Not a painting question, but close enough. What do you guys use to cut out the bodies? I've tried the usuall tools, but found nothing that cuts the rounded corners very well.

T3rookie-here's what I do, been working for me for many years-put a brand new blade in your Xacto knife, and just scribe around the body where you want to cut it out. Don't cut it all the way through. Then start the tear by folding it along the scribe mark back and forth. (usually in a straight area between the wheelwells) Then you should be able to tear the body along the scribe mark, I almost always take the excess lexan off in one piece. experiment on a scrap piece of lexan first, and once you get the technique, there will be no stopping you. They do make curved scissors especially for cutting out lexan bodies, available through most hobby dealers, but I prefer just to scribe it out, along the bottom of the body and around the wheelwells. Just be sure to use a new blade! Tip-you'll be able to scribe along a straight line better if you keep your blade at a shallow angle.

Tim

Tim,
I have found that if you snap the very tip (1/32 of an inch) of your Xacto blade off with a pair of needle nose pliers, it tends to cut down on the blade wandering. Makes the blade easier to control around curves and such.

Blimey, 2 months have passed and nobodies got anything to say!!
Here's me thinking i'd have loads to read as ive been unable to get online for some time.

Anyway, Heres a body i did about a month ago, its a Merc done with Parma Fask range and Alclad II Chrome. Took me quite a while to paint and about 10 times longer to plan. STILL not painted the wing on it see if i remember later today, got another body ive JUST finished cuting and decalling (its 7:30am at the moment, not been to bed yet!) i'll post the pics tonight/tomorrow if i get some good one's, might even get a good pic of the Merc outdoors today!

PaulC2K

and a second picture
forgot to mention that its also got Alclad II Purple-Blue Flip backed with black (not that its visable on the photos)

PaulC2K
Night, Night!! :wave:

That's really nice! I am planning a Lexus IS400 Body for my FSR Bullet. And a new body for my GTX. I am going to do them matching. Either that same or complimentary. I will be using light coats of fluoro purple and orange, with a silver backing. Trying to think of ways to do it. I will post pics when I have done it.

James

Anakist, Thanks for the compliment, Ive just got a GS400 too, but the window mask that came with it has the part number for the 190mm version, and the shape of the mask isn't correct, I dont suppose you could check to find out if your mask says
7048 (190)
7455 (200)

Bizzarly, on the same day i bought that, i order 2 other shells, a Pontiac Firebird and a Merc Benz. The Merc somehow came with the Masking for the Elise!
The elise is 7433, and the Merc is 7443. They'd somehow put the Merc paper into the Elise Machine, then put it into a Merc Package!
The paper says Merc, but the mask has the No for the Elise stenciled into it.
Why do these thing happen to me!
And with the Queen's 50th Jubilee (whooopie-dooo) everyone's on holiday for the Mon & Tues, so ive still not got a reply from HPI UK :(

PaulC2K

Has anyone used the window cling sheets to mask off the area prior to painting. I have several sheets and would like to use it. Any tips will be appreciated.

Troy

Paul,
I haven't got the body yet sorry. I am going to get them in a fortnight or so and I am just planning at the moment. Yeah it is a bit weird. Hope it gets resolved.

James

Ok, Thanks.
Im hoping to be going to the Modelshop today, so i'll see what they've got there.

Got some Pontiac Firebird photos earlier today.
I'll post one and put the others on one of my Sites and post a link once its done

PaulC2K

Very Nice. I like the mags as well. Where is your site? As soon as I get a digicam I will be posting pics of my cars.

James

hey guys
i was wondering what type of brush and paint i could use as a substitute for an airbrush. i was just going to do one solid color with maybe Team Orion decal(s) to make it look better.

Use spray cans. I do all my painting with them. Place them in hot water to increase the pressure inside the can, and decrease the viscosity of the paint. It works amazingly well.

Other than that I don't know.

James

any special type of spraypaint that you know works well, or can i just pick some up at my local Orchard Hardware and Garden?

Hey all, have not been here myself in a while. I do air conditioning work, and we are now in full swing here in muggy south east texas. will try to drop in when I get a break (like today) again. 2 months without a post, wow!

Unfortunately had to give up the body painting business due to lack of consistentcy and profitability in favor of a part time job. I'll still be here to answer any questions about painting you guys may have, that's still fun. Got to the point where late payments/offers of merchandise from the LHS and others really killed it all. I got a promise of them sending me all their work, only to see several other painter's cards being handed out. How many favors can I do, I'm trying to feed my family, and need some extra income to do it. So from now on, my own bodies will take priority, been a while since I could say that. James, I don't know how you do it; I gave it 2 years, and it didn't lead where I wanted it to, so on to bigger and better things.

