A step by step guide for the beginning airbrush painter – with pictures! OK, so, you want to paint your own rides instead of shelling out the cash for someone else to do it, or you are tired of trying to find information on how to create a ride to be proud of. In this article you find helpful hints, tips and how-to's on becoming a successful painter using either rattle cans, or an airbrush. Sure, you could slap something together and off to the track you go, but do you want to show up in style or look like you drive a beater?

This guide is not definitive. All painters out there have their own opinion on how something should be done. This article expresses my views, and not necessarily the views of other painters. The best advice I can give is for you to experiment on your own and see what works best for you. I have gone the wrong direction many of times, and have a "wall of shame" where I hang the bodies of what I screwed up, so I have a constant reminder of what NOT to do. Feel free to contact me anytime if you should have any questions regarding painting – you can contact me using the services listed below:

I highly recommend that you paint outdoors, or in a well-ventilated area. Lacquer paints can be very noxious, and stink up the whole house. Not only that, but you can get yourself into trouble without ventilation, causing headaches at first, followed by the more gruesome homage to the porcelain god (vomiting of course) if you aren’t careful. Always, always, always use a painting mask! They aren’t that expensive, and can really save your lungs. Without a painting mask, you run the risk of breathing in the paint, which will coat your lungs. The body cannot break these chemicals down, and therefore, are there forever. Also, use goggles, or safety glasses. I have read people putting together their airbrushes wrong, heating a rattle can too much, and have them blow up in their face. Nothing worse than having paint in your eyes, I can guarantee you that! Be on the safe side – better to look like a dork than a dork covered in paint that cannot be easily cleaned off. If it can happen, it will happen – Murphy’s Law always will prevail!

Up until I wrote this, I never had a major accident. Well, that changed quickly on me when I was painting a body a month ago. Something clogged my airbrush, and when I went to shoot the next coat, I was thankful I had safety glasses on. I pressed the trigger down, and the paint shot through the siphon hole, and covered my face with lacquer paint. This was completely unexpected and surprising at the same time. If I had not been wearing safety goggles, I would have had to make a trip to the local hospital to try and get lacquer paint out of my eyes. WEAR YOUR SAFETY EQUIPMENT!

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Over the past few years, I have found one constant – tools – seems like you never have what you really need when you really need it. To be successful at painting, jot down the list of tools/equipment you will need. There is nothing worse than having a paint bleed that you cannot fix because you are lacking the proper equipment.

1. Q-Tips – Doesn’t matter what brand – the cheaper the better. This is one of the best tools to have believe it or not! These are good for cleaning out your airbrush, the feeder tube, and burnishing (pressing down edges of your mask for total adherence) tape.
2. Toothpicks – Again, the cheaper the better and preferably the kind that have the square middle to them. These are good for cleaning out your airbrush tips, and fixing any paint bleeds you may come across.
3. Tape – For masking purposes, you will need GOOD tape. 3M is the best in the business – don’t settle for some off brand cheap stuff. Get different sizes as well for different masking needs.  Also, look on the label - 3M tape gives you what tack the tape is.  Medium tack is good, but I prefer the high tack.  
4. Detail Tape – You can get this type of tape at the local hobby shop, or any automotive paint store. It comes in varied widths from ¼ inch, to 1/16 inch. The thinner the width, the tighter turns you can make with it - again 3M being the best.
5. Lacquer Thinner – Don’t get suckered into buying the kind at the local hobby shop. Go to Home Depot or other home improvement store and get yourself about a half a gallon. You will find that it’s MUCH cheaper this way. You can get five times the amount for the same price!
6. Rags – Always a must for cleanup – the more the merrier!
7. BB's - Most paint needs shaking to stir the contents back together - add some BB's to the paint to help stir it all up quicker!
8. Exacto Knife – Very important tool – be sure to get extra blades (#11 work best)! You will use this tool quite a bit – but be careful with it!
9. Tweezers – Very handy for removing masking tape, and other small tasks – especially if you are a nail biter!
10. Liquid Mask and Paint Brush – (Optional) Handy, but not necessary, especially if you aren’t used to using an Exacto knife well. Pactra brand liquid mask is junk – best stuff out there by far is Bob Dively’s liquid mask. Your local hobby shop should be able to order it if they don’t carry it.
11. Plastic Bags – You will need some of these for storage. Ziplocs are the best in this dept.
12. Denatured Alcohol – this stuff is awesome!  Great for fixing paint bleeds, and pre-paint cleaning.  You can find this at any home improvement store.
13. Sharpie Permanent Markers – These are a must for your design, and marking of posts and wheel wells.
14. Lexan Scissors – For trimming your body.
15. Pliers - for opening those troublesome bottles of paint.
16. A good grease cutting dish soap – you will need this to wash your body before you begin to remove residue that is left from the vacuum forms.
17. Your trusty airbrush and compressor – there are a lot of different airbrushes on the market, and you will always get conflicting advice on what to use from painters. If you are just starting, you cannot go wrong with a Paasche VL. These range from 60 to 80 dollars depending on where you shop. As far as compressors, you can go to Home Depot and pick up a Campbell/Hausfeld with a two-gallon tank for around 100 dollars.

