A quick back story before I get into the painting. I have been running my 8ight-E 2.0 for many years. My friends all wonder why it hasn’t fallen apart. I considered upgrading to the 3.0 when it came out, but decided I am most competitive with the car I’m used to. The 4.0 is such a different animal, I was afraid I would have to update to keep up with parts compatibility. Then I was offered a screaming deal on an old 2.0 that had hardly been run! I couldn’t pass it up, but now I had a roller that I had to complete. I remembered Delta Plastik USA has some affordable tires on their website. I found these SP Racing tires that have the right tread for our track. The current trend in 1/8-scale buggies is moving toward Lexan wings rather than plastic, and they had one of those for me too. Now their bodies, being made in Italy, have more of a European sensibility to their style. At first the body looked odd to me, but then I started think it might be the perfect match to an electric buggy, especially with the way it vents out the back right over the ESC and motor. They are designed to fit Kyosho or Mugen but buggies are very similar so I figured I could do some creative trimming to fit it on my Losi. It turns out, I could. I did, and here it is!
SKILL LEVEL: INTERMEDIATE The graphics on this one are basic and easy to cut. Intermediate painters might struggle with the shading, but this is a good one to practice on to hone your skills. Advanced painters should breeze through this one.
Delta Plastik USA •Grafi l G8 Naxos body •2015 TT wing •Demolition SS tires SPO8910
1 As I mentioned I had to get creative with the trimming of this body, but to be honest, the bottom lines were not clearly marked, so I would have had to get creative anyways. I started by roughing out the shape. Then I test fitted it, noted where it was hitting, and worked on the front and back until it sat on the chassis. I then marked where the top of the body mounts sit, and used my body reamer to make the holes, so it would sit down where it is supposed to. The Losi chassis is designed to flex, so in the back I made two holes about a 1/8 inch on either side from where I made my mark. Then I used my hobby knife to straighten out the sides of the elongated hole. Once the body sat in place, I marked the bottom of the chassis, and cut the bottom straight across. I used my hobby knife to score a line and then crack out the vents in back and on the roof. Since this was an E-Buggy I wanted to make sure it got plenty of airflow under the body, so I made two large ,teardrop shaped vent holes in the front where the body sloped down. I’m really glad I did that because it reminds me of a fighter jet. Overall it actually fit the chassis pretty well although it was just a tad too wide on the sides.
2 Regular readers of this column might get tired of seeing this step, but for those just tuning in, I gotta do it! After the body has been test fitted and is ready to go, I give it good scrubbing with dish soap and warm water to remove any residual oils. I was going to be using liquid mask so I laid a couple of thick coats with a foam brush, allowing a couple of hours between coats and overnight for the final coat. It is always better to lay it too thick rather than too thin, as it will be easier to peel off. A fan or blow dryer can help speed the drying process.
3 Once the mask has had time to properly dry, I started drawing the graphics on the outside with a permanent marker. In this case, I used Parma’s Dual Tip Detail Pen. I wanted to create a scallop type design, but I wanted it to be a little rough and squiggly, so I just sketched the scallops on the front and back. For the geometric shapes in the background I wanted to keep my lines nice and straight so I used some masking tape as a guide.
4 This can be either the most exciting or most most nerve wracking part, depending how you look at it. I carefully cut the scallop shapes out first using my hobby knife with a fresh blade. Always use fresh blades! After removing the mask from the front and rear areas, I started by shading around the edge with FasRed. Then I pulled a few down the tip, and toward the back. I then sprayed the remaining red out of my cup and followed with the Fasfluorescent Flaming Orange. I followed the same steps, but this time pulled farther back and made broader strokes. Before continuing I cleaned out my cup and cut an outline around the front graphic, but just the front. Next I filled in the outline, and backed everything with FasFluorescent Yellow. The fluorescent colors will need to be backed with FasWhite to make them opaque and to make the color really pop out.
5 The next step is to cut out the geometric blocks and remove the mask from those areas. I shaded around the edges with FasBlue. Then I filled them in with FasFluorescent Blue, and backed them with FasWhite to prevent other colors from bleeding through.
6 Before I removed the remaining mask from the background, I needed to cut out the windows. This body comes with window mask, but I really think it is faster to just cut them out when you already have the body covered in liquid mask and you’re already in the cutting zone. After removing the mask I started by shading around the blocks with FasTint. I prefer FasTint over black on a white background as it is not as contrasting, but be careful. This stuff is very thin and hard to work with. I had an issue on the driver’s side when it started to come out harder than expected. I then shaded some FasFluorescent yellow across the back. I finished by backing the the whole body in Faswhite for a uniform look.
7 I’m done painting! To finish up I removed the window mask, using my hobby knife, and overspray film. I purposely left a lot of open space so I could wallpaper it with decals, as a race body should be! When I first removed the overspray film, my wife said it looked like a bullet pop you get from the ice cream man, but when I put the decals on, she saw how it all fit together.
WRAP UP Honestly, I typically do kind of dark paint jobs. I wanted to switch it up this time and do something really bright that would be visible on the track. It is not really what I’m used to, but it is rapidly growing on me. It is definitely going to be easy to see on the track! Overall I think it came out really good, the only issue I had was with the FasTint, but I always have that problem. One of these days I’ll get the hang of that stuff. All I can do is practice!
