My first attempt about to begin...

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Amoeba

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My first attempt completed...

So as I may have mentioned, I gave my step-son an HPI RS4 3 SS for Xmas along with a 65 Shelby body and classic kragar-type rims & wheels. We'll be painting the lid this weekend with my shiny new Iwata Revolution airbrush I just picked up today. I'll have to take it out and play with it to get comfortable with the airbrush and paint application to avoid runs & overspray. Any hints or tips on the Iwata?

I'll post pics as the process moves along. For some twisted reason he wants a bright almost neon green body with dark purple racing stripes. *sigh* Well it is his car now. I'll see if I can talk him into edging the stripes with some black highlights and/or do something to make this hideous combination of color choices look good.

I know the recommended process is dark to light for painting but am thinking it will be much easier masking the stripes out and doing the body color first. As long as we put enough coats down and back it we should be okay right?
 
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I would back the colors with white, then go back and remove the mask and do the stripes. Can't damage that color combination by doing much else to it. :hehe:
 
Rolex is right. It would be easier to paint the green first. Just make sure you back the green in either white or silver. Then you can unmask the stripes and paint them.

Before you do the body, just grab either a 2 liter soda bottle and split it in half, or use a big smooth piece of window glass. Fill the brush and dial up about 20 psi on your compressor. Then just get used to spraying. General technique is to push the button down to start the air. Then slowly pull the button back to start the paint. Get used to how far you have to pull to start the paint. Then see how much it increases as you pull. You'd be surprised how fast you can get a run with these things. You'll soon get used to how to quickly lay a coat without too much running. Also, when you're painting the real thing, it's better to do a few light coats than one or two heavy ones. Lighter coats bond better and remain more flexible, limiting chipping.

Good luck. And as is the unwritten rule in the Body Shop, you must post pictures. No matter what it looks like.
 
I would back the colors with white, then go back and remove the mask and do the stripes. Can't damage that color combination by doing much else to it. :hehe:

Okay, so my original plan of attack is okey-dokey. Yay me!

Before you do the body, just grab either a 2 liter soda bottle and split it in half, or use a big smooth piece of window glass. Fill the brush and dial up about 20 psi on your compressor. Then just get used to spraying. General technique is to push the button down to start the air. Then slowly pull the button back to start the paint. Get used to how far you have to pull to start the paint. Then see how much it increases as you pull. You'd be surprised how fast you can get a run with these things. You'll soon get used to how to quickly lay a coat without too much running. Also, when you're painting the real thing, it's better to do a few light coats than one or two heavy ones. Lighter coats bond better and remain more flexible, limiting chipping.

Good luck. And as is the unwritten rule in the Body Shop, you must post pictures. No matter what it looks like.

Window glass! Never would have thought of that as a test medium. I've got lots of plate glass window space in my office/workshop I can use. Advantage to using my window is I can see how it looks painting reversed like for lids (just go outside and look at it) and will clean up easy with a razor and steel wool. Razor to scrape most off, steel wool to buff off smaller leftovers. Same technique used back in the day when I sold used cars and had to take crap off of windshields.

How many light coats of body should I lay down before backing and removing mask for stripes? You got a recommended average or do I just eyeball it?


And yes, there will be pictures to record for posterity the disgusting pile of sick that my step-son chose for colors. :hehe:
 
Aww, the colors don't sound that bad. (depending on the shade of purple) Kind of sounds like some funky Hot Wheels kind of paint job, but if he's happy it will make you happy. Good luck, can't wait for those picks.
 
Ooops. Quick tip on the glass. I assumed you were using water-based paint (ie Faskiolor, Createx, Pactra Acryl). If that's the case it will come off easily with water or windex. Don't worry about scraping. If you're using enamel, just stick to the soda bottles and throw them away when you're done. No sense making a ton of extra work for yourself.
 
The only way to be SURE you have enough thin coats on it is to hold it up to the light. If a lot of light shines through in a certain area, then you know the backing color will also show through and lighten or darken that spot.
When you have an area you can see a lot of light through, just add more to that spot till you have even coverage.
Same goes for the backing, several thin coats given ample time to dry in between.
 
Home Depot is like crack.

I only went in to get a coupler for the Iwata hose to fit to my compressor and some paint thinner. I ended up walking out with a new flexi-hose (stock craftsman air hose is like bending rebar it's so stiff), 6 couplers of different types, a pistol grip blower, a siphon-fed sandblaster hookup, 100lbs of silica sand, a respirator, and materials to build a sandblast box.

I have issues.

We'll be heading to the LHS for paint this afternoon and get started tonight. Pics will be forthcoming of the progress. Thanks for the light tip Rolex.
 