Now I know some of you out there are thinking, "Why not just use spray cans?" The answer is simple. You can’t get funky with your bad self, using spray cans. You have a lot less control, and you aren’t able to make tight fades, or freehand your work. Spray cans are great for beginners, and a great way to learn the basics. However, you can get limited in your designs and creativity. You can create a good paint job with them, but when you want to get deeper in your work, it’s time for the airbrush. 

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Go and get something to store all these items in, along with any paints you may be getting. It’s nice to have everything at your fingertips instead of strung out everywhere in disarray. You will find that this will actually cut down your time involved just by being organized. What I did was go to Wal-Mart and pick up a Plano fishing box that had storage compartments on top, and a large bottom for storage of paint. It keeps everything nice and neat!

When you buy your tape, you will notice that it’s nicely wrapped in plastic. Once you unwrap the tape, put it in the Ziploc bag. Why? If you lay it down on your workbench, couch, etc, you will start to get fuzz and dust attaching to the outside edge of the tape. This is not a good thing! The more this collects junk, the more paint bleeds you will have. You want to keep your tape as clean as possible at all times. When using your tape, set it down on the baggie or inside the body you are working on to prevent dirt from collecting on the edges. Trust me; you will thank me on this tip!  If you remove some tape and notice it has left a residue, all you have to do is get another piece of tape, wrap it around your finger tacky side out, and simply touch the tape to the body.  When you pull back, it should pick up any residue that was left behind.

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There are several brands of paint out there; some are better than others. When you buy paint, be sure to get the kind that is specifically formulated for polycarbonate plastic (or lexan for short). The correct paint bonds itself to the lexan, is flexible, and allows it to stay in intact in case of an impact. You will find that you will break and tear bodies before the paint chips away (if shot correctly). 

Brands of paint include Tamiya, Pactra, Testors, Faskolor (Createx), Spaz-Stix and Alclad II. All are lacquer-based paints except for Faskolor/Createx.

FASKOLOR/CREATEX being water based paint, it is much thicker than lacquer paints, which can either be hand-brushed on, or even airbrushed. The benefits of water based paints are cleanup, lack of noxious fumes, and color brightness. Since its water based, you use water to clean up! Not only that, but if you have a body that you have painted but don’t like, you can soak it in water for about a week, and all the paint will come off even after it has dried (unless you backed with lacquer). Downside to using Faskolor is its thickness (you can thin it down – thin one teaspoon of water to a one ounce bottle – no more), and tendency to chip if not backed with lacquer or FasKoat. Shoot Faskolors at 25 to 35 pounds of pressure, depending on thickness. It’s also more difficult to get thin lines using an airbrush, plus you have to shoot the paint at a very high pressure, which can expose any places that the tape isn’t set into well. I primarily use it for base colors, and background colors.

Createx paints are the exact same paints, but half the cost. You can find Createx in the same colors as Faskolors and be purchased at craft stores. Createx also makes a line called Createx Auto Air paints, and Nail Ease paints. These are great paints for they come in some very intense colors!

PACTRA/TESTORS/TAMIYA are basically the same paint made by the same manufacturer but labeled as separate entities. These are lacquer-based paints. They stink to high heaven, especially when you thin them down. Thinning these paints are a must! Get an empty bottle like the one they come in and fill half with paint, and fill the rest with lacquer thinner. If you shoot the paint straight from the bottle, you will get "cobwebs" (notice the make-up brush in my kit... great for removal of accidental cobwebs). The paint comes out of the brush ok, but you will notice it start to get stringy on you. IMO, you get better results with lacquer paints than you do with Faskolor. You can draw much thinner lines, giving you more room for detail work, plus you only have to shoot the paint at 12– 15 pounds of pressure. Cleanup is a bit nastier, since you have to use lacquer thinner, but the finished product is much better and stronger as far as chipping and peeling are concerned.

ALCLAD II is also lacquer-based, but these paints are truly one of a kind when it comes to interesting paint jobs. Do not thin this paint, or it will ruin its characteristics. Alclad primarily makes metal finish paint – such as chrome, polished aluminum, copper, etc. The chrome Alclad is probably the most widely used, since it gives a mirror finish to anything. Alclad paint can only be applied using an airbrush - however, they just introduced a line of chrome in spray cans! Alclad II also makes some brilliant color change paints as well called Prismatics. Alclad is a bit harder to find and a lot more expensive, unless you can get your local hobby shop to order it. 

