Part 13: Body trimming


After a long, boring and hard search to find just the right body that I wanted for my build, I finally found it on a google image search, ending up in a random nitro forum that i''ve never heard of. It was like the "aaaahhhhh" angel music when I saw it, it was exactly what I was looking for to give "Frostbyte II" the sleek and yet powerful racy look I was seeking. Some of you guessed it after my teaser pic last week and you are correct, its a Proline SC Desert Rat Clear body for the Slash.

http://prolineracing.com/bodies/dese...and-slash-4x4/



Amazingly enough, I was surprised at how well out of the box the body looked on the Flux XL chassis, but I felt it needed a bit of smoothing out in the line flow department.

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...2/trimbod1.jpg



Not to much to say about this part except measure, double check, triple check and then cut/drill

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...2/trimbod2.jpg



Once I cut off one section of trim, I used it as a guide for the next side to help them match as evenly as possible

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...2/trimbod3.jpg



There, now that looks slick, mean, fast and powerful, all in one body and we haven't even painted yet! I love how the lines are a nice flow of curves and straight edges, its a personal preference of mine which made finding the right body with the right look so hard for me. Ironic considering this was made for a Slash but hey, ingenuity always wins out.

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...2/trimbod4.jpg


http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...2/trimbod6.jpg

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...2/trimbod7.jpg



I'm very pleased with the body after the trimming so I think its pretty much done. Earlier today I placed my order for some special masking decals at my LHS after deciding on a rough idea of what I want the paint job to look like and I hope to have them by Friday and have the painting an decaling completed by the weekend if all goes well. Stay tuned in folks, same bat time, same bat channel!

The slash body fits very well... when i had it on my DB-17 chassis, it was a little too small :(

Cant wait to see this painted!

Part 14: Body prep, painting and decaling


At long last, were to the part that basically makes or breaks the look of any RC car, the painting and decaling of the body. This was once again by far the hardest part in the entire build. Trying to figure out and visualize how I wanted my truck to look. Getting a balance of stand out looks along with keeping it realistic within my painting abilities, sticking with the theme of the project while still allowing for some new creativity and something different then what i've seen on other MT bodies. Needless to say, it took me right up to the laying the first coat of paint did I finally decide how I wanted "Frostbyte II" to turn out.



First thing were gonna do is wash the body. This helps remove any oils, dirt, dust and anti aging that will be on the plastic that will reduce the paints ability to stick. I also lightly scuff up my bodies with a scotch brite pad as this roughens up the inside texture somewhat of the body and gives the paint something extra to grip onto

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m.../washbody2.jpg

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...e2/washbod.jpg


You can easily see the light scuffing from the scrotch brite pad, this will further help keep the paint on the body and not flake/chip off

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...byte2/haze.jpg


Next up and the absolute hardest part was figuring out what design I wanted to do for "Frostbyte II's" body. This took an insane amount of thinking, visualizing and trial and error

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m.../decalsort.jpg


Eventually, I concluded that my $10 worth of paint masks simply weren't going to yield the results that I wanted. Which means its time to grab the painters masking tape and do it the long, slow custom way.

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...byte2/draw.jpg


Even with my "helper" this was by far the most time consuming task, preparing and hand carving out the custom mask for my paint job that I had dreamt up in my head.

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...yte2/mask1.jpg


After God knows how long, the masking is ready and we are ready for paint

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...yte2/mask2.jpg


This is it, no going back now!

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...te2/paint1.jpg

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...te2/paint2.jpg

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...te2/paint3.jpg

Two days and 3 cans of paint later, we are done with painting!

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...te2/decal1.jpg



With the overspray film removed, this is our end result. Not bad if I do say so myself!

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...2/maskoff1.jpg

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...2/maskoff2.jpg

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...2/maskoff3.jpg



Now we begin with the basic decaling. Again, this took me forever to decide on what I wanted on the body without going overkill. I've got some more decals coming as well, so this is the start of the bodies final look

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...yte2/done1.jpg

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...yte2/done2.jpg

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...yte2/done4.jpg

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...yte2/done3.jpg


Due to the body being designed for a wider and longer Slash, I was concerned with how long it would last with a 12 pound monster truck going through heavy bashing sessions. To help strengthen body, I decided to attempt to strengthen area's with Gorilla tape as a makeshift fiberglass coating. I plan on then filling in the various nooks and crannies with Shoe Goo to make the body more bash proof

http://i100.photobucket.com/albums/m...strengthen.jpg



I am also pondering the idea of "tinting" the windows to give it a bit more of a sleek and finished look rather as well as painting of the truck chassis itself. This however will be dependent on my time and finances. As is stands "Frostbyte II" is now 90% complete with just some final last minute details and ideas to decide on. After that, this project will be finished, a photography session will take place and I will have the first vids of it up in action! Hang tight, the end is almost here!