What experience do you guys have with the durability of Parma's FastColor acrylic paints? We recently completed a Dale Jarrett #88 paint job on a 1/10th Proline stadium truck body. We used Parma's brown, since Pactra doesn't have one, and we didn't want to try to mix one from bottles, and then sprayed Pactra's Sprint White over the entire body.

We sprayed the Parma with an inexpensive Testor's airbrush at about 40 psi in thin coats with good results. (The paint wasn't thinned.) Then left it sit until the next day and shot the Pactra on from a can in several light coats.

But even after a couple of days, the Parma doesn't seem to "bite" into the lexan like the Pactra. You can scratch it off with a finger nail. Any ideas on how to make this more durable, or better off just mixing colors from Pactra bottles?

Smojoe:
You need a particular type of paint when painting onto Lexan, it needs to include a flex agent otherwise the second you hit something, its all gonna be on the floor!
Make sure its a Lexan designed paint, Pactra have a range of paints, but your best bet is to goto the local Hobby store and check with them, Im in the UK, but that sounds like a hardware store, they wont have the paint you need.

Tim:
Im disappointed to hear you've had to give up the painting business, at least your still gonna be able to do your own. If you miss painting bodies I can give you some crashing tips, you'll be painting again after a few minutes :D

Gubawatts:
I like Parma's Fasc range of paints, but it sounds like you needed to clean the bodyshell a bit better before the application of the paint or you've not done them in light coats. For best results spray it in very light coats, the more the better, and allow a few hours for the paint to dry AND bond with the lexan, the first layer is by far the most important, too think and it wont bond tightly.

PaulC2K

Oooops! Left one out :hat:

Anakist:
Mags?? You've lost me on that (assuming it was too me)
The site, Normally i'd put my photos on
qazwert.4t.com (http://qazwert.4t.com) (with or without www.)
but they've been playing up so ive got another which i've done nothing but store photo's on, but now they might be playing up too! but theres much more storage space there, so i might stick with them, the first one was getting clostrophobic!
As things stand there are just images stored there, i'll quickly put something together over the next few days, ive done loads of cars since creating qazwert.4t.com
To sum things up, im working on it :D

PaulC2K

Paul,
I meant the wheels on the car. I am going to have all the pics of my cars on my site when I get a camera.

Smojoe,
I use Tamiya spray for lexan. It works really well for me.

James

Tim, the key was starting off part time while I had a full time job. Then when I had enough capital built up, it helped to have a part time job too. Until we actually made JSBodies a business, it was a struggle.And now with us going out on a limb with this hobby shop, we are barely making it. hopefully things will turn for the better in the long run.

A key factor for me was and still is "no trades- cash,plastic or check please".

Don't give up painting completely Tim!

Nice site Paul. The Merc looks great. I love the purple highlights on the back. I hope my cars turn out that good!!

James

Apart from Slixx, who else sells NASCAR decals 1/10 scale? Slixx doesn't have the drivers I am looking for --- Kevin Harvick #29, for example.

Thanks

Check these out on tower's site: http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p.pgm?Q=1&I=LXANY9&P=7

Also, Autographix has 1/10th scale sets as well. They're last years schemes, I think that's true of both Slixx and Autographix. I just did a RC10T3 with the #88 Dale Jarrett UPS Slixx set.

Good Luck,

Mark

Thanks Gub,

Yeah, they're last year's paint schemes. It takes time to have the current year's schemes I guess. Must have to wait probably.

How did you go Paul? Did you get the window masks?

James

Hi Guys

Anakist:
Still no word from HPI Europe regeding the Merc window mask, I emailed them about the Merc, then 10 minutes later emailed then (with the original email attached) because the Lexus was also incorrect, and as things stand, they haven't said a thing.

But on a good note, the shop which sold me the GS400 didnt have the 200mm car in stock to swap, so they contacted HPI directly and they phoned back later that day. Aparently, they are going to send a complete bodyshell do the shop, and im presuming i've be taking that home, and more than likely keeping them both, re-use the window mask if i can, otherwise use tape. So if HPI ever get back to me with the Lotus/Merc mask, i'll remind them of the similar deal with the Lexus!! :devil:

Finally Anakist, Thanks for the comment about the site, Hopefully i'll get back into the groove and keep it updated with all my other pics, possibly move to a larger site though. But im stumped on one of your comments, "The Merc looks great. I love the purple highlights on the back"
I haven't got a Merc on that site, (not one that the site would direct you to anyway), but there is a Green, Silver and Blue BMW M3 GTR, is that the one you mean?
http://qazwert.4t.com/RC/BMWM3GTR/HPIedit.jpg
(hope this shows!)