When it comes to backing, always use water-based black! Lacquer will turn the chrome to silver!

SPAZ-STIXS A new paint on the market specially formulated for lexan bodies. Spaz paints offer glow in the dark paint, metal finishes, and the ever-popular color change. I really like these paints. For one, they are better formulated for lexan bodies, and seem to hold up better than Alclad II when it comes to body abuse on the track.

When it comes to backing the Liquid Metal, use water-based black. Color change paints require either lacquer based black or water based black, glow in the dark requires the glow enhancer backing paint.

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After doing several bodies, I have found that is much easier to trim the body before applying masks and painting. For one, you use less paint, and you don’t have to worry about scratching off paint after the body is finished. I always trim the body first now, even before washing it. Try it both ways, but I can assure you that you will have better success trimming the body before you do anything else. Be sure you have marked your wheel wells, and body postholes.

By far – this is where your paint job will make or break you. Poor prep time and your body will show it when you are finished. Just a reminder, you paint the INSIDE of the body, not the outside. Before you do anything, take the clear body and place it over your chassis. What you want to do is mark your body postholes, and wheel wells. Once you have done that, take your Exacto knife and make a very small hole to permanently mark the center where the holes will be in case you wash off the marker. This makes mounting the finished product a hundred times easier. Painting inside the body gives the outside a clean, shiny appearance. Now, you can’t just take the body out of the plastic and slap some paint on it. That is a no-no! First off, you must wash the body using dish soap and a sponge. When the body gets pressed in the mold, it leaves a residue that the paint does not adhere to. This will make your paint job look like hell. After you wash the body, be sure to dry it with a lint-free cloth. If you use anything else, you will leave lint all over the inside of the body, which will show when you go to lay down your masking and paint. Once the body has been washed, try not to touch the inside of the body if you can help it. After you wash the body, take a cotton ball with some denatured alcohol and swab down the body.  This will ensure you have removed all residue from the body.  

If you do need to touch the inside of the body to lay down some detail lines, be sure to wash your hands, and wash them often. If your fingers get a greasy feeling, its time to wash them again. If you get that grease on the body, the paint will not stick and leave little unpainted puddles when you go to spray. One good suggestion is to keep a damp towel nearby your work area, and wipe your hands every few minutes. Usually, if this is your first or second body, it will be a day or two before you actually can get to start painting. If you are putting the body up for the evening, store it in the bag it came in to keep dust and dirt off the outside and inside of the body. The cleaner the body, the better the end result will be. 

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OK – lexan bodies can be expensive! Your best bet is to get a hold of some lexan and do some practicing to get used to your airbrush. If you feel you need to practice, go for it. The more practice you can get the better! But what do you practice on you might say? Go get a 2 liter coke bottle, peel off the label, cut it in half, and boom! You have two pieces of polycarbonate plastic. Practice your layers of paint – try to keep them light. It is MUCH better to have several thin coats than one or two thick ones. Too thick and the paint will not bond well to the plastic, leaving it wide open for chipping. Another way to look at it is if you race your RC, you want it light as possible, correct? Thick paint adds weight to a body! KEEP IT THIN!

Now it is time for the window masks. These are usually provided in the body kit along with the sticker sheet. Window masks are a great time saver, and usually very easy to place over the windows (again, inside the body). Most people say to take a credit card to burnish (pressing down the edges to keep from paint bleeding) the mask edges, but this can be dangerous. Not so much for you (unless you cannot keep track of your spending habits), but the masks themselves. From my experience, if you press down too hard, you can catch the mask, and rip it or stretch it, which is never a good thing. Instead, take a Q-Tip; bend it in half giving you a ‘U’ shape. Use the center of the U to smooth out and press down the edges. Since it’s made of paper, and round, it will never catch any edge of any mask and will give you the same result as a credit card or finger without any worries. When you are burnishing the window masks, look on the outside of the body to see where the mask has adhered to the body, and where it has not - the same applies for maskings.

