guideline that should probably be perceived as something stimulating rather than somehow mandatory. Variety is vital, if you feel like taking your chance at the palette and come up with your own color scheme I believe Mr. Tamiya would be the first to approve.

Personally, the times I've decided to go for my own graphics and colors I found it very challenging yes, but immensely rewarding once I've seen the final results. I'm also particularly fond of the cars that bear my own color scheme.

But then again, as folks said above, anything goes! Just have fun as that's what we are here for.

My non box-art cars

20210130-211605.jpg

 

 

That Hornet is the shiznit!

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I think back in the 80's or even now if you were racing you want to identify your car easily from others , I think back then the only car I did the right colour was my Hotshot , now with the nostalgia people have an image in their mind and that's usually box art , I still don't really do box art , it might be easier in some ways as you don't have to agonise over it or find it looks terrible in real life !

To each their own !

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its your buggy your way, no more than so than upgrading and WE ALL do that to some form or other, even if its only bearings.

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Another good one worth revisiting 👍

Some box art can feel hugely satisfying and iconic - for me, mostly first 100 with a few later entries ?

Others - even within that range, and esp after - were, again for me, wrong from the start ... or a re re compromise with fudged sponsor decals ? 

For example, I love later 90s touring car technical evolution but - in terms of box art / shells - sponsors threw up on a saloon with minimal brand effort / colour beneath ... the 911 Taisan possibly being the only exception that propagated into a true livery ?

Even the new TFE has a decals fudge - this time not sponsor driven, making its motives more curious 🤨 

Whatever you think, the beauty of building as well as buying means it’s always individual choice - and why so many of us are wedded to the old 🔵🔴 

Whether a kit being painted box art impacts it’s after sales value is an entirely separate question - and one arguably driven by something at odds with pure fun ?

With the latter in mind, consider some of the epic creativity and talent on here, all doing their own thing, way better than Tamiya ever could - @Truck Norris @JennyMo to name but two 

I’m not in either league - and am happy if inept efforts at box art (or otherwise) swerve blasphemy 😂 and make me / anyone else interested happy !

That’s where the fun lies 👍

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Thanks for the responses, everyone. Glad everyone almost seems to be on the same boat. So I do like nostalgia but when I look at a kit I built with some personal touches, it makes me value it more because of the history I have with the it. If it's purely box art, I don't have much attachment probably because it reminds of how I saw the car at a store when I was a kid, kinda like I'm back window shopping.

But I do agree that there are some kits that would warrant box art. What Sir Crashalot mentioned, the 959. I would do 90% box art if I worked on it or some of the older body style 911 Porsches.

16 hours ago, Sir Crashalot said:

The Rothmans 959 is almost always boxart. It's a project I'm doing next, and it will be true to form even though it will be raced.

And also, in terms of color alone,  the Egress. I think that color silver is a tough one to beat. I've seen well executed builds but no matter what color is done, it doesn't look as good as the original. So I'm with moffman here.

5 hours ago, moffman said:

Some the only colour to do is box art like the egress (IMO)

 

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Just finished a TB-02 build and was not a fan of the box art. Decided to take a "less is more" mentality, get creative with the decals, and mix in some white & bright gunmetal paint. Last pic is box art for reference. Pretty happy with the results. Still undecided on the wing though...kind of liking the sleek look without it.

 

 

tb02-2.jpg

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TA_58317_1.jpg

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I've always been a fan of NON BOX ART, because when i see a car i used to dream of "how it could be with some modification"... 

I had to admit also, that some cars are already beautifull and they have a "meaning" of being realized like box art (i'm now doing Calsonic Skyline and HKS skyline... not so much to customize when realizing a repro of a real car)

When i can't customize body paint, i use to customize the mechs underneath.

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I would say most of my cars are non box art, especially my racers. Though, the last few Tamiya kits I have purchased have been box art. I currently have a FF03 Civic and an FF01 Civic that will get the box art treatment.

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Great question, and I'm not sure how I missed this first time around!

The majority of my stuff is non-boxart.  There are various reasons for this.

1) I like to run my cars at events, and it looks silly if half the field are the same colour.  I like to think of a race meet as being a miniaturised version of a 1:1 race meet, so all the cars should show their team or sponsor colours.  It doesn't bother me if the livery is a replica of a real current or previous race team, or inspired by one, or if it's completely custom, I just like when people put in the effort and we don't have all cars in the same colour.  You wouldn't get that at a real event.  At most, you might see 3 cars in the same colour but at least then they would have different numbers and driver names on.  (For this reason also it bothers me when racers put their numbers on the windows.  Put them on the bonnet / doors where they would have gone on a real car!)

2) Following on from above, when I go racing I like to pretend I'm a race team owner and I have my own race team colours.  So if I've entered multiple classes, I'll try to keep all my cars in the same colours.  For this reason I also like to go to the effort of making up (real or fake) sponsor logos, generally one large main sponsor that goes in the prominent positions and smaller logos in appropriate places.  And I avoid having conflicting logos.  As in, I wouldn't have both NGK and Champion stickers on the same car.  MCI Decals create a selection of sponsor sheets to help with smaller logo placement, and before I stick things down I often go online to look up a company name, as it isn't always clear from the logo what product they sell.  Sometimes I'll get caught out because I'll put an arbitrary logo on a Ford truck and find out later it's the name of a well-known Mopar dealer on the other side of the pond.

3) I like street cars.  I don't do it much now, but I used to buy Tamiya touring cars that I'd like to own as street cars.  I'll paint them in regular street colours and fit street style wheels.  Sometimes it's hard to choose a good donor car, for example very few Imprezas left the factory with roof scoops, but most of Tamiya's shells have them because they replicate rally cars.