PaulC2K

Yeah sorry, I think I got confused with another site. The one with the purple highlights across the back. Really looks good! Still don't know when I am going to get mine painted. Too broke to get the supplies :(


James

Nevermind, The thing that puzzled me most, was the fact that the picture ive posted below (dont think it shows, i could see it when i posted it, but then i'd seen it on my site, but tonight there was a X instead :( ) yer, so the image on the previous page is done in Photoshop, using one of HPI's photos. For a moment I thought you were saying it looked good, lol.

Im skint at the moment, and one order is being held up because my Mastercard is having to be re-issued (think thats the term) as someone decided to have a spending spree on it! sadly, not me!! So whats being delt with.

PaulC2K

Thats not good. I am getting the body soon. Mercy run to my parents. Should have the IS400 and a parma paint mask today or maybe tomorrow. Definitely on Monday. What is the IS400 like? I like the full size car, but I don't know about the tenth scale body. What is it like for looks and aerodynamics??? I will put up pics on my page when I am done.

James

Took until today to get it. I am going to get it this afternoon. Pics coming soon.

I am pretty much a self made painter, I have read a few of the comments here and thought you might like to see some of my work.

I do not profess to be a pro or even on the level of most of the people who post here, however, I have taken a wack at a few bodies ( cars that is).

Did most of my learning on painting choppers on the west coast, mostly Cal. With choppers you paint from the base out (positive) and with rc cars you paint back to the base (negative), had a bit of a learning curve.

Hopfully these will attach. OOPS file to big , guess I will have to try to compress it somehow. Be back soon!

OK, somebody help an old Okie out, how can I compress a jpg and post it here.:confused:

Cool. I couldn't get it. RAR. Have to wait for weeks now :( Can't wait to see them. Email them to me if you want. I am a self made painter too. Grand total of one so far. I used to paint slot car bodies with a brush and the little tamiya bottles :)

James

James

YGM


Sorry for the long download!

Going to Texas tommorrow, what a place to vacation, would rather come see your country!!!!!

Thumper:thumbsup:

PS. You don't eat rabbits down under.............do ya?:( :D

No we don't. :)

Gee that ford paint job is nice. I will put them up on my site and link to them here.

If you visit here I have a spare room...

James

Would love to be able to take you up on your offer, but the plane ticket would be killer.:devil:

Yeah but your dollar is worth about double ours. You would almost make money coming here :) Almost up

James

PS do you want the mark martin one up?

http://www.geocities.com/anakist_rc/OKThumper.html

There they are!

James

Nice cars Thumper!!
If you need to compress the size of the picture, you've got 2 options
1) Make the picture smaller, either shrink it, or remove empty areas of the picture.
2) Paint Shop Pro (and a few other good paint packages) allow you to lower the quality of your jpg. I do about 10% but ofter 30% can work will little loss of quality. You can take a picture from 0% to 10% and make a 150k file about 70k!! Which is a big difference for virtually no quality lost.
I use both, get just the car in the picture, then lower the quality or shink the image size.

Ive got a Flame car on its way too, so hopefully that'll be posted in 48hrs. Maybe 72hrs if we hammer the Brazillians :D (COME ON ENGLAND!!)

Anakist:
No news on the Window masks, although when i phoned HPI they denied ever getting the email (I SENT 2!!!) and asked me to send it to them and they'll send the correct one to me. Is it me, or does it seem ridiculess that ive got to send them my mask when THEY mess up! Ok, so its only about 26p (about $40) but still, they mess up, and expect me to sort it out even after emailing them (only to be ingored)

Me thinks i'll be sticking with Protoform, dont you just love it when they make all the complicated decisions for you!! :D

I used irfanview (www.irfanview.com) to resample the picture to 640*480 for those pics. And you can change the dpi and everything. And it is free :D

Paul, How bad is it that Japan lost! I was so cheering for them. I have been watching the games (look in yak about anything in the world cup post) and I don't think Becks is worth the 8 commoder acclaims he is paid each week (a radio station here did a comparison, he gets the equivalent of 8 cars, or about 200,000 (I think) cans of rum and coke a week). I haven't seen him do anything amazing yet. Not like Hassen Sas. Did you see the tricky stuff he pulled in their first game? It was awesome. And Suzuki is playing better than him. *SIGH* I think Brazil will win. They seem to be playing better. And, Ronaldo and Rivaldo (weird isn't it) are 2 and 3 on the most goals scored.

I am still waiting on my body. Still broke :( I always thought HPI would be better than that. Typical big business attitude. The person answering the phone didn't get the email. That is your problem. Hou could you be so stupid ;) What you need to do is find out the phone person's home email, and flame them until the send you free stuff :)

James

Anakist:
Im currently sat outside the telephonists house, sniper rifle at the ready ;)
Im a Man United fan, so go easy on the Becks comments!! :D
He's on £90,000 (from what i remember) and deserves every penny of it in my book.