When you have the window masks in place, it is time for the design of the body. Start thinking of what colors you may want to use, as well as the design you would like to see on it. Sometimes its rather difficult to come up with something right away, but if you stare long enough at the bodylines, it will talk to you. If you are still having trouble, start thumbing through some websites with car pictures, or magazines. Don’t worry so much about copying someone else’s work, nobody has their paint jobs copyrighted – if they do, then they have WAY too much time on their hands. If you see something you like, start thinking how they might have painted it. Start thinking of the order it was painted in as well. Remember that you are painting the inside of the body, so you are doing it backward of what you see. I know, you are confused as hell to that last statement, but read the Deconstructing Paintjobs section for help. Once you have your design idea, go ahead and draw it right on the outside of the body. 90 percent of all the bodies produced come with an overspray film, so you can draw out your design right on the body using the Sharpie marker. If you do not like the way it is turning out, take some of the denatured alcohol on a cotton ball, and simply wipe off the marker and try again. Drawing the design on the body allows you to duplicate the design from the inside of the body using your masking materials. Once you have your design finished, its time to mask the inside of the body – but before you do, get up and wash your hands! 

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I for one prefer masking tape. To me, it is easier to mask off a body using tape than liquid mask. But, liquid mask is great for places that tape may be a pain to get in. You can achieve the same results as liquid mask with a bit of patience. Remember to wash your hands first, and then periodically wash them when they start to feel a bit greasy.

Liquid mask is usually applied in four thick coats, with an hour to two-hour drying time in-between each coat. Once you have the last coat on there, its time to let it sit for 24 hours. By the time you get all four coats of liquid mask on there, and dried, you could already be painting by using masking tape. The big thing with liquid mask is you need to be very careful when it comes to cutting out the design. The only way this is done is using the Exacto knife. If you score too deep, you run the risk of cutting into the body. Two problems with that:

1. The score marks will still show even after you have painted.
2. Score marks will make the body weaker if you cut too deep. I have seen guys hit an object with their car and have the body crack all the way through where they had scored the body from cutting out a design in the liquid mask. Either of which is not a good thing. If you are cutting out your mask with an Exacto, be sure to go as light as possible in cutting, using a NEW blade. When it comes to cutting straight lines in the liquid mask, hold the end of the knife, and lightly pull it toward you. You will find you can cut very straight lines doing so.

OK, so I hear you screaming through your computer, "So how do I cut the tape then?" Good question!

You have two options when it comes to masking tape. Here is number one:

1. Use a paint/photo-editing program on your PC to print out a black and white image on the paper. Go ahead and cut out the design, and place it on the outside of the body to see if it fits. If need be, resize and do the same step again. Now, once you have the right size, take some 3 inch masking tape, and cover the inside of the body. Now, take your design and tape it to the inside of the body, and simply take your Exacto knife and lightly trace the edges of your design - hold the body up to any light source to see the design through the tape. When you have completely cut out your design, simply peel way the excess tape and discard it. BAM! You have your mask.
2. I find I leave score marks doing the above step, so I take a different approach. What I do is take a piece of wax paper (8 ½" x 11") and cover it with the 3’ tape.  (USE A LOWER TACK TAPE!!) Be sure to take the leading edge that is going into your printer and wrap the tape around the back side. A half an inch is sufficient. You want to do this or you run the risk of the printer grabbing the tape and jamming the printer. Now, simply print out (be sure to set your printer quality to low, or draft mode) your design, and take some scissors and cut out the design you have made. You can now peel away the mask from the wax paper and carefully apply it to the body.

Here are some pictures of taped wax paper - the first being the front side after it has been taped:

Here is the backside - notice the tape covers the leading edge, so the tape does not come off in the printer:

You can also use fine line detail tape to trace out your designs as well.  You can get 3M (the best) in different widths from 1/16 inch to 1/4 inch.  The thinner the tape, the tighter the turns you can make with it!  Here is how!

First off, take the narrow detail tape, and trace out your design with it. Hold the roll between your thumb and middle finger, and roll out about an inch of the tape. Take your index finger (did you wash your hands?) and push down the tape onto the body tracing out your design. To get the masking tape to fit into the detail tape lines, simply lay out the tape over the detail tape, press it down onto the body, then take your Exacto knife and cut out and peel away the excess (be sure and use a new blade). The easiest way to do this after you have applied the tape is to hold the body up to any light source. You will see the detail tape through the masking tape, making it easy to run the knife LIGHTLY down the center of the detail tape. Peel away your excess tape.

*TIP! The cool thing about detail tape is this gives you another opportunity to add another color! If you are careful upon removal of the masking tape, you can leave the detail tape intact. Once you shoot the design, you can peel away the detail tape giving you a perfect line to accent your design with another color. Pretty cool, eh? You can see in the Suburban, how detail tape can outline flames.

   
Fineline detail tape applied - followed by filling in the space with masking tape.

Finished product using fineline to add more color to these gorgeous flames!

Now, before you get all happy and run off to paint, burnish all the edges of the masking tape on the detail tape using your bent Q-Tip. You don’t want any paint bleeds do you? I didn’t think so…. 