Progress so far:

Rough cut the body and reamed mounting & antenna holes after fitting to see how she sits. Looks good so far.

View attachment 7047
View attachment 7048

Put in the windshield masks, took a bit to get them about as perfectly lined up as I could.

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Going to mask out the racing stripes, finish up the cutting and sand edges/holes and prep body for painting tomorrow. Playing around with the Faskolor I picked up it seems to throw pretty thick through the Iwata. I might mix the paint with Faskolor thinner at a 3:1 and see how that does though part of the issue may be my lack of airbrush ability. My step-son's first pass on some soda bottles were almost perfect. I say almost because you could barely tell there was some slightly thicker sprays on an area cover only when holding it up to the light. The little punk is a natural. Thank god he's doing the painting :)
 
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i can't wait to see it it's going to look really good.....My dad has a real(1.1)drag car(8.63seconds in the quarter mile)and he pianted it a dark color change purple then we had to make a modification to the hood scope and we used a green tape to mark it out and it looked good so i took the tape and made two brite green strips down the car with it and it looked awesome...imo
 
Did some more work on it today with the step-son. More like I supervised and he did the work :)

Here he's doing the Dremel action on the body to finish cut & sanding edges for final prep before shooting paint

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Checking ride height and clearances on final rough cut of body prior to final sanding

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Main body base coat done, 4 coats total. Step-son's first time ever using an airbrush. Not too shabby, only some very slight areas where it was thrown too thick and you can see some pooling. For some reason he didn't want the stripes to extend down to the air dam as is the normal classic paint style. Whatever. heh.

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Here's the backing for body coat with a middle strip of the racing stripe mask pulled to test paint dryness. Gonna let it sit overnight to minimize jagged edges on masking pull.

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He'll shoot the stripes tomorrow and we'll put on the final touches and make her pretty for the debut. :)
 
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Lookin' good to go. I can't wait till my daughter can help paint and run RC cars but I have a little while, she is only 9 Months old hehe
 
Gah. So I've learned a few things watching this process. No more masking tape, liquid mask & cutting only. Thin the paint and/or switch paint types. Better control on the nozzle... Looks like I'll be practicing quite a bit on soda bottles & paper to get the hang of things myself.

After 24 hours of dry time, pulling the mask up very slowly still resulted in jagged edging on the striping. The colors are just as ugly as I imagined (heh) but since the step-son did all the painting & work I can say it's not too shabby for a first-ever attempt and he seems happy with the results.

Once the last stripe coat is dry and decals applied I'll post final pics.
 
what tape are you using.. that could be part of the problem..
if you use tape thinner then the paint or have the paint build up past the tape it'll form a"bridge " and cause you to have the peeled/jagged edges
 
looks good to me. and the best part is you did it together. i can't wait until my boys are old enough to play with me.
 
what tape are you using.. that could be part of the problem..
if you use tape thinner then the paint or have the paint build up past the tape it'll form a"bridge " and cause you to have the peeled/jagged edges

Yeah, the Tamiya masking tape I used was way too thin for the number of coats applied and caused the bridge you describe. The thicker vinyl windshield masks that came with the body had no such issues. Either way I'll just stick with liquid mask and/or cut my own vinyl masks from blanks in the future until I feel more comfortable with the whole painting process.

I did try to hobby knife the remaining masking edges prior to pulling after I noticed the jagged edges which helped some.

looks good to me. and the best part is you did it together. i can't wait until my boys are old enough to play with me.

Too true. Even if it's a very amateur job, we did it together and had fun doing it. :)

I've been watching some of the cfxpaintworks youtube videos and am already waiting for some new lids to be shipped for my Stampede, Monsoon & MT's. I've also got a hookup at a local sign shop to get custom laser-cut masks done in vinyl or acetate whenever I want for more complex patterns/designs to try in the future.

The way I figure it, between lots of practice and the help from guys like Lessen, Mel, Candy, NCnitro, Rolex etc., I may eventually not suck quite so badly. :\
 
Here are the pics. Still waiting on rear fender to fully dry before attaching. Some rough edges on stripes from my inexperience with masking but my step-son did a pretty good job overall I think for a first timer. Not all of the decals are on as of yet. It got late and kid had to head to bed :)

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Ignore the lack of body posts on the front. He snapped one off when he flipped the other day while practicing drifting. Just waiting for new piece to arrive. The stripes look blue in the pics (didn't color correct the camera) but are a dark metallic purple which doesn't look too bad.
 
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Nah, no crickets.

Actually a good first job. Likes are clean with no bleed. Color is uniform and the purple didn't show through the green. So I'd say it went exactly to plan and that's exactly what you need to do. Great Job both of you.
 

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