Not only have they got Ronaldo & Rivaldo, but theres also Ronaldinho (think thats the correct spelling) but the one thing they dont have is a defence, so Friday lunch (12:30 our time) well be there watching England bag goals galore!! :D

Flame car is coming along beautifully!
Brother must have kidnapped my Digicam otherwise i'd have given you a sneak peak, 4 in the morning, so wont wake the whole house up, although he's watching a DVD anyway, Who needs sleep!!

PaulC2K

Good spot to be :thumbsup:

I'm not bagging Becks. This is the first time I have seen him play, and he isn't earning his money in my opinion. He might be brilliant for Man U, but he isn't showing it at Korea or Japan. What do you think of the Japanese player Inamoto, from Arsenal? He is my favorite player at the moment. I love his hair and A* thinks he is cute :rolleyes:

Good to hear the body is coming along well! I am getting a camera this afternoon so pics of my stuff will be up soon! If you want pics on my site, email me. ja_mez@hotmail (ja_mez) and I will throw up a link or put them up. Keep up the good work!

James
http://www.stopstart.fsnet.co.uk/smilie/ozmate2.gif

Dont judge becks on his performances so-far, he's lucky to be there let alone on top form, he missed the last 6 weeks of the season as he broke a bone in the toe, and its a silly but painful injury. It was touch and go as to whether he'd even be going!! We actually got to Japan thanks to a single handed performance by the guy himself (and thats no exageration, the team were mediocre and he played a blinder), and he can put the free kicks away!

As for Inamoto, i heard they 'let him go' (from his arsenal contract) a few weeks before the WC, but now there saying they'll see how things go:confused:!
Is he the one who looks like a great big teddy bear??

I think this could be Englands year, We've beat Argentina, (BIG rivalry) we've now got Brazil, who everyone want to beat, and possibly (fingers crossed) a Final against Germany!!
That would be the World Cup to end all world cups if we could do that!! England are the only big team to have played hard opposition, all the others were in easy groups and face 'easy' oppostion. England have by far the hardest Route!!

As for hosting my Pics, Im fine, ive got 2 sites with pics on at the moment and my head (was) in a Dreamweaver 4 book, it aint easy!! I should be designing a site for a friends band :(.

Sorry to everyone who thought this was a RC Paint thread :(

PaulC2K

Yeah I am just going on what I have seen. The commentators are saying he is from arsenal, but I wouldn't know. Yeah he is the one with fuzzy blond hair.

I can't wait to get my lexus body happening! I saw a full sized GS300 and it was NICE!!!! I am thinking a two tone paint job like here: http://www.rccaraction.com/rc/articles/4_fastfin.asp the perimiter fade. Purple around the bottom, fading to orange. If you could do a thing like that in PShop and email it to me, I would be grateful. I am thinking of doing really light coats and backing in silver. I would do the backing in the chrome if I could, but I don't have an airbrush, and I haven't seen chrome here.

James

Just done a poor one, almost posted it, then realised it was the wrong way, Orange at the bottom, so im gonna do a better one cos the other way around looked poop! Try and do something for 24hrs time

PC2K

OK, I decided to do it now, then get some sleep (its 7:30am!!)
not sure on the exact colours of the Purple and Orange, or where you wanted the fade to start/end etc, but i think this isn't too bad!
I'll keep trying to improve it, I can do 3d fades (so the car actualy his a shape, rather than being flat) but it take a while and im still learning PS let alone that area, what with Dreamweaver, Flash, Photoshop, painting and trying to find work.... :rolleyes:

PC2K

Paul,
Thanks!!! Looks great!!! I was looking for a brighter orange. I will show you a pic of the orange I will be using, it is the same as the orange on the GTX. I was only going to have about 1/2 inch of purple, but that looks better!!! Thanks for that! Anything I can do for you, I will.

James

Ive FINALLY done the Flame car!!!
Took a bit longer than planned as i decided to add a bit more to it, Not put the stickers on yet, nothing planned for tommorrow afternoon so i'll probably leave it till then.

I'll just post the one picture and hopefully this time i will put the pictures online and put a link on here, just haven't got time at the moment to do it.

Hope you like it.
PaulC2K

Looks good Paul. Too bad about the soccer.

James.

Hey guys,

Long time no type, but I have still been painting when I can. I even entered a paint contest on RCTech!! I hope I win it!! I have some new news!!! I got some of the brand new Parma Masking tape and it rocks. Its very, very, very thin, easy to cut with an X-acto knife and makes super crisp lines with no bleed through. Its super sticky, but leaves no residue. Give it a try!!! I'll post a pic of the stuff and a body done with it soon. The roll I got to try is 18mm wide.

Ray