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Go ahead and get yourself that bent Q-Tip you used to burnish the window masks and do the same thing for the detail tape and masking you just laid out. I know, you just did it!! Rule of thumb, always check your taping before you paint to make sure you got all your tape sealed. Nothing worse than finding out that you missed a spot when it’s too late. Don’t be afraid to give it a good press!

Paint Thinning

1. For Testors and Pactra paints, thin the paint down 1:1 with lacquer thinner. Get a clear bottle that fits your airbrush, and pour it half full with your desired paint, and the other half with lacquer thinner. Why thin? If you shoot the paint straight from the jar, you will get painting cobwebs. Not only that, but you stretch the supply of the paint by two.
2. For Alclad II Chrome, Prismatics and Spaz-Stix you do not need to thin these paints.
3. For Faskolor and Createx – one teaspoon of water per one ounce bottle. This will allow you to shoot at a lower pressure.

Onto the painting! Usually, dark colors go first. Why you may ask? Well, if you spray white, then shoot black behind it, your white will turn a grayish color. However, backing the white with silver will stop any other colors from showing through your white. Here is a helpful little guide:

Color Backing

1. Back whites with silver. You would think the silver would darken the white, but it does not. Actually, it makes the white a bit brighter.
2. Back fluorescent colors with white, then back the white with silver. Backing them with white makes the fluorescent colors pop out. Backing the white with silver will stop any other colors from showing through which may dull the brightness of the fluorescents.
3. Back metallics with silver. This gives the metallic colors some extra oomph.
4. Back metal flake with any color. Metal flake is neat stuff – it is just glitter in clear coat, but when you back it with any color, it will take on the color you are backing it with, making it an extreme metallic.
5. Back candy colors with silver, or any dark colors. As you can see in the above Porsche pic, I took candy purple and backed it with black at the beginning of the burst. As the burst progresses, you can see it change color. That is because I backed the remainder of the burst with silver. You can create some intense colors using candy and backing with different colors.
6. Black and silver do not need backing.

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OK, now is the time. Go get your goggles and painting mask ready, along with any paint you may be using. By far, the easiest paintjobs are the one and two color. You always want your first coat of paint to very, very thin and light. Reason for this is you want to create a seal between the paint and the mask. This bond will prevent any seepage of color, and give you nice clean lines. Remember, lighter is better.  Always shoot several thin coats of paint rather than one or two thick coats. The thicker the paint you shoot, the more it has a tendency to chip under impact. Also, it will give the paintjob a more even finish. When spraying, hold your airbrush 6 to 12 inches away. Too close and you will puddle the paint, which is clearly visible from the exterior. When you have shot the first coat, go ahead and let it dry. You can do this naturally by leaving it out in the sun, or take a hairdryer to it. Don’t bake it, gently warm the paint.  Using warm air from a hair dryer will speed up drying time dramatically. How do you tell if it’s dry or not without touching it? Take a whiff of the body – does it smell like plastic or paint? If it still smells like paint, then it’s still wet. If it has a warm plastic smell, you are good to go for the next coat. Be sure to keep it light! If necessary, back the color after you finish. If you are ready for the design part and the masking tape needs to be removed, wait for a few hours or so for the paint to bond to the lexan. You can rush the next part by removing tape and PAINT if you aren’t careful. Patience is of utmost importance!

After you finish with your first color, it’s time to remove the masking tape you laid down. Do not rush this step! Be sure to let the body sit for several hours. If you rush this step, you will pull paint away from the body because it has not bonded to the lexan yet (cured). Carefully take the Exacto knife, and lift up the corner of the tape, and SLOWLY pull off the masking tape. If you want to use the detail tape for another color, peel off the masking tape all the way around the design to ensure you do not remove it. To be sure any of the detail tape did not lift, take your bent Q-Tip and give it another burnish. Before you move onto the next color, inspect the painting you just did. If you happen to notice any paint bleeds, now is the time to correct them before the next color is applied. Don’t worry, removing paint bleeds and blemishes are very easy! First, go get a few toothpicks (square is best), or Q-tips if the paint is still fresh, and the Denatured Alcohol. Now, if the paint is still relatively fresh, it can be removed by taking the Q-tip dipped in some Denatured alcohol and rubbed on the bleed.  If the paint is dried, take the toothpick and cut it off at an angle, so it looks like a wedge on the square portion. All you have to do now is lightly scrape or push any bleeds you might have out of your next painting area. You will hear some people say to scrape it off with an Exacto knife, but that just does more damage than good. NEVER use thinner of any kind, this will instantly cloud and haze the lexan. If the paint has cured, simply dip the toothpick into some of the Denatured Alcohol and repeat the above step. Some mild scraping will remove the bleed.

