body painting

[Mattyfats420]

i am a mechanic/auto body man by trade. i just wanted to know about painting a body, what paint do you use, and thing associated with painting bodys. any info would be greatly appreciate to start my custom body project =]

thanks

 

[Lessen]

First off, you definately want to use paint specific to lexan r/c bodies. You can find these at any hobby shop. You can get it in liquid form for use with an airbrush or in rattle cans. Aside from that, you want to clean the inside (you're going to paint the inside, not the outside of the body) with dish washing detergent and water and possibly even scuff it lightly with something slightly abrasive. Don't scuff the window for obvious reasons. Aside from that there isn't much to it. If you browse through the body forum here on RCNT you'll find lots of info, tips, and works from many of us here.

 

[NCNitro]

Also you will want to paint from dark to light. For masking you can use liquid mask, blue painters tape, or even lessens favorite, clear plasti-dip spray. (I still need to try this one). Whichever method you choose make sure you spray light even coats with a lexan specific paint, i.e. Pactra Acryl (my favorite), it's water based so clean up is a breeze, and pretty much odorless, pactra rattle cans, tamiya rattle cans for lexan, and if you have to you can use parma paint (I personally hate the stuff!) You can also use Createx paint sold in the airbrush section of Michaels arts and crafts, but thats just basically rebottled parma faskolor.

 

[CharliesTheMan]

I'm not a professional bodyman, but I restore hod rods and build custom trucks and I do all my paint and body, but for my show lids, I count on my good friend RCNitro. As you'll see from his pics that are up on the threads, hes amazingly talented and he does things for a very very reasonable price. So if you want a really trick custom paintjob and you don't have an airbrush, NCNitro and some others on here will paint it for you really cheap.

 

[jetmechG550]

I've been using Createx Auto Air Paints lately. You get about 4 times as much paint at a fraction of the cost, plus it sprays easy and cleans up even easier. Also they offer a huge variety of color choices.

 

[Mattyfats420]

wow great feedback on that thread. thanks alot everyone. if anyone has any good site for clear bodies, paint, masking. ect. just for a price referance. usually the LHS.. at least i know mine is a little above average in there pricing compared to what i have seen online.

 

[Candyman]

You can one-stop most of your supplies at Tower Hobbies. If you're looking for more specialty paints, you might have to go right to the source. Great paints are from Parma (Faskolor), Pactra (Racing Finishes), Spaz Stix, Createx (either their regular paints or Auto Air), or even Tamiya. Take some time and practice the method. It's nearly the complete opposite of painting a 1:1 car. You guys work from the base out. We have to paint from the detail to the base. One good way to practice is to use a 2 liter soda bottle split lengthwise. It's a good canvas to learn how to break down a design and paint it backwards. Plus if you screw up you just throw it away.

 

[Mattyfats420]

i dont really under stand why you have to paint your car from the inside? and why you have to paint from the detail to base color. just kinda boggling my mind right now. but yet i just woke up hehe

 

[ohmygahitscoby]

Because you don't want that paint to get scratched off or corroded if it's painted outside. You can paint the detail last if you leave some painting tape for the details. You also have to paint from dark to light.

 

[NCNitro]

i dont really under stand why you have to paint your car from the inside? and why you have to paint from the detail to base color. just kinda boggling my mind right now. but yet i just woke up hehe

A hard plastic or styrene body like a clod body or high lift body gets painted on the outside just like you would paint a real car. A lexan body is painted from the inside, it helps keep the paint from getting scratched off the lexan and gives it that deep clearcoat look. In order to get that look with the hard bodies you need to paint and sand, paint and sand, and polish just like you would a 1:1. But with lexan it's easy, just shoot the inside and your clear body acts as the clear coat.

You paint from dark to light as to not muddy up the lighter colors by shooting dark over them. Also certain colors need to be backed with other certain colors to achieve the best look. I use either white or silver to back most colors, but something like chrome needs to be backed with black.

The only time I paint a lexan shell on the outside is if I want a flat black body, only way you can really get a true flat black is to shoot it on the outside of the shell.

 

[Candyman]

Adding onto NCNitro's great thoughts, you have to paint from the detail to the base because you are indeed painting inside the body. Think of it like he said. The clear Lexan is analogous to the clear coat on a 1:1 job. It's the "top" of the paint. So you're basically starting from the top and working backwards. Which is the opposite of a full-scale job. So you have to paint the detail first or it will never show through. And like he said, you have to pay attention to color. For example, if you paint a big space white, then paint red behind it, there will be pink showing through. But if you paint the red, then the white it will just look red on the outside. So as a rule, paint the dark colors first and work towards the lighter ones.

 

[Mattyfats420]

great I'm definetly going to start a project when i get some cash =]

thanks for all the info