New territory for me. RC body project. Advice please

[freakshow12]

Not sure if this is the right place so move if you need to. Anyway, a friend came to me with an interesting project. He is doing a 1/8scale rock crawler and he brought me a first gen bronco body. He wants a green similar to grabber green with white grille and flares. My questions are these. Will Tamiya paints stick to the scuffed polycarbonate body? I want to the white and black areas first then spray the entire inside green. Will that work? Don't wanna mess it up because the body cost like 50 dollars lol. And advice would be welcomed

[cobraman]

Just use the paint formulated for the clear bodies and you will be fine.

[freakshow12]

I would love to do that but I'm 3 hours away from my hobby shop that sells it. So I was hoping to use what I had. I guess I may get the body he does not need and test a bit unless anyone has a better plan. Don't see why it wouldn't work unless the regular paints are not hot enough to bite. They claim you can't use the pactra RC line on styrene but I have with great results. Dupli color sealer is a wonderful thing! : )

[Brett Barrow]

Just use the paint formulated for the clear bodies and you will be fine.

Yep. Tamiya also makes RC paints, the PC (bottle) and PS (spray) lines. Great Planes has recently brought out R/C paint from Duratrax brand to replace the discontinued Pactra lineup.

Regular hobby paints will stick - for a while - then will flake off as the body flexes. They can be used for small details, or on hard plastic detail parts that some crawler bodies com with.

Do the white last, the white will act as a backer coat and give bright colors more pop. . Do black areas first. With Lexan bodies you work dark to light, the opposite as you would on a solid body. You also do the small detail areas first, then the overall color coats - like I said, the opposite of how we do solid bodies.

Note - I have heard of people having success with "regular" hobby lacquers like Tamiya and Testors or auto store touchup paint, but many of them took extra precautions with prep work and using a sealer afterwards. YMMV.

Edited September 11, 2014 by Brett Barrow

[freakshow12]

Thanks Brett. To my advantage, he will have this thing wrecked in no time lol. He is a hard man on equipment. So the process should be black, green then white? Got it. He wants tinted windows but not black. I have some tinted plasti dip here. Think that would seal it up as a last step? Provided there is no reaction with it

[Brett Barrow]

Is the body already trimmed? You can use a piece of the excess lexan to test your combination out. I always liked to trim mine rough, leaving about 1/8" around the edge, then grind it to the line with a Dremel. I did quite a few back in the days I was in the hobby shop full-time, not so much anymore I just do it Saturdays now.

Oh, and don't forget to take the protective outer wrap off before you sticker it, I don't know how many times I've seen people forget to do that. Even with the big blue sticker Pro-Line puts on theirs, they still don't do it.

[Psychographic]

I've painted a lot of polycarbonate bodies with lacquer and had no adhesion problems. If you have to use enamels on it, thin it with real lacquer thinner and it will help a bit with the adhesion. Also remember you will be painting it backwards, this means what you paint last on a model will be first on the RC body.

[freakshow12]

I have not trimmed it yet. I was going to do it first but instructions said to do it last so I was kind of lost on what would be best.

[JordanFordF1]

As an RC racer everything already posted is true. Lexan paints are very different than styrene paints. Tamiya PS spray cans, Duratrax, and the new LRP lexan paints will work and resist flaking as will Parma FastKolors, an acrylic based paint but you need an airbrush to spray it. Also Alclad paints will work, again you'll need an airbrush to spray them. I scuff all of my bodies but I know several that don't and have little trouble with flaking. The bigger problem is parts rubbing internally inside the body such as tires. Also don't forget that unlike plastic models on RC you paint dark colors first not last.

[Joe Handley]

If you have access to the Model Master 2 Stage Lacquer, that stuff works great on Lexan and I've shot more than a few lexan bodies with the stuff without it chipping, flaking, or just failing all together. I've also used Mopar touch up from the dealerships and that's worked just as well as the old Pactra and the Model Master lacquers. Don't know if the GM or Ford stuff works as well, wouldn't be shocked if they all used the same supplier(s) for their paints.

[Brett Barrow]

I have not trimmed it yet. I was going to do it first but instructions said to do it last so I was kind of lost on what would be best.

I always rough trimmed the body first, then finished it off with a steel cutting bit in a Dremel after painting (makes a horrible noise, but works great) . First body I did I followed the directions and the paint chipped where I was cutting - and I was using R/C paint and R/C lexan scissors.

[freakshow12]

Very good advice here guys. Thank you. I will do a little testing and will post my progress

[Quick GMC]

I always used Faskolor on my bodies. It's acrylic for lexan, for an airbrush. Seal it afterwards and it holds up great.

[Joe Handley]

Something else too, if you can get some Duplicolor bedliner in thr spray can, that makes a good, durable protective coating on the paint and with the use of their adheasion promoter, can be used on the outside of Lexan bodies too.

No matter what.you do, alway clean the bodys before painting. I'll wipe them down with alcohal, mask them, wipe them down again when done with the masking, then if I don't get the immediate chance to paint, wipe it down before spraying. If you have to do any sanding, wipe it down after the sanding is done too.

[freakshow12]

What should I sand with on the bare body?

[Joe Handley]

You don't have to, I only do if I'm using the Mopar paint (probably not needed, but just in case), Duplicolor (needed, as is the adheasion promoter), as well as if I'll applying the Model Master to the outside of the bodies and I usually use the finer grit 3m paper or sanding stick like I did on my last couple bodies.

Never used the Tamiya paints (too new in my store and with pricing that ranges from "kinda expensive" to "OK, who's been sniffing the product?!"), and the Duratrax line is too new, but might be close enough to the old Pactra line to work just as well, and is sold in the bigger cans than Pactra and Tamiya use....and I think they're the same can as who ever makes the Mopar stuff uses!