Repeat the above painting steps to finish the painting of body, backing colors as necessary.  Be SURE to clean out your airbrush when you finish!  Do not let it sit too long without cleaning it.  If you have used lacquer based paints, be sure to take apart your brush, and clean all the paint out of it with lacquer thinner.  If you used Faskolor or Createx, use water with some dish soap added to it.  Get in the habit of keeping your equipment clean - this will ensure flawless operation of your airbrush.

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OK, you have the painting all finished, and your equipment is clean and put away. Now, it’s time to put the body down, and slowly back away. That’s right! You have come this far, don’t skip this next step – you will regret it, I guarantee it. Let the body sit for a good 24 hours! If you start cutting and hacking on it, you will find the paint scratches rather easily. Sure it may be dry, but it needs time to CURE. The waiting is the hardest part, but extremely important. If the paint does not fully bond to the plastic, all that masking and painting time is shot out the window, and you have a beater body. Once the 24 hours has passed, get out the Exacto knife, and slowly peel up the edges of the window masks. Once that is done, go ahead and peel off the overspray film. Now you will see how well you prepped your body. 

Now you can apply the stickers (I only like to use the body decals - excess stickers can take away from your overall scheme, but are great for covering up painting mistakes). Take a nice pair of sharp scissors (not your lexan ones) and cut out the stickers you would like to apply to the body. The closer you cut the stickers out, the better they will look. Believe me; if you leave a 1/8-inch edge, it’s very noticeable when you apply it to the body. Keep it tight! For some of the larger stickers, that they can be a pain to apply. The best way to apply these stickers is to take some Windex, spray either the back of the sticker, and/or the body where it will be applied. Once you put the sticker on the body, it’s easy to place it where you want it, then all you have to do is smooth out the sticker with your fingers, squeezing out all the Windex. 

Don't be fooled by pre-cut decals!  Some are good, some aren't.  HPI is a manufacturer that provides precut decals with all their bodies.  My main gripe about the precut decals is they could sure do better at it.  Most of the decals have a huge excess of vinyl, which shows when you go to put it on the car.  The window trim, however, is pretty tight.  IMO, I would rather cut the decals myself.  Either way, try both out, and find your own preferences.

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Now comes the fun part – here you will learn how to paint different designs, and different techniques for different effects. Also, I will go into more depth about specialized paints, like the Spaz-Stix.

• Gluing Pictures inside the body
• Jackal Transfers - A better way
• Shadowing techniques
• Rips
• Lava patterns
• Flames
• Carbon Fiber
• Lightning
• Marble Effects
• Cobwebbing

Gluing pictures inside the body:

Here are the tools you will need to do this:

1. 1500 to 2000 grit sandpaper
2. Mod Podge glue, XXXmain glue, and even plastic canopy glue will work.
3. Magazine pictures
4. Clean damp rag

Now, onto the steps:

1. Find the picture you want in your design. As long as you use a semi-gloss picture from any magazine, you are good to go. What you want to do is cut the picture as clean and close as possible. Take your time, and make sure you cut it out clean. Do not fold or bend the picture!
2. Roughly sketch on the outside of the body where you want the picture to go. This is important for the next step.
3. Take the sandpaper and lightly score the inside of the body where you marked – this will allow the glue to bond to the picture and the body so it does not fall off.
4. Take an even line of glue and go down the center of the picture, then lightly coat the picture. Do not put small circles of glue in the picture; you will not be able to get the air out of it when smoothing it down.
5. You will not have a lot of time to do this step, so be quick, yet careful. What you need to do is smooth out the glue from the picture. Be careful, it doesn’t take long for the picture to become saturated with the glue and begin to tear. If you didn’t get all the glue out, don’t worry, it dries crystal clear.
6. Take a damp rag (CLEAN) and wipe the edges of the picture to remove excess glue. Be sure not to wipe on the picture itself, it can tear! BINGO! You now have pictures glued inside the body!

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Jackal Transfers - A better way?

Something new on the scene from a company called Jackal.  I have done a body using them and found a few things I didn't like.  For one, they are damned expensive at ten bucks a pop.  Although they are easy to use, they have a tendency to crack after they have dried.  Now, if you look closely at the transfers, and put 2 and 2 together, you will realize they are basically temporary tattoos!  Obviously, they do not want you to know that, but they are!  Temp tatts are so much cheaper, and it increases your selection ten fold!!  Don't be fooled!  

