12ose's Tutorial 1 (Part 1): Decorating Polycarbonate Cover using Spray/Masking Method:

A) Introduction:
Cars can have the same setting, same cover, but looks is what gives the car its soul and character. Now I will show you how to decorate polycarbonate bodies using Spray/ Masking Method.

B) Tools You will Need:


1. Cover of your choice
2. Tamiya Masking Tape (Highly recommended cause they do not peel off the paint)
3. Pen Knife
4. Files (1 Flat file for straight edges, 1 round file for wheel guard)
5. Scissors (Big for cutting long straight lines, Small for cutting curves/ trimming)
6. Polycarbonate Spray paints
7. Stickers and decals
8. Gundam Fine Tip Marker
9. Cutting Mat (or Hardback magazines if you do not have one like me )
10. Clean lint-free cloth (too shy to be in the picture )

C) Preparing your cover:
Since polycarbonate is very easy to work with, it is good to cut a little more so that your cover can sit lower on the chassis. Cut straight long lines using large scissors and use the small scissors for smaller/ shorter areas. Use penknife if necessary to shave off tiny bumps along the lines.


After cutting, sand the cut areas with a file in a diagonal direction for smoother and more uniform lines.

Clean the cover with soapy water to remove the mold-releasing agent and dirt after everything is done. Leave it to dry or use the cloth (new spectacle cloth can be used) to wipe the cover dry.

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Added on March 4, 2009, 11:06 pmD) Designing Motifs and Masking the cover:
Stick the masking tape onto the cutting mat. Using the marker, draw out the motifs that you want. I choose flames cause it is relatively easy to draw and looks really hot (no puns intended).

After designing your motifs, cut them out with the penknife.

Now take the headlight and windscreen stickers from your kit and paste them under the cover. Make sure all the edges are fully pressed down or the paint will run under the sticker. Then proceed to paste the motifs under the cover.


E)Painting the cover:
USE ONLY POLYCARBONATE PAINTS. Normal spray paints and acrylic will melt the polycarbonate and also will crack after it dries. Tamiya Polycarbonate paints are denoted by PS-number.

Shake the spray well before use (I shake for approx 30s, didn't count, but long enough for my mother to complain about the noise ). Hold it about 25-30cm from the cover and spray from left to right evenly. Do not spray a single thick coat. Many thin coats will not only dry faster, but produce a more even finish as well. I did 3 coats for each colour.


After spraying the body colour, gently remove the masking tape motifs and colour the flames.



Ditto to the windscreen.


Now remove the protective coating on the top of the polycarbonate....


Still a bit bland isn't it? In Part 2 we will
1. Use stickers and decals to decorate the body,
2. Panel lining the cover to give it volume as well as
3. Modifying the Cover mount to let the cover sit lower on the chassis.

Stay Tuned

This post has been edited by 13lack.12ose: Mar 4 2009, 11:18 PM

must make one tutorial liao if nt lose out ahha

Haha faster make one so I can learn

Guys, where in sg do you get your parts from? Only from stargek? Btw is there a track there?

12ose's Tutorial 1 (Part 2): Decorating Polycarbonate Cover using Spray/Masking Method:

F) Stickers and Decals:
I highly recommend stickers used for R/C since they are highly durable and will not peel off as easily as dress-up stickers. Except for the headlights and taillights, leave the normal stickers that comes with the kit back in the box, they are usually too thick and are made of paper.

Cut out the stickers you need using penknife, cutting away the excess stickers. Next put it on the body and see how you want to position it.


With a penknife holding onto the 1 corner of the sticker (so that you will not leave fingerprint under the sticker), apply the sticker onto the body.


Water slide decals are good too if you want that "painted on" look. I took mine from my Gundam kits though water slide decals that comes with the static display models would be a better choice.

G) Panel lining:
Yes you read that right . Even though we are not building a Gundam, panel lining at the right places of your car gives the car volume when viewed and highlights the details as well.

