First Timer Shell Painting

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Biddie_fiddler

Well-Known Member
Messages
332
Location
Perth, WA
Hi all!

First of all, hope you all had a wonderful christmas! The Mrs got me a new shell for the savage and this thread is a story of my first time ever painting one of these!
I hope it helps as a guide for any other newbies who plan on painting their on shells too.

Tell ya what, its a lot of fun!!

I got the Gigante truck body for the savage flux xl.
My favourite colour is burnt orange, I have always wanted this car in this colour, so it was only right to have my savage looking similar.

Anyway, enough ranting! Below is the stuff I used:
HPI 7124 - Gigante truck body
Tamiya PS-5 black paint
Tamiya PS-61 metallic orange paint
Tamiya PS-41 bright silver paint
masking tape
lexan body scissors

After watching many videos on youtube about how to paint a body, I was ready to give it a go myself! There are some photos at the end of this for reference :)

Step 1: Cut out the body
Its pretty self explanatory, follow the lines of the body and cut it out of the mould. Take your time!! There is no point rushing this. I recommend marking out the outlines with a black marker so its easier to follow, I didn't do this but it would have made my cuts a whole lot straighter! I cut out some of the rear, just about the motor to help with cooling, it wasn't necessary but I thought I would anyway. This was by far the most annoying part!

Step 2: Drill body post holes
Apparently you can buy punches for this but a drill works just as well!! The body already had dimples to show where to drill the holes, I started with a small drill bit and worked my way up till I got the right sized hole, unfortunately I can't remember what size that was!

Step 3: Wash the body
I washed the body with warm water and dish soap thoroughly with a rough sponge to scuff up the plastic a bit. It helps with the paint adhesion to the body. I then let it sit in the sun till it completely dry.

Step 4: Masking
This part took the longest out of this whole process. You need to have a clear idea in your head on what you want the body to look like so you can mask off the required areas. I wanted a simple 2 tone colour, so the making areas were simple for me. I definitely need more practice doing this though, getting it right took a long time!
The body came with window masks which I used to keep the windows clear, I wanted to tint them but forgot to buy some paint to tint them.
I went with a simple stripe down the center of the bonnet to the windscreen, then masked off the roof, the sides, and part of the back. The side and rear followed a body line so it was easy to get it straight.

Step 5: Painting
The metallic orange comes out best when it is backed with bright metallic silver. I wanted to back it all with black too.
I started with the orange, I did a total of 4 coats to get the orange to stand out the most. Once all coats had dried I peeled off the masking tape (excluding the window masks) and did 3 coats of the bright silver. The last silver coat was quite heavy though.
Finally I went over the entire body with 3 coats of black.
All in all, the painting took less than an hour to do I'd say. It was very sunny so they paint dried pretty quick with every coat I did.

Step 6: Stickers and Finalising!
Finally, I removed the window masks and the protective film on the shell and began the fun journey of putting stickers on it. I didn't follow the guide it gave cause that went to bin, who needs them! :ROFLMAO:
The end result is amazing! I absolutely love the way came out!
I made a couple mistakes throughout, one being that I didn't notice a tiny bit of masking tape left over for the silver stripe, but it was a learning experience. I am definetely going to keep painting my own bodies from now on, lots of fun and they come out awesome!!

If you made it this far congrats, your reward is a cute kitten!

There are photos attached of the process and the final result. Thanks for reading!! Happy new year all!!(y)

1. cut and washed.jpg2. masking tape applied.jpg3. first coloar applied.jpg4. final black coat done.jpg5. stickers!!.jpg6. end result.jpg
 
Looks Awsome for 1st time I hope mine looks that good I also am a paint virgin when I do paint it will be my 1st I am thinking of doing a pearl white with candy green design of some sort just don’t know what to do any ideas on or where to look at some designs????
 
Looks Awsome for 1st time I hope mine looks that good I also am a paint virgin when I do paint it will be my 1st I am thinking of doing a pearl white with candy green design of some sort just don’t know what to do any ideas on or where to look at some designs????
I put a lot of faith into the hands of the guys at my local hobby shop. There's a couple there that paint shells regularly. I gave them a brief of what I was going for and they showed me the colours, and example shells to see how the colours would come out.

I'd say just try google it, see if there are similar ideas out there and go from there. Picking the colours I reckon is the hardest part :ROFLMAO:
 
Ok looks awesome and not too difficult. Thanks for the pictures!
I am building scale models (tanks) which is more complex than this.
 
Your savage looks good! I used some paint masks and patience. There's a few spots that bled, but it's a learning experience. 20190121_201248.jpg20190121_195355.jpg
 

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Awesome paint job. Great colour choice.
 

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