Tamiya Hilux Bruiser build thread

[Noj]

Lovely bit of cabinet there Nito, dammed good price too! Your fleet will look brilliant displayed

[NITO]

I know what you mean, my little people are 8 and 10 now, I'm going to be situating this in the study behind the door, so when the door is opened it's protected as such and of course I can close the door behind me so its exposure to projectiles is minimised lol!

 

Here she is safely (but looking very vulnerable!) at home, I don't want to leave it in the middle of this room for very long...guess what I'll be doing this weekend! Weighs a tonne though and I need to clean the wheels before it comes inside as had to carefully wheel it over the snowy/muddy garden yesterday evening.

 

 

 

Cheers Noj, I'm pretty excited to be honest. The Hornets don't like getting dusty on top of a unit 2m high in the air!! Looks like I need to get a crack on with my builds now so I can fill it!

Edited February 5, 2015 by NITO

[NITO]

Spent all day yesterday rearranging the house furniture and cleaning up the display cabinet (looks like new)...now its all in situ

Hope to make a start on a mad bull shell today as a trial run using the same procedure I intend to do with the Bruiser.

Adhesion promoter (churchill paints -automotive)

Auto air base both black and white (I'm going two tone to see which top colour hue I prefer for the bruiser)

Auto air sparklescent blizzard blue top coats

1k clear coat (churchill paint)

Decals

More clear coat

Cheers

Nito

Edited February 8, 2015 by NITO

[Gaz!]

Don't suppose you have any more pics of the air wolf and spec of it please fella?

Cheers.

[NITO]

Hi Gaz,

It's a Twister 3D Storm converted to an airwolf fuselage. this 450 size fuse...

http://chhobbies.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=11_45_47_83&products_id=135

I could take some more pics, it's a bit of an unfinished project, spec is stock twister 3d, 3s Lipo's and carbon blades, that's pretty much it.

Cheers

Nito

[Gaz!]

Hi Gaz,

It's a Twister 3D Storm converted to an airwolf fuselage. this 450 size fuse...

http://chhobbies.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=11_45_47_83&products_id=135

I could take some more pics, it's a bit of an unfinished project, spec is stock twister 3d, 3s Lipo's and carbon blades, that's pretty much it.

Cheers

Nito

Cheers fella, it's something I would like to do but as a static model, can't fly for toffee so no point making it nice to smash it up lmao.....

[NITO]

Century do a stunning Airwolf, think they do two sizes, one of them is huge -600 or 700 and a 550!! I think an Align T-rex 550 would be very nice with the century fuse,

Mine is now display only. That heli has only ever hovered about 3 inches off the deck before I bricked it! I bought the Airwolf fuse with the intention of fitting it once I became proficient. When we moved house, a TV fell onto the Heli in transit damaging a couple of parts. I repaired it and fitted the Airwolf fuse at the same time.

I have a Phoenix simulator which I'd highly recommend to learn how to fly without huge repair bills. I became quite good on this but the cheap lead that came with the sim shorted out my radio which remained broken for about 5 years, at the end of last year I sent it off for repair at ripmax for

[NITO]

Slight hijack but it is kind of relevant...Sprayed the Mad Bull shell yesterday which is serving as a dummy run to the Bruiser!

 

First off I put on the adhesion promoter. This is a clear slightly yellowy liquid with a consistency like water. No thinning required. I'm using a fan pattern air brush with a 0.5mm nozzle. I didn't get pics of this but the shell came out etched, basically it looked matt like it had been rubbed down with sandpaper.

 

Next up, I put the Createx Autoair base colour (white sealer). The Sparklescent paint I will be using has a different shade dependent on the base coat beneath. I'm not sure what blue to paint the Bruiser, so I shall be trying blizzard blue over black base and over white base to compare them.

 

Here's is the shell sprayed white (2 coats) and subsequently masked up in prep for the black sealer base coat.

 

Laying down the black...

 

Airbrush gives a great even finish...

 

I think this looks pretty cool in white and black...(State Patrol edition!) (that's masking tape remnant on front arch, removed it after pic).

 

Next up was to spray the slightly translucent Createx Autoair sparklescent Blizzard blue 4589. This was after two or three coats...

 

 

After 7 coats...

 

Finally after 8 thin coats;

 

 

I'm debating about going for one more coat, then it's a 1k clear coat lacquer, which is the bit I've been most concerned about from the start. So far so good really.

 

I'm not entirely sure if either of the blues are right for the Bruiser though. The original plan was to go with the darker shade. I don't know if that'll be too dark for the Bruiser. It may look different again once clear coated.

 

Cheers

Nito

Edited February 9, 2015 by NITO

[Gaz!]

That looks awesome so far!

In fact all this talk of air brushing has got me going on Thursday to buy a air compressor. Must be multi purpose though as plan on running airtools too.

So will be looking into a good all rounder airbrush in the next few weeks I reckon....

[RJJ]

nice bit of airbrushing Nito looks very nice.