Take the Gundam marker and gently draw on to the grooves on the body, particularly the windscreen and doors. Also in my example, I did a light lining on the taillight. Before the ink dries gently rub off the ink with your fingers/tissue/cotton bud. Do 1 area at a time. This means inking 1 windscreen and rubbing the ink off before inking the next windscreen.

Examples:




H) Mounting the Body:
The normal mount that comes with a MS PRO kit is VERY HEAVY and sits too high on the chasis. I did a mod by using only the front "hook", removing the excess studs. Use a 4mm screw (can be found on Super-1 kits) to secure the front "hook" and the cover. The rear mount I used comes from Manta Ray Mk III. The rear mount is specially designed to sit nicely onto the chassis so the cover will not wobble.


If the cover comes into contact with the wheels, use a small pair of scissors or a curved scissors to trim away the wheel guard on the body. A spacing of 1mm between the cover and the tyres would suffice.

I)Results:
Enjoy the pics




This post has been edited by 13lack.12ose: Mar 5 2009, 01:31 PM

YAY! thx black.rose for the Polycarbonate decoration tutorials. haha


This post has been edited by FatalMIND: Mar 5 2009, 02:35 AM

Thanks for the offer! My dad bought it for me this evening.... *wink*
I act very fast hor.... hahaha
It feels good being a girl... LOL


Good luck to those going for the 15 Mar race.
I might be out of town, guess i wont be able to go down 'see see look look'

Btw, im confused over the motors...
How come got so many types?? Which one shld i get??

This post has been edited by Lost4Love: Mar 5 2009, 02:37 AM

@FatalMIND: My Pleasure. Just remember to post your TRF Jr up when you're done

@Lost4Love: The motor you use depends on your car setting actually.

But to keep things simple, for PRO motors, Rev Tuned is better for straights, Torque Tuned for cornering, and Atomic Tuned for best combination of these two.

Currently the fastest PRO motor is Hyper Dash Pro.

13lack.12ose : Thanks so much for the useful information =)

for me hyper the fastest followed by atomic then torque i really dont know how to make rev tuned fast any pointers

nice hope to see your car pics soon and happy building

my pink car


my other pink theme car





comments are welcomed

Never liked Rev-Tuned b4. Remembered running it for a few times and the terminal inside broke. Anyway I find Rev Tuned to be slow as well.

I like the Avante. The roller setting is good as well.

OT abit, how do u post small pictures? All the pictures I posted so big >.<

Guys, things have gotten abit rust for me.. I wanna know, since there is so much hype about the MS chassis, do people still people still play the older models? Btw, how to make motors fast? Those that just come out of the package can't be that fast right? Also, why cannot use Ni-MH rechargeable batteries for the cars?

Seems like there is a general guideline on how to set the car for speed and technical tracks.. Anyone can share? In my time, we never thought of such things, just anyhow whack and put rollers, no planning at all..

u go to ms paint then resize it

ms chasis is the latest chasis
as motors u need to run in for better result
yes there is a few common setting for both type of cars and the older chasis is still being used

>washywashy,
There is a group of ppl still using old models, as recent races are technical track layout. Old hand of SFM, S-1, TZ as I believe they stopped for quite sometime and now trend is coming back. Although they are old models, it will not go outdated and I like MS for now.

Why the nickel hydride cannot be used? It says in the Japanese official rule; The Ni-Mh battery is prohibited, the motor was locked when the child used the Ni-Mh battery while had switched on, and the battery got burnt heating it. However, is it really so? It is for safety reason.

Oh ok.. About running in, how long would it take? Oh ok.. Seems like quite hard to get SFM nowadays..

Motor was locked? Btw, where do you get your parts in SG? Where do you normally play? From previous posts seems like you really got a lot of stuff and most probably you have a track at home?

>washywashy,
For an example, something stuck inside the motor causing it jammed.
I collected those parts long ago, some are from overseas. I do not have track at home, are you joining us on the 15 march race at khatib?

Eelen this sunday there'll be a race @ Tampines.

Any idea where is the actual location and the pricing??
My cousin is interested.

>13lack.12ose,
Thanks for informing. Are you going? I dont think will be going lei..