Painting the outside of my lexan body.

[Greg2K6]

Hey all!

I am planning on painting the exterior of my Scx10 rubicon...

A couple questions:

1. I am planning on usin Tamiya PC spay paints....do I need to prime the body ahead of time? What primer should I use if so?

2. Since the finish with any polycarbonate paint will be matte, I assume decals will not stick. correct?

3. I will need to mask the windscreen. Any recommendations on a spray mask?

4. I would like to paint some of the interior details by hand (mainly to preserve the details...steering wheel, interior decals etc...). Do the tamiya sprays have matching paint pots as well?


Thanks for any advice!

Greg

[jwalker]

You do not have to prime the body if you are using the Tamiya ps paint. If you have not pulled the outer protective coating off the body then you can cut around the windows and use the film as a mask, if it does not then you can use any masking tape, i like the green tape for painting but it is more expensive so you can get away with the tan tape. Decals should stick on just fine as long as it is s pretty smooth surface. Tamiya does have small containers that you can use or you can just spray the can paint into something and then use a brush to apply to the interior pieces.

[raceeng18]

Won't the PS colors be dull if used on the outside of lexan. I'm not an expert, but I would think the TS would be the choice for an exterior, like in a hard body?

[jwalker]

TS would flake off. It won't be dull just more matte finish.

[Louisbaby]

I have recently painted my Dingo body on the outside. I painted copper (rust), then silver (metal), then red (body color), to simulate rust when the body gets scratched. And yes the paint is dull. But on the plus side, there is nothing stopping you spraying a gloss clear coat (doesn't have to be lexan safe), over the dull paint. That's what I did, and the decals adhered to the gloss surface much better. Best of all is, after a couple of scratches, it is starting to look great....

So in short, if you spray a basic PS color on the outside of the shell first, you can spray TS paints or even normal rattle cans (I use Plascon cans) afterwards with great results. Or, if you worried, use PS paints, with clear coat afterwards...

[Greg2K6]

Originally Posted by Louisbaby

I have recently painted my Dingo body on the outside. I painted copper (rust), then silver (metal), then red (body color), to simulate rust when the body gets scratched. And yes the paint is dull. But on the plus side, there is nothing stopping you spraying a gloss clear coat (doesn't have to be lexan safe), over the dull paint. That's what I did, and the decals adhered to the gloss surface much better. Best of all is, after a couple of scratches, it is starting to look great....

So in short, if you spray a basic PS color on the outside of the shell first, you can spray TS paints or even normal rattle cans (I use Plascon cans) afterwards with great results. Or, if you worried, use PS paints, with clear coat afterwards...

Thanks for this info! I want to maintain the matte look of my body (painted on the outside with PS) The fact that TS paint will adhere to the PS body is good news....I'm hopeful that several coats of TS matte clear will provide some form of protection to the outside...(clearly it will still scratch)

Honestly, I am a bit surprised that TS paint will adhere and NOT crack when sprayed over PS stuff....

I did notice that there is a PS clear also....wondering how that would work on the outside, over a coat of PS.

Thoughts?

Thanks!

Greg

[scalemadness]

I did my bronco on the outside with a mix of rust and silver inside you'd be surprised the beating it takes to scratch through the paint but when it does it looks bad azz