Display cabinet also very nice, gonna fill up with rc's pretty quickly I reckon

[NITO]

Thanks chaps.

Gaz, I'd seriously consider the Iwata Kustom TH as a contender. I did a lot of research and am absolutely delighted with it. It's a 0.5mm nozzle which means it can handle lacquer and metallic paints without it clogging up the nozzle. The Kustom series has a larger paint cup, a snazzy case and a moisture filter. It also has two end caps, a fan pattern and round pattern so as an all rounder for what we do it is nigh on perfect. It's not cheap, it comes with a ten year warranty though and you'll never need to replace it! It also has a mac valve so you can regulate the air as well as the fluid delivery from the gun. You can also set up a limit on the trigger so you don't overshoot if you're worried about laying paint down too wet.

Some info here;

http://www.hiroboy.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=49&products_id=955

My setup (I went with the matching Iwata compressor also, which I scored in a black friday sale!)

Cheers

Nito

Edited February 9, 2015 by NITO

[NITO]

gonna fill up with rc's pretty quickly I reckon

All that spare space is virtually allocated already! Not sure what to do after lol!!

Edited February 9, 2015 by NITO

[Gaz!]

Wow that's more than I thought but I suppose it's a buy once and forget item so not too bad considering....

Seems to go fine enough for weathering,shading and automotive work too which means all bases covered...

Once again, thank you sir, your helping my diminishing savings no end......lmao

[NITO]

Happy to help!! (and it alleviates my own conscience for spending so much lol!)

In all seriousness, it's a work of art in itself, the quality is unbelievable, you definately wouldn't be disappointed. I always go for the best I can within reason, even if it takes longer to save up, that way I have no excuses since I can never blame my tools!! You can also count on spares backup and availability, Iwata is arguably one of the best names in the business.

I'm delighted with it, in case you hadn't guessed!! Worth every penny imho.

[Gaz!]

Don't mind spending the money if it's going to last and do all I ask of it.

No better recommendations than those from folk with first hand experience.....

[ibo]

My Mrs is going to have a word with you NITO about me pinching her cabinet love yours keeping a lookout for one now,dying to see your airbrush in action

[NITO]

I think you should buy her another one ibo...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So you can pinch that too!! 

 

 

That cabinet was a definite win! Keep your eyes peeled at a Scats store near you!

 

Hmm, might have to deploy the go pro to get some airbrush footage on the Bruiser shell, I got it for my birthday last year and not used it once yet!! No idea how to download/edit from it, I barely got the app successfully installed! I'll probably mess up if I record painting it - Oh the pressure!!! 

[NITO]

Just seen this posted on Tamiya club, have seen it before but too good not to share;

 

 

It's a great truck this guy has built, excellent re-creation of the RC. I love it.

 

Ir gives me some inspiration for a couple of touches on my shell too, I like the raised silver fins on the bit near the door handles since I always thought they look a bit odd all in black, breaks it up nicely, and I'm in two minds about chrome on the front grille highlights.

 

Enjoy

Nito

[ibo]

Awesome

[NITO]

Ho hum, another day spent learning on the Mad Bull body shell. I think I'm getting close now.

Started off with the lacquer clear coat. The product I'm using is a Churchills 1K automotive clear coat. Initially I had the air pressure set to the same setting I was spraying paint at. It didn't really suit the clear coat so I dropped the pressure down from 40 odd psi to 30psi. This helped quite a lot. I also learnt that the paint I initially applied, wasn't thinned out at all, later coats were reduced, this meant my first few coats were quite 'textured'. This carried through to the lacquer.

It turns out with the clear coat, from my observations anyway and I'm merely a novice, but unlike the paint which should go on with lots of thin coats, the clear coat responds better to be built up to a couple of wet coats after initial mist coat.

At first, this morning, I got some funny white balling, almost like frost on the shell with the Lacquer.

 

 

I didn't panic, worst case I could always sand it back a little when dry. (As it happens it just rubbed off anyway.) I did do just this a couple of hours later using a wet 1200 paper. This got rid of a lot of the texture and meant the next couple of clear coats looked a lot better. The finished result was a lot better than earlier. I could almost cut it back/wax/polish it and call it a day. But I'm picky and it's not to my satisfaction, so I'm going to sand it again and give it a couple more clear coats. Then it'll hopefully be done.

Anyway, here are the shots of where I'm at now, it hasn't fully cured yet so it's unfinished in the pics. Bear in mind that I still need to flat it, reshoot and polish up.

I'm glad I practised with this shell first, I've learnt a fair bit I believe which will hopefully make the Bruiser shell easier and better.














I'm delighted with the colour choice. Just a little undecided which blue to paint the Bruiser, the lighter, or the darker shade.

The darker is closer to box art and is what I originally intended to go with. The lighter colour is similar to the broad light blue on the decals and looks great also...hmm decisions decisions, any opinions to help me along!!