All you have to do is cut out the transfer, remove the plastic covering, and place it inside the body.  Since its a bit tacky, it will stick to the shell quite nicely.  Be sure to have it where you want it, for if you have to remove the tatt and reposition it, you may lose part of the tatt!  Now all that is left is to take a very damp rag, and wet the back of the tatt.  After about 30 seconds, the paper will slide right off, leaving the tatt in place!  All that is left is to shoot your background color.  Just remember to take in effect that the tatts and transfers are semi-transparent.  If you shoot a dark color behind them, it will darken the tatt!

Shadowing Techniques/Fades:

Most airbrushes are dual action. Dual action is simply this: mixing air with paint flow. Most dual action brushes come with an adjustable knob which controls the mixture rate of air to paint. Setting this knob allows you to make either thin or thick lines. Ideally, you want the smallest needle and tip to make tight shadows. Take a sheet of paper and practice for a minute to get the right size lines using the control knob. You want to make it as thin as possible. As far as the correct paint to use and pressure to shoot at, thinned Outlaw Black is best, at about 12 to 15 pounds of pressure. Now, when you are ready to shadow, all you have to do is trace your mask line. Simply shoot your shadow line half on and half off your mask. This couldn’t be easier to do. Remember that you are not limited to using black! You can use any color for shadow work!

Fading couldn’t be easier! After all, it is what separates cans from airbrushes! This technique does take some practice, but one of the easiest things to master! All you have to do is start at one end of your mask by filling in the first color using a steady sweeping motion. Slowly move down the mask and start to back your airbrush away from the body to your next color point. You will notice that the paint starts to fade the further away you are from the body. All you have to do now is fill in the rest with your second color! Simple!

 
Fade - blue fading to purple

The Ripped Effect:

This is another simple, yet very effective technique. You can use either Liquid Mask or Masking Tape to achieve this effect.

Liquid Mask:

With your Exacto knife, hold the end of it and simply cut jagged lines in the mask. It doesn’t matter how jagged you make it, nor do you have to worry about making mistakes! Now, once you have your jagged lines cut, simply peel the part where you will paint the background. Paint in your background and let it dry. Now, onto painting the rip. Make a tight shadow around the edge of the rip, and fill in the rest with the color of your choice!

Masking Tape:

The easiest way to go by far. Simply take a piece of tape and lay it inside the body, and burnish it down. This way, when you tear your tape, you aren't going to remove adhesive from your torn side.  If you tear your tape then lay it down, you will have sections that will have taken the adhesive, and left the paper side.  If this happens, you will have bleeds.  Always burnish the strip of tape, then tear it.  All you have to do now, its take an edge of the tape and tear it down the length! Vary the direction of the piece you are tearing by swinging the tape in your hand left and right. To rip the other side of the tape, lay down a second piece over lapping the first torn piece – tear the opposite side of it using the same technique. All you have to do now is shadow your ripped section, and then peel away the tape and fill it in just like the Liquid Mask step!

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Lava Patterns:

This is an extension of the Rip effect. Usually to achieve a lava pattern, three or more colors will be needed. You have traditional colors using red, yellow and orange, but you can substitute with any colors you see fit. You have the option of doing the lava section first or the background. Preferably, do the lava section first, leave the background for last. Why? For one, to achieve a true lava effect, you want the lava to appear like it is breaking out on top of the body, seeping over the main background color. Shadow the rip, but make it as tight as possible. Once you have shadowed the rip, take the darkest of your three colors and create a three to four inch fade around the edge. Take your next color and start about a quarter of an inch from your first color and shoot about a two-inch fade. Then fill in the rest of the lava section with your lightest color, and back it all with white or silver. Now let the body sit for a few hours. When it is completely dry, fill in your background color. You will notice it looks like the lava is popping out onto the body! COOL!

Flames:

Who doesn’t like flames? You see flames on bodies more than any other design for one reason: They are just cool!

Carbon Fiber Look:

This is also fairly easy to accomplish, and looks stunning when its finished! What you need to get here is some checkerboard pattern shelf (toolbox) liner. This stuff can be purchased at places like Wal-Mart. Now, it is by far easier to do this pattern on smooth, flat sections of your body due to the fact that it doesn’t handle curves too well. For best results, use Faspearl Charcoal, and Faspearl black (or FasBlack) for depth and luminance. Here are the steps:

1. Draw out the section on the outside of the body where you want this effect. Take the liner, and cut out a section of the liner with a ¼’ overlap.
2. Carefully tape the overlap to the body using masking tape if needed.
3. Fill your siphon cup with the Faspearl black, and lightly shoot the first color. Be sure to use caution so you do not move the liner! Spray the black evenly! Don’t go overboard!
4. Take the body and let dry for about an hour – only spray one even coat, and do not remove the liner until the paint is dry.
5. Carefully remove the liner to expose your checkerboard pattern, and now simply cover the rest of the area with the Charcoal color. Give it two thin coats, let dry and repeat.