Liquid tape... no bleeding.

Very nice! After seeing this build thread I have began thinking about getting a Savage. I have had several E-Maxxs but they only hold my attention for so long before I get bored with them. After I snapped the chassis in half on the last one I replaced it and sold it. I miss my MT basher I have a few basers right now but they don't fit the bill. A vxl mini revo is fast and that makes it fun, but grass is damn near impossible and the smallest obstacles stop it in it's tracks. A slash thats just plane boring. I also have a rc18t, haven't used it in awhile but I won't make the mistake of getting rid of it again cause I missed my last one when I got rid of it. I have never missed my E-revo that I sold about a year ago as it didn't handle like a MT and it didn't have the ground clearence I craved. Guess it's time to save for a Savage, mine will prolly just stay stock until I brake something though.

Nice work
 

Nice work and thanks for sharing all of your step by step on the body painting as we all know how hard this task can be. I recently tried painting my first lexan clear body and it did not turn out so nice. I lack the patients required to get a really nice finish, and ended up with a grade school looking truck body. I get bored to easily with tasks like that now in my more advanced age. Looking at your results may help me attack another body and take a little bit more time doing the actual prep and taping. Nice job and very nice truck. Hope your play time turns out the way you envision it. Keep up the good work Freeze.

Love it. Very cold looking.

Nice work, I do prefer the simpler paint jobs.

I used Tamiya PS-31 Smoke to tint the windows on my Gigante body and it worked well except i probably only needed one coat instead of two as it's a bit dark. It doesn't look very dark after painting but once its mounted on the truck it's much darker.

looks great!!! well done!!!

Turned out pretty nicely. Looks like you had a good deal of fun with the project. Now we need to see some pix of the truck out in the dirt!

As far as the body prep stuff goes, all looks good, tho I would recommend a liquid mask like Bob Dively's liquid mask. You can just put it on with finges or brush where you would normally tape, and easily is trimmed with an xacto blade. Much easier than tape and much easier to avoid bleed.

This works well for tint if you don't have an airbrush. One other tip for spray cans, which is esp important for translucent tint, is to let the can sit in a bath of hot tap water for a little while before you spray.

The aerosol will heat up, raising the pressure in the can so when you spray you get better atomization. Ie a finer finish to the paint. Not a huge deal on the body (tho helps) but does help with the tint a lot. A cold can will leave bigger droplets of paint, and since you see thru the tint, the graininess is noticible. A hot can and good technique will leave a smooth, consistant finish.

Just with the liquid mask make sure you put it on thick enough so that it peels off in larger pieces.

Yeah, its big pain if its too thin. Too thick and it takes forever to dry and is a big waste.

That's why I tend to just use my fingers now. I used to use a brush to keep things clean, but too easy to get it thin.

I just pour some on and spread it around well and evenly with my fingers all over the areas I'm looking to mask, if not just most of the body.

It cuts very easily too, so you can use a very light hand to do the cutting. Leads to straighter lines and easier shaping. Tape you really have to cut thru.

One trick I learned was to jusy hold the xacto blade just at the very end of the handle and with just your pointer finger and thumb. You just drag the knife where you want it to cut and let it do the work. Much easier to get consistant flowing lines, rather than holding like the knife like a pencil and trying your damnedest to draw a straight line, cut deep enough to get thru the tape, and not so deep you really score the lexan.

Try it with a pencil on just the desk or paper and you'll see what I mean. Works well w/ flame jobs where you have lots of curves and tight turns.
Old way tends to get lots of straight lines and corners where you stop and start.=> \_/
This way you can make one curve and just guid the blade by twisting it a bit. => U

No pro by any means, but just a few tricks I learned from people way more skilled than me that made life easier. You have a nice write up going freeze, so hope you don't mind I throw in my $.02

You did a pretty nice and unique paint job Freeze, you should be proud ! :yipi:
Good break down on the methods and explanation also for curious first timers.



The last body I painted I tried the liquid mask for the first time. I applied 3 even coats via a soft 1/2" brush and used a old hair dryer between coats. Worked very well, I will be using the LM from now on for painting anything with more than 2 colors. Doing a simple 2 tone I'll be sticking with tape.

Finn, your spot on describing the usage of a exacto for cutting the lines and designs. I tried several methods and after experimenting I ultimately used the technique you stated and it worked best. I was able to cut smoother, rounder lines.

Ironically I just learned the spray can in hot water technique on Friday when I got my newest X-treme RC magazine and just started to paint the body. I was amazed at the difference it made.