RC airbrushing

**GanonsGrin** · 04-17-2025, 07:02 PM

I just broke out my mini compressor to start speed painting some tabletop minis. I love that spray booth, it’s my next step in my setup as well. Excited to see how things go!

**SignOfZeta** · 04-19-2025, 07:57 PM

That’s a pretty large body for a Harbor Freight airbrush. Kind of a golf pencil in a mine shaft situation. The process of back painting PC bodies is very forgiving, runs are pretty much impossible, so I don’t see that being a situation but it could take a while.

I personally always use rattle cans for PC bodies. Once the main color is down and rather thick I hit it with several layers of back or dark grey so the scratches don’t show up too soon.

**alive** · 04-21-2025, 07:48 PM

Going a little slow since I have a bunch of stuff going on. Finally got the liquid masking all done. Tomorrow I will attempt to cut out my first section and lay some paint. I’ll take a pic once I get started!

**alive** · 04-22-2025, 04:25 PM

Got the rails painted, need another coat tomorrow

Attached Files

**Trbo323** · 04-22-2025, 05:13 PM

Huh. Back when I was in RCs the bodies were clear and I was told to paint the inside of the body.

I only painted one, turned out ok at first. Problem was I used spray cans and the first time my truck hit something the body flexed but the paint did not and about 50% of the paint exploded off.

Looking back, it was kind of funny because I put a good 4 or 5 hours of work into that and it didn't survive the first time on the truck but at least it went out in style

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**SignOfZeta** · 04-22-2025, 08:39 PM

Originally posted by alive

Got the rails painted, need another coat tomorrow

I have to confess I don’t quite get what I see here. This is a clear body, right? So you should be back painting it, right?

It looks like you painted the outside, which normally has a protective film on it. Did you paint the protective film? It looks like the sticker explaining this is still in place.

Maybe I’m confused. I’ve never built anything from Traxxis.

EDIT: I see what looks like the mentioned liquid mask coming up through the holes so I guess you’re on the right track. I was confused. I’m not used to seeing overspray on clear bodies except from underneath. I just use tape.

**SignOfZeta** · 04-22-2025, 08:42 PM

Originally posted by Trbo323

Huh. Back when I was in RCs the bodies were clear and I was told to paint the inside of the body.

I only painted one, turned out ok at first. Problem was I used spray cans and the first time my truck hit something the body flexed but the paint did not and about 50% of the paint exploded off.

Looking back, it was kind of funny because I put a good 4 or 5 hours of work into that and it didn't survive the first time on the truck but at least it went out in style

Sent from my motorola edge 2024 using Tapatalk

The issue on that case was probably that you used regular paint and not paint for polycarbonate bodies which is much much more flexible and moves with the body. Paint from Tamiya, for example, will say “FOR POLYCARBONATE” and all the paint codes are different than the same color used for scale modeling.

**Trbo323** · 04-22-2025, 08:46 PM

Originally posted by SignOfZeta

The issue on that case was probably that you used regular paint and not paint for polycarbonate bodies which is much much more flexible and moves with the body. Paint from Tamiya, for example, will say “FOR POLYCARBONATE” and all the paint codes are different than the same color used for scale modeling.

Oh yes, I became aware of that about 10 seconds after the truck hit one of my dog's toys in the backyard but 15 year old me barely had the cash to afford the new body let alone some special paint

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**alive** · 04-23-2025, 08:53 AM

Not sure why yall assumed it was painted on top when it’s a clear body lol

**SignOfZeta** · 04-23-2025, 01:08 PM

Originally posted by alive

Not sure why yall assumed it was painted on top when it’s a clear body lol

I was confused because I’m looking at overspray from the outside which is only ever the case when one uses clear liquid masking which I never have for an RC body. It looks *exactly* like it was sprayed from the top. Normally I’d see tape through the clear instead of overspray.

**Trbo323** · 04-23-2025, 07:40 PM

Yeah I agree. The pink hue of the body makes it look like it is being painted on the outside

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**alive** · 05-15-2025, 07:09 PM

Finally done. Some flaws im not quite happy with of course, but considering it was my first airbrush and really my first art project im happy with how it came out. Time to fuck it up racing!

Attached Files