You now have a carbon fiber look! This process is very simple, yet very effective.

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Lightning Effect

Lightning is also an easy effect to accomplish as well!  There are many different tools to use to achieve the effect, but the easiest is to go and get yourself a white paint marker from any craft store.  If you look at lightning, there is no set pattern, only jagged lines and branches coming off the main line.  Get yourself a piece of paper and practice making jagged lines until you feel comfortable doing it on a body.  Like I say, its random, so it's almost impossible to screw up!

All you have to do is now take the body, draw on your lightning.  Since you want to give it a glow, take some light purple (water based is best) and shoot a fine line behind your lightning.  Now all that is left is to fill in your background!  Darker colors work best to give the lightning some pop.

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Marble Effects

To achieve a marble look, you will need a few things:

• Plastic bag from a grocery store
• A sheet of paper

Marbleizing usually works best with pearlized paints, and close to the color you are going to use for your background.  You want the effect noticeable, but not overwhelming.  For instance, pearlized blue for the marble, backed with ultramarine blue is very striking!  Now, you can do other colors for a freaky effect, like red pearl, on a black background.  It's easy to get creative, but very easy to get ugly.  Be sure to test out your color combo's before doing the real thing!

Take the paint you are going to use for the marble effect, and pour out about a teaspoon on a sheet of thick paper.  Now take the grocery bag and wad it up into your hand.  Simply dab the wadded bag and dip it into the paint.  Take a few dabs on the paper to get rid of the excess paint, then simply dab the paint in various places on the body.  All that is left now is to fill in your background.  Simple!

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Cobwebbing

This effect takes off from the Carbon Fiber effect.  What you will need is a used dryer fabric sheet.  Be sure that it is USED or you will leave a residue on the body from the new sheet.  If that happens, you will have to re-wash your body from the oils left on there, and the paint wont stick!

What I prefer to do is mask out my design, then take the area I want the effect on, and tape the dryer sheet to the body.  Take your darker color first, then simply spray over the dryer sheet.  Once that coat of paint has dried (only shoot one coat), you can remove the dryer sheet and fill in the rest with your second lighter color.  Pretty cool!

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Now a choice for some killer paints is more abundant than ever. Back when I first started painting, you were very limited in the color department, with fluorescents being the wildest. Not anymore! Now you have Chrome, color change, and even glow in the dark paints.

Liquid Metal/Mirror Chrome – they are the same thing, but the end result is like looking into a mirror! Lacquer based which requires NO thinning. This paint must be sprayed at 15 to 20 psi. Any less and the paint spatters, leaving an uneven coat. Anymore pressure and it will dry in your brush! This paint dries ultra fast, so you can add another coat within minutes. Do not take a hairdryer to this paint, it can ruin the effect. After three or four coats, take a black object and hold it behind the paint. If you have enough paint, it will pop out at you. If you do not have enough, shoot a few more coats. With this stuff, it is better to be safe than sorry. Not having enough on there will result in the black backing showing through the chrome. Before you back the chrome, let it stand for about two hours so the chrome cures and aligns itself. Back only with water based black acrylic paint! If you use lacquer based, it will turn the chrome to silver, dulling the overall effect. Now, once you have backed the chrome, let the body cure for 24 hours before moving onto any other color! If you do not let this cure, you will ruin it.

Liquid Metal

Color Change paints – This is some cool stuff! You have 9 different color change paints to choose from:

• Gold to Red
• Gold to Green
• Red to Orange to Purple
• Orange to Purple to Teal
• Gold to Green to Orange to Purple
• Blue to Purple to Red
• Green to Purple to Teal
• Gold to Orange to Purple to Red
• Holographic

Glow in the Dark paints – Racing at night? Then this is your paint! One word of caution: If you take these bodies out into the sun, it will fade the paint, and you will lose the glowing ability. You have 7 colors to chose from:

• Red
• Purple
• Sky Blue
• Blue
• Blue/Green
• Orange
• Green

Painting instructions are the same as the other paints, but for Glow in the Dark paints, you must use the Glow Enhancing backing paint. The effects are truly amazing, and boy do they glow!

Chrome Tint – Alclad II makes a chrome tint now! You have several colors to choose from. Alclad II results are the same as Spaz-Stix, but the paint is much more fragile. When dry, this stuff is almost like foil. Great for show bodies, but not racing bodies. There is another option when it comes to tinting chrome! All you have to do is take any candy color, spray a thin, even coat and back with the Chrome! BAM! You have tinted chrome. The backing of Alclad II is the same as the Spaz-Stix paint, with the same prep.

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Happy painting, and be safe!!

Skidmark