I believe that House of Kolors would cost you around $65.00 to $95.00 for whites + your reducer which I would just by a gal. due to the fact that you will be using it in all of your mixes. The red depending on what system you get starts around $85.00 and up. Your Clear will costyou around $100.00 if they have quart sizes avalible + your cat. $30.00.

Some paint supply stores can mix you your colors into a shaker can ( PPG & Omini Paints ) which will save you a tone of money. Make sure you use a good building primer ( the color of the primer will effect your base coat Grey Primer for dark rich out come, white for neons & bright colors ) then block it down to get rid of any unwanted low spots ( to block just mist the primer after its dried with black spraybomb and wet sand it using rubber sanding block, the areas which are left black are your low areas. to fix spray the area with your build primer and block it again " if area is really deap you my need to use a filler to bring it to proper level) wash the hull down after your finished wet sanding and use a prep gel which you use with a scotch bright scrubbi and lightly scrub the hull down and rinse. Let the hull dry or use compressed are to dry hull, run a tack rag over the entire hull to remove any dust that may have collected the spray your primary base coat. Let the base flash / dry for about 5min and lay a second coat and let flash for another 5min. Examin the hull to make sure you have covered the entire hull and lay your secondary color and repeat the process. I like to have alreast 3 good wet coats of base to ensure that I have proper coverage on my project. Let your project dry for 1-2 hours which with auto paints the base dryes very fast, lay 2 good wet coats of clear and let dry for 6 hours then add your art work. (Dont try to lay your designs or art onto your base coat because you will not be able to fix if a mistake is made) After your art work is complete let dry for another 1-2 hours the lay 3 good wet coats of clear remember to let flash between coats for atleast 5-7min. Always were gloves when touching your hull to keep your body oils off of the hull. You will want to add flex aditive to your clear coat and fish eye reducer to prevent pin holes in your project from oils and silicones.

Hope this helps you a lil.

I almost forgot,

Make sure you spray your edges & hard to get areas first let them flash, then spray your project using a stedy left to right motion. When you start to spray make sure you pull your triger off of the the project then holding untill you are off of the project then let go. Starting from the left side pull triger hold with steady gliss to the right side. When the gun is no longer over the project then let off of the trigger. the gun should be held 6" away from your project & it contours as you spray. Hope that makes since to you.

It depends on what paint company you use? Just started using PPG shopline..That there budget paint line..There paints are great and save you in the walet too...White can cost from 15-28.00 a quart,reds from 20-50.00 a quart....It depends on the sade of red too..Red are more exspencive because of the viloit and mengenta pigments in it.. the more viliot&mengenta the more that red will cost you...I should know this because I used to mix paints too...Plus if that red is metalic/pearl in it?the same thing but if there alot more pearlessent pigment that will also drive the cost higher too...Oh orange pearls is just as costly as reds too. I can find out on the cost of red on monday...I have a new used dodge neon that I want to paint red or black or sublime on it..The red is the new dodge challanger R/T torch red.Very nice and bright red simmilar to the miss bud red..Now the Miss Bud red for a pint costed me 18.00 from dupont budget paintline called NASON.But I'm not impressed with there clears....NAPA's budget paintline called CROSSFIRE I'd been using for year have best clears,but they changed there clears over to ACME..dont like ACME paints..

Ok, my head is spinning with everything I have read in this thread, gel coats, spray guns, air brush kits, paints and enamels....

Right now I have a just bought my first RC Boat, a Traxxas Blast. I was going to put the stickers and all that jazz on it, but I decided not to because even though the boat looks fundamentally looks gorgeous (at least I think it does) adding all the stickers on it still makes it look plain because it's still just a white boat... So I thought it would be cool to paint it, but I have no idea where to start other than having a general idea of what color I want

I would like for it to be a blue with a metal flake in it, I have not decided what shade of blue I want though :P Here are the two "shades" that I have narrowed it down to:

and


I also always liked the black metal flake like you see here:


So with that being said/seen, where should I start? What do I need to buy? Do I need gelcoats or primers? What kind of paint do I need for this boat?

Thanks for all the help

finished! thanks for all the help

On the black 09 challanger isnt black metalic,,its strait black.....There is a black pearl paint....The blue is metalflake...that can be costly to do..first you spray a blue base then get a metal flake that closely match it..then put the metalflake in to the clear with two marbles in it and spay about two coats of that.the marbles or ball bearings help keep the metalic agutated/mixed up in your gun cup.Caution,make sure you put a ground wire to ground out the hull so stadic electricly doesnt build on that hull or the metalflake will stand up on you.Then dump that out of your gun,then just spray the clear about three to four coats...The flake can cost up to 45.00 for 6-8 oz of it...To find a cheaper and easyer route..I would look at some of the new car colors and you might find that blue or another color you want..try to go with a two stage paint and not three stage paints..that with metalflakes are..if you want I can find that blue for you..I do autobody&paint for aliving.

Could you find the one that is on the Kayak? Thanks a ton! I didn't realize all of what went into doing metal flake paint!!!!

Now, I guess my question is, how do I go about painting the Blast? It's a plastic hull so I assume I will have to sand (not sure what grit), prime, paint, clearcoat?