Cheers
Nito

Edited February 17, 2015 by NITO

[NITO]

Grrr, a bit more practice tonight, I'm beginning to question the sanity of spending so much time trying to achieve perfection, it seems to be a case of one step forward, two steps back. I had a go with wire wool tonight, which gave a nice gloosy finish getting rid of the orange peel, but seeing as I was going to re-lacquer anyway I kept going and sure enough it wore through the lacquer until it dulled the finish as expected. So with the 1200 grit sandpaper I took back the bits that annoyed me.

Then I set to re-lacquering, all was great but where I had sanded right on the ridge the paint had worn a little thin, so I touched this up and kept lacquering. Because the hand touched up part wasn't sprayed you could see it didn't flow in speckles the same way the rest did, still not that noticeable so I continued, finished the job, looked mint! Being impatient I got the hair dryer out, all was well until I hit an area where the lacquer was maybe a touch too thick, it sort of skinned up and wrinkled, so now I'll need to take that back tomorrow and lacquer again!! The irony is the other side which was the imperfect side, is now ok, and the perfect side is now messed up..d'oh!!

I'll get a pic in the morning, too annoyed to even look at it again tonight lol!

Still I'm getting plenty of experience with regards to trouble shooting. I'm also going to try next time, spraying some clear coats of water based sealer first, before lacquering, in order to even out the texture. Had I known about that, I could have avoided the sanding down of the clear coat, which has invariably affected the paint finish as I cut into this too which is not good and the source of my frustration at the moment. This is the secret I think, so will buy some before attempting the next practice shell! My wife is going to run out of patience very soon because I'm spending way too much time on this, all day Sunday nigh enough and all evening with lots left to do! Is this the longest Mad Bull shell detail job!!?! The next shell ought to be a lot quicker I'm hoping. Lessons learnt and all that.

So to recap for my own benefit;

Spray paint coats thinned to approx 25% by volume at 40psi. Last couple of coats lay down as control coats.

Use a clear sealer to build up coat around flakes/chips to bring it flush before lacquer.

Lacquer, mist plus 2 wet coats at 30psi. Let it look wet look, but don't whack the hairdryer on it on fast setting. Gentle heat only. Don't over wet it.

Despite the above I have actually mostly really enjoyed the experience, it's frustrating when things go wrong but making mistakes has to be one of the fastest and best ways to learn. I can't expect perfection from the outset but I'm getting grief for spending too long on it which is affecting enjoyment somewhat for the moment! Still, moving slowly forwards I hope.

Cheers

Nito

[ibo]

ts a form of french polishing,what your trying to achieve (which I think  you will get there no doubt at all) a layer of varnish/lacquer let it dry (forget hair dryers) rub down and repeat for at least 10 coats,I used to make tobacca tins out of matchsticks then french polish and some of the finishes were spot on,looking at your pics I must say you have made huge inroads to making the perfect RC BODY please keep the updates coming and not forgetting the pics

[NITO]

Thanks ibo,

 

Well here are the pics of the 'disaster'... I watched this perfect finish wrinkle up in front of my eyes as the hair dryer blew the wet clear into this rippled mess!! So this will be rubbed back tonight and re-lacquered.

 

 

This one, not quite so obvious. But I rubbed the paint thin right on the ridge. (This Mad Bull body is actually not the easiest to paint because of all the contours/direction changes and recesses, but great to get experience on.) I touched this up by hand with a brush. You can see this line spilled over on the light blue paint just left of the ridge. I think I will mask the ridge itself and rub this excess paint off and relacquer.

 

 

On the plus side, the finish is coming out like I had dreamed elsewhere. So it's a case of getting it all to hook up together!!

 

 

 

I've used a total of about 220+ml of Lacquer so far. This is more than double the amount of paint used!

 

But I feel like I'm getting there and think I should actually be pleased with what I've achieved so far, because the mistakes made have all taught me something and I'm getting some decent finishes in between these f ups!!

 

Once I have a decent clear coat finish I'll then look to apply some decals, then further clear coats to practice clearing on decals because I will want to seal them in. Then I'll probably go for some detailing touching in and lacquer again! So plenty more opportunities to mess things up lie ahead lol!!

 

Cheers 

Nito

[smeghead28]

I am not expert by any means but would it not be an idea to wet sand the body once painted before applying the lacquer?

They always seem to do this on car shows I watch,not sure if that necessarily translates in RC car bodies though

Edited February 17, 2015 by smeghead28

[NITO]

Perhaps, however this is water based paint so it wouldn't work very well as the paint is reduced with water. It's fairly resilient once cured but it will go a bit mushy on wet sanding if not careful, I did try it on the underside, you can't get away with much so probably best to avoid.

 

Because this is a sparklescent paint by Auto air, it's the chips that give it the texture, not helped by the fact I applied the first few coats un-thinned which made the texture even heavier. What I should have done is taken up the undulations with a clear sealer and built the finish up, rather than sanding down, which is what I did and also knocks off some of the good work done beneath, albeit after lacquering so I could use water without it reacting. One of my lessons learnt. I'll try the clear sealer on the next shell.

 

Cheers

Nito