Freeze's Savage Flux "Frostbyte II" build thread

[_dV]

The Desert Rat can look mean with the wheel arches cut out a bit. http://www.rcnitrotalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=73809. Note the topic says Slayer body but it is a PL Desert Rat.

[thzero]

That doesn't look too bad!

Originally Posted by _dV

The Desert Rat can look mean with the wheel arches cut out a bit. http://www.rcnitrotalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=73809. Note the topic says Slayer body but it is a PL Desert Rat.

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






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




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




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.




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.




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




This is it, no going back now!

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





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









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










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





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!