Textures, transfers & tape techniques

Radio Control Car Action, Mar 2003 by Hastings, Bob

BODY SHOP

SECRETS FROM THE PAINT BOOTH

Everyone wants a goodlooking car, and there's no shame in that; our cars and their bodies and paint jobs are often an extension of our personalities and talents. If you've been eager to roll out with something that's a little more complex, but you didn't think your skills were up to the task, this article is for you. We'll explore four easy techniques this month: a fast way to create a hand-cut tribal stripe, a simple shadowing technique, how to use jackal Hobbies' new Internal paint transfers and a really cool textured-paint effect Any of these will add a new dimension to your next body, but using them in combination can add up to a killerlooking car!

Tribal break-tape template. We're going to break up the paint job by applying an aggressive tribal-style stripe that runs from the beak and diagonally along the sides of the car. On the outside of the body, lightly tack a wide piece of masking tape on each side of the car from the front wheel well up to the spoiler standoffs. With a pencil, lightly mark the standout features, such as the wheel wells and the side ducts of this HPI Viper.

It's all in the wrist. Transfer the strips of tape to a cutting mat. The trick in drawing a curved line is to pivot your wrist, while leaving your arm in place. Use a pencil to draw a single downward arc, and then reposition the image by turning the mat (not your hand) a few degrees clockwise. Start at the top of the first line, and using the same sweeping wrist motion as before, draw a second line that flows just below the first one. You may want to practice drawing the design on paper, but you should end up with a crescent shape that's similar to the one shown here.

Get the point. The next section of the stripe should start at the top of the first line, with the opening moving toward the rear of the body. To add variety, consider inverting the design so that the point of the sweep ends in the opposite direction. The size and shape of the design are totally up to you. A more complex look means that you'll have to do more cutting, so keep that in mind before you get carried away.

Cut it out. Remove the tape from the mat and apply it to the inside of the body. Since the design is now on the inside, the tape that had been applied to the outside left will now be on the inside right and vice versa; use the pencil marks as guides for placement. Burnish the tape edges down, and cut the stripes out using a fresh hobby-knife blade. Apply only enough pressure to cut the tape; you don't want to score the body.

See your shadow. I applied a tight coat of Parma's FasKolor FasTint as a "drop shadow" on the inside of the body, just below the lower right side of the tribal-style graphic. The shadow will appear to the left of the graphic when viewed from the outside.

SpongeBob. The body's main color is a complex-looking, textured effect that's applied in the same way as some faux wall finishes. The two-tone blue pattern may look as if it's tough to do, but it's actually very easy and a lot of fun. Squeeze a small pool of Fasescent Blue onto a clean surface (a paper plate or plastic parts tub works great for this). Dab the paint with a crumpled piece of a plastic wrap or a small sea sponge; I used a piece of a plastic bag. Make a few test blots on a clean surface; this not only gives you a chance to practice the technique, but it also removes excess paint. When the test pattern isn't a solid blob of color, move on to the body and blot! The object is to end up with a random pattern that uniformly covers the open areas on the body.

Back it up. Once the Fasescent Blue paint blots have dried, spray the open sections with FasPearl blue. These two blues contrast nicely, and the result looks similar to the finish on a Pepsi can.

Add your decals and trim the body to fit your chassis. Welcome yourself into the world of more advanced body designs. Incorporating the textures, hand-cut images, shadows and small murals that you learned how to do in this article will add more impact to whatever you paint. Combining them will really kick up your bodies' looks.

Have fun with the techniques and email me your success stories. Now that you have four more tricks up your sleeve for your next bodygo paint something!