Polycarbonate paint

[Green River]

What is your favorite brand of paint for your lexan bodies and why? I usually just get what’s available at my hobby shop but lately I’m thinking I need to be more careful on why I buy, some flake off easier than others. I have never tried any of the airbrush paint yet

[Ninomaniac]

I buy the cheapest stuff (Ghiant and its rebrands in EU, I believe Traxxas also uses these for their new paint line!) and never had problems with it flaking off. Just clean the body with dish soap, make sure it's completely dry, no scuffing. A bunch of thin layers (4-5-6, dunno, I don't count) and back with a more solid color, i.e. black or white.

[mikemcE]

Favorite,Parma hands down!
Now as I can’t get it easily I’ve switched to proline and Tamiya PS
I did get a new wider needle for these water based paints


Hang up and Drive

[DrIsotope]

Duplicolor Vinyl & Fabric Paint. It's $8-9 for an 11oz can, it works every bit as well as polycarbonate-specific paint, and you can find it at virtually any autoparts store. The sole downside is that it only comes in maybe 10 colors. For those times I want a specific color for something, it's Tamiya.

[JimInMiami]

Any acrylic paint is compatible with polycarbonate (so-called hobby paints are just repackaged acrylic paint, btw). Living in an apartment I have to brush on the finish, so my favorite is this stuff.



Huge variety of colors and dirt cheap at any craft store. Bonus feature: it allows you to mix custom colors too, like the rusty red on my latest build.

[Fallen]

Titanium white? Cadmium yellow? Mixing paint color?

Bob Ross fan?

[JimInMiami]

Originally Posted by Fallen

Titanium white? Cadmium yellow? Mixing paint color?

Bob Ross fan?

https://www.liquitex.com/us/products.../range/colors/

Haha, you betcha. Check it out:

[Kingmeow]

Do you brush is on given you are in an apartment or have an airbrush and take it outside? If you are using a brush, no brush marks?

[JimInMiami]

Originally Posted by Kingmeow

Do you brush is on given you are in an apartment or have an airbrush and take it outside? If you are using a brush, no brush marks?

I'm using a brush and no, zero brush marks because everything appears evened out by the Lexan when you paint from the inside. Do a test on a scrap piece of Lexan and you'll be amazed at the results. The exception is metallics, that DOES leave very obvious brush marks.

here's what it looks from the inside, brush marks clearly visible, right?



And the same rig from the OUTSIDE, no brush marks and super glossy cause of the Lexan.



Plus a couple of other recent projects, all painted with a brush on the inside using craft store acrylics. By the way, latex paint (the stuff that normally goes on walls) works great too.

[smog]

I am using Mission RC paint in my airbrush and Tamiya rattle can. It's the polycarbonate paint I can get locally. I prefer the quality of the Tamiya paint, but using airbrush paints allows me not only more options, but also allows me to tint and mix colors.

Sadly we still don't have a good selection of earth tones and shade variants in rattle cans.

[mikemcE]

Originally Posted by smog

Sadly we still don't have a good selection of earth tones and shade variants in rattle cans.

Use the PS55 as your primer. Then for earth tones Tamiya AS paints. These are military colors.

https://www.tamiyausa.com/blog/paint...olor-aircraft/


Hang up and Drive

[smog]

Originally Posted by mikemcE

Use the PS55 as your primer. Then for earth tones Tamiya AS paints. These are military colors.

https://www.tamiyausa.com/blog/paint...olor-aircraft/


Hang up and Drive

I should likely give that a go. I get the impression the TS paint will hold up if layered over the PS base. My concern has always been that is doesn’t have enough flexibility to take a lot of the hits these lexan RC bodies take

[mikemcE]

Originally Posted by smog

I should likely give that a go. I get the impression the TS paint will hold up if layered over the PS base. My concern has always been that is doesn’t have enough flexibility to take a lot of the hits these lexan RC bodies take

Correct, the flex and adhesion are from the PS. The AS and TS chemically bond well to it.


Hang up and Drive

[Buffalo]

Do you guys have any tips to remove overspray in a detailed way? I spray painted an fj body like above, which looks great btw! The window masks were a bit small and some of the window area got painted. I would like to detail the windows in black, again like the one above. But I need to remove a bit of paint so the black trim won’t have to be so wide to cover the overspray.

[Inspector86]

Try laquer thinner on a Q-tip and carefully clean the overspray. Back in the 70s I brush painted my lexan slot car bodies with something called Hypalar paint. It came in tubes like the craft store paint. The lexan bodies would break up in heavy crashes but the paint would not flake off.

[Ninomaniac]

JimInMiami, WHY IS THIS NOT A WELL KNOWN TECHNIQUE!?

I hate spray painting. Used plastidip too on a few bodies, and I prefer it to lexan spray cans, but it's expensive over here. Your solution seems perfect to me!

[xagoras]

That brush painting looks good. But my concern would be how heavy will it come out at the end? It must be thicker than applying spray.

[JimInMiami]

Originally Posted by Ninomaniac

JimInMiami, WHY IS THIS NOT A WELL KNOWN TECHNIQUE!?

I hate spray painting. Used plastidip too on a few bodies, and I prefer it to lexan spray cans, but it's expensive over here. Your solution seems perfect to me!

That's a good question! I dunno, maybe it's just very effective marketing by Tamiya and others selling so-called Lexan hobby paints, which are just overpriced and repackaged acrylic paint.

Here's an example: I'm working on a new 6x6 custom build and want to try my hand at a camo style finish. So silly me, I google "matt olive green acrylic" and among other hits I find this at Home Depot of all places: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Glidden-...f49618e7b09c14

By the way, PPG Glidden is an interior latex paint. Latex is also compatible with Lexan. And four bucks for 8 ounces, are you kidding me??

I continued browsing at HD and also found these other colors that would work with a camo-style finish - and look at the prices!!!
https://www.homedepot.com/p/DecoArt-...f49618e7b09c14

https://www.homedepot.com/p/DecoArt-...f49618e7b09c14

I figure, a lot of folks are skeptical, but I say just give it a try on a piece of scrap lexan cut off from your next project - THE RESULTS WILL SURPRISE YOU AND YOU'LL SAVE MUCHOS $$$$!!

[Ninomaniac]

Good stuff. I have a new trx4 sport body coming tomorrow, might just try it out 👍

[JimInMiami]

Originally Posted by Ninomaniac

Good stuff. I have a new trx4 sport body coming tomorrow, might just try it out 👍

Cool, once done post some pics here and share your experience. Pro tip: if the body is pre-cut, tape over all the holes with masking tape from the outside to avoid messy spillovers of paint.