There's also the Lunchbox, which IMO is really crying out for custom designs.  I love some of the sponsor vans I've seen.  IIRC many moons ago someone on here made a Lunchbox that had a laxative company logo on the side.  Also lunchboxes that are literally lunch boxes, and at least two different Dumb & Dumber dog vans.  Plus if you make up your own stickers, it doesn't have to be Vanessa's lunchbox - it can be your lunchbox!  (My 4 year old loves that her Lunchbox has got a picture of a girl on the side, and I told her one day we'll make a new body in her favourite colour and with her name on the logo.)

Some of the "alternate base colour" designs are really inspired (even on this thread alone there have been some great ideas), but I personally don't do that.  Again, it's about clashing with another car at a meet.  Even if the colours are different, it would be unusual for two cars to have the same livery but in different base colours.  Even a palette-swap on the decals (as offered by MCI) doesn't really solve this problem.  That said, I have done some touring cars in vintage buggy liveries and I once had a plan to put a Sand Scorcher body on every vintage 2WD buggy I own, but in that buggy's box-art colours - so I'd have a fleet of baja bugs, but each one with different name, colours and door number :) 

This also forces me to think pretty hard about my colours.  My early attempts at making racey designs fell flat on their face because what looked good in my head didn't look good on the body.  My wife is an artist and taught me a lot about colour theory.  She also has various books on colours and some colour wheels, so I can get a feel for what a finished product might look like.  There are some colours I would never have dreamed of putting together but which work perfectly.

Also I have to think about decals.  I enjoy putting time into coming up with a name for my monster trucks, then designing the logo, then shipping it off to MCI to have the decals properly made.  Having to put all this extra effort in (especially after my earlier disasters) makes the whole finished product so much more special to me.

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46 minutes ago, Mad Ax said:

Also I have to think about decals.  I enjoy putting time into coming up with a name for my monster trucks, then designing the logo, then shipping it off to MCI to have the decals properly made.  Having to put all this extra effort in (especially after my earlier disasters) makes the whole finished product so much more special to me

We think a lot alike in this regard. 
Even though I  Haven’t actually built them yet, I love coming up with new original monster truck names and themes. 
My current parts Bin hodge podge Modern retro Stampede is called Muskellunge after the fish. ( large aggressive member of the Pike family. It’s like a freshwater barracuda ) 

I’m contemplating making my SMT 10 Muskellunge 2 when I customize and re body it. 

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I like to challenge myself and design a livery that hasn't been offered before with some details added in =)

 

 

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P2280013.jpg

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On 2/28/2021 at 8:49 PM, taffer said:

If you ever sell it, box art seems to hold its price better....

Box art is best, but I do custom now and again, if I have multiple models or lacking a 'colour' in the collection

this is the dilemma, I'm not sure whether if I want to sell it in the future or not. Box art is generally a safe way to go,

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3 hours ago, Dug180 said:

this is the dilemma, I'm not sure whether if I want to sell it in the future or not. Box art is generally a safe way to go,

I play with my cars too much to worry about resale value. 
I don’t beat on cars like a hardcore basher, but any large amount of driving an RC car will give you nicks and bumps here and there

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Besides my RTR bought cars I have never ever done a box-art style paintjob.
I mostly just choose a color I like and paint it that color, barely ever use any stickers either as I hate doing them.

I wanted to buy a Neo Fighter and build it box-art, but never got to it as I got a great deal on a used Racing Fighter.

My next build is a Konghead, won't be box-art either, box-art blue looks great but I am planning to use translucent paints for the first time on that one.
But it will probably be my first build which will use most of the box-art stickers, the yellow of the stickers will probably look great with the purple paintjob I am planning.

Even my military CrossRC HC6 has a non-military dark red paintjob :lol:

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8 hours ago, Problemchild said:

How do you do your body panel lines?

@Problemchild - I use Kyosho Micron Line Tape, 0.4mm, really is quite exceptional.

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I love custom Paintjobs, even if they are "boxartish" but only in different Colors.

 

Yesterday, i found that channel:

 

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I’m not the type who does box art paint, I like to have that more personalized, the Traxxas Vadit that was my 1st R/C back when you still had to paint the RTRs (as well as eventually replace the bushings with bearing and MSC with an ESC) got painted black with the Firebird decal from a Revell-Monogram (well, Monogram because.....) 1/24 ‘77 Pontiac Trans-Am kit with gold automotive pinstripes.

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7 hours ago, whahooo said:

I love custom Paintjobs, even if they are "boxartish" but only in different Colors.

 

Yesterday, i found that channel:

 

I’m liking that channel you linked.Also I think the GF-01 dump truck is a great platform to customize. 
Tamiya themselves realized that and released the Metal Version. 

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Great work @Snakehands. Love the attention to detail. I just built this same kit and I agree the box art is pretty boring. I'm going to do a variation on the GT1 Le Mans car, with some MCI decals in an alternate color scheme. Not sure how it will turn out but I know it will be unique!

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2 hours ago, Room335 said:

I'm going to do a variation on the GT1 Le Mans car

@Room335 - I'm also thinking of the same. I have an original TA03R-S kit with the 1996 Porsche 911 GT1 kit body done in box art, shelf display for sure. I use a spare 911 GT2 body for outside on the tarmac, but this would be a nice change to design a different actual raced 911 GT1 livery. The newest white street (Straßenversion) body is a white canvas begging to have a proper graphic livery designed, might have to poke over to Racingsportscars and dig one up...

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