Losing grip – work in progress

It’s Christmas day, and I’m at work. That’s a bad thing. I’m at work, but have downtime. That’s a good thing. While I don’t get to see my family, I do get to do some writing for this most esteemed of sites. And no, I have nothing better to do, except maybe watch a movie. So yes, that essentially means I’m working to jobs at the same time. Working, as it were. Awesome setup, right?

While my current setup is rather nice, a setup that I need to work on is that of painting. A couple of months back, I wrote about a new body I started working on. A Toyota 86, with a wide body kit from KillerbodyRC, nonetheless. I bought it, then had it sitting around for threee months due to being too busy at work, started working on it, and then got stuck due to lack of proper tools. I bet this never happened to anyone reading this, has it? Starting a project, but only getting halfway through?

Well, with weather being too warm and wheels being too few, I decided to have a look at this body to see exactly where I was standing. This is where:

Body painted, fenders and such painted, but nothing attached to anything. Well, for the purpose of this photo, I attached the black bits with blu-tack, but that doesn’t count. As a proof of concept, I’m quite fond of it. Yellow and black is a classic, hight contrast combination signalling danger, especially so when in a striped pattern. To further push the contrast, all of the black has a matt varnish (using the plastic protective film as a mask), while the yellow is gloss. Contrast both of color, and finish. The difference doesn’t really come across in the photograph, but is very evident in real life.

In hindsight, I should have done more and thinner black stripes on the side, since most of them get hidden by the fenders as it is now. But still, I like the general idea.

However, what I don’t like is that I’ve had some black staining the yellow. Again, this doesn’t really show in the picture, and likely wouldn’t be noticed when driven, but it really annoys me. And I just cannot fathom how it happened. Some random black blotches, right in the middle of areas that all were very well masked off. No bleeding through (I did spray black first, then yellow), just random stains. Very weird, very annoying.

Now, where does this leave me? Bits and pieces that I can’t attach due to lack of tools. Tools that I cannot buy yet, since I’m three weeks away from moving ten thousand miles. A body that is painted, but with some black stains. A concept that I find rather striking. A severe competition for space in my luggage. Should it stay, or should it go?

I will ponder this for another couple of weeks, but I hope I will be able to bring it along and finish it off when the move is over and done with. If not, I will start over with the same look on another body. And no black blotches shall plague me then, for I recently decided to up my paint game.

I have been whining about getting a new receiver for a while, but last minute I changed my mind. Me being an outdoor drifter, and outdoors being too warm now, and too cold in a few weeks, I realised I might need to take the hobby inside for a few months. Less driving, and more tinkering. So, I spent the receiver money on an airbrush. An Iwata Eclipese HP-CS, nice stuff. A compressor is still a few weeks off (weight limit, again), so I’m yet to try it, but am really, really, really looking forward to giving it a go.

I love painting, but rattle cans just doesn’t cut it for me anymore. Color transitions are hard to do, and when doing multiple layers paint builds up, making it a chore to remove liquid mask. For my Yeti below (with a ProLine Ford Raptor body), I did sixteen layers of paint which I think just about hits the roof for what’s feasible with rattle cans. Not recommended, really.

Airbrushing it is then. Now, only remains to be seen what body will be the first one to suffer my new toy. Suggestions, anyone? Now, time to work, methinks. Or was I working? Am I working? Can’t remember. Lost my grip. Regardless, Merry Christmas folks!

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