The Backyard – Winter Paintjobs Drag Me Down

Greetings all and happy Friday! Welcome to The Backyard, my little slice of nonsense on the Internet.

If there is one thing that absolutely grinds my winter r/c projects to a halt, it’s needing to lay down a paint job when the weather is frigid.

I currently have 3 projects totally backlogged because of this- a modified 4×4 pulling truck, a mini rod pulling tractor, and a Tamiya BBX buggy. I also have 3 model projects waiting as well on some paint (a Tamiya Fletcher Destroyer, a Takom Russian Army Tank Transporter, and a Revell Pulled Pork Pulling Truck).

Yeah, I technically have an inside painting area, which you can see in the pic below. The air filter does a good job of sucking my airbrush overspray up, but it still gets pretty stinky after a coat or two when the window can’t be opened (when it’s freezing outside this isn’t advisable). And that’s my airbrush- there is NO WAY I can do any kind of rattle can work inside with closed windows. Doesn’t matter that I’m using a respirator- not only are paint fumes a bad proposition by themselves, but the stench means I’d catch 9 kinds of hell from my wife (rightfully so)!

In years past, I would shut the garage door, run a space heater for awhile and let it heat it up naturally due to the insulation and being next to the house, but the result would seemingly be mediocre at best and a ruined body at worst.

Even when insuring that the paint and lexan are proper temperatures before going outside to do quick coats, I find that my flaws when painting are magnified by the cold…usually my impatience!  Trying to put too many coats down too fast leads to runny jobs. Being lazy about leaving the body or paint out too long (which lets them get too cold), can create weird issues like paint beading or cracking.

Come to think of it, pretty much every ruined body that I’ve ever painted (since learning to properly paint an r/c body body) has been because I’ve not waited for warmer weather to do the job.

Damn you midwest winters!!!! My airbrush is gonna be very busy come mid-March to late-April!

Anyone else out there have this problem?

Alright, that’s it for me this week. Until next time, keep it on all 4’s!