Any particular pants I should use, should I go ahead and buy a gun, like the ones from harbor freight, or should I buy a smaller airbrush kit?

if the hull is clean with on paint defects..Just get a red scotch bright pad and scuff the boat with that..Oh what color is your blast?If its red or dark color then spray acouple of light coats of dupi-color prime on it..then wetsand that with 400 grit and your ready to paint..

That kayak really isn't paint its actual glitter that is thrown into the first layer of clear resin when the hull is glassed up, unfortunately.

We used the same trick with clear polycarbonate slot car and rc car bodies. After the glitter is tossed into the clearcoat (actually, a matching transparent clear coat or tint coat works best) and hardens, the solid color is then put on top of that. When they pop the part from the mold that is what you're seeing, all done in reverse kinda from the inside.

If you are looking for a glitter paint job rather than a metallic flake paint job (to help define the two) be prepared to go thick with the clear coat and a lot of leveling sanding between coats, because a glitter job leaves it pretty rough and you have to fill past its height before you can start to smooth it out with lots of clear.

I did a quick search on glitter paint jobs and came up with [link=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3825/is_200309/ai_n9295823/]this.[/link]

It describes how to do clear bodies but you'll pick some things up from it.

I often wondered how to do a heavy glitter job the best way over wood and still studying that.

its metal flake thown into the clear gelcoat,simlier prosses as paint..

Right now it is just plane jane white plastic, no paint or anything. It came with a decal sheet, but they are just to boring :P

I should probably clean it before doing anything first just to make sure. I dried it off after I took it out last time, but with the way that pond looked, it could probably use a nice scrub :P

Those are the pictures I took the last time I took it out for a little drive.

Here a trick I havent told anyone yet...Ok on new fiblerglass and new plastics parts.. I use etching primer..its a pea green color..It bites into any surfaces to help prime or paint adhears to the surface...I would use the etching spray can primer for Dupi-Color..works great..First I would use a wash it with prepsol/tar&wax&grease remover or wash the boat hull with dishwashing soap.....Then use a red scotchbright pad to scuff the hull down with....then etch prime it then if there no dirt?Then use a tac cloth to wip the hull with to take any dust off the hull....Then you can start painting the hull...

Awesome thanks for the tip!!

Did you happen to find out what or where I can get that shade of Blue from? Oh and do you recommend that I buy the spray gun kit from Harbor Freight, get a smaller airbrush kit, or just use spray cans?

On the etch primer dont put it on heavy..just acouple of light coats. PPG paint store has those colors...You can get alittle HVLP gravity feed gun cheap at harbor freight.. I have a friend that has one and it works great..

Going with auto colors all the way is the best way, but I would think about the idea of going with Krylon paints and then clear-coating it with auto clear to protect it.

Krylon has glitter sprays and also spider web paint. If you use your imagination you can come up with some cool effects I would think.

They have several glitter spray colors that are transparent basically that would really make a standard color really pop out, plus some stained glass colors too that would look good as a candy toner over that.

I've never played around with all that to know if there's any compatability issues before so maybe write them and ask if all their paints can be put over each other without a problem.

[link=http://www.krylon.com/products/categories/craft_dcor/]Krylon Craft Paints[/link]

The only problem I guess with this way is if you scratch or chip the clear coat its possible fuel can get under it and start to mess it up, but that auto clear is some tough stuff.

Maybe someone here has tried this first-hand and knows how well it works.

Ok, so I picked up the primer, I will probably spray it tomorrow.

Do you have any idea what the paint codes or anything would be for that color blue?

I'll look tomarrow for you.[8D]..The new chevy blue has a purple cast to it..That a awsom color..I'm in a prosses in paint my car this week.. Just picked up a 98 dodge neon that we're painting 1971 curious yellow..some call it citron yelllow.

Is that the Imperial Blue? I saw some pictures of it, and you are right it does look awesome!

When scuffing the hull, am I just doing this lightly to get a rough surface, or do I need to be a bit harder on it?

just enough to take the gloss off..just scuff it not to hard..just sand it medum..there light sanding,medum sand and heavy sanding..

I got ya, I am gunna wash and sand it tonight then I'll be gone for 4 days

What do you put in holes that are already drilled? Beings the boat was RTR all the drive shaft, and water cooling, etc holes are made. How would you suggest I not lose where those are when I start spraying.


*EDIT*

I finished the wash and sand, really want to put the first primer coat on... Maybe if I have time after packing :\

Hijikata,
A couple more ways to do it is to use a candy paint. Shoot metallic silver on first, shoot candy over this, then clear. The candy is actually a dye, it is transparent and you will see the silver come thru. You can also shoot blue base and then get your mixer to add some pearl to the clear. Wear your respirator!!! Good luck.
Jr. B

its a three stage paint too..but that stuff is hard to blend if it gets scatch or damaged..the more to put the cand color on the darker the color gets..some shoot over silver to get a light color and other shoot over gold to get a darker color..

How critical is having the hull completly smooth? I have a tc 31 that a guy at work repainted for me but he never cleared it. the hull has slight orange peel look and some sanding scratches the deck turned out pretty smooth. is it better to run this way or have someone clear and buff it out? I do not race only with my son but still want it the best it can be! I have read that the orange peel is better like a golf ball is this true for boats?

Rattlecan Painting made easier.

Also, much more consistent.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ND0iBKTMDw