Just thought I'd post how I prepped and painted my new Defender 90 body. I've also got some shots of what I'm running in my crawler converted Wheely King...nothing fancy but necessary upgrades to make it a decent crawler. I've got some action shots too!
Here is a pic of my finished product just taken a couple days ago.
Starting with the fresh body I used lexan body scissors to trim excess lexan. I sucked at it and you can see it in the wheel wells. I guess I could have sanded it down...oh well. I've read everywhere that it is necessary to wash the inside of the body well with soapy water and rinsed. Pat with lint free something and let air dry. Note that there is a protective film on the outside of the body which is awesome.
I wanted to make my own decals by printing them out on paper and using a hobby knife to cut them out and then affixing them to the body using XXXmain lexan pic glue...so I chose to use a liquid mask and covered the entire inside body. I applied 2 heavy coats with a paint brush which is essential or you'll have a hard time peeling the areas you want painted for hours. If you're going to do the printer route just print in normal quality. If you jack it up to maximum or best quality then too much ink will be dumped on the paper. When you go to apply the glue it partially dissolves the excess ink that the paper hasn't soaked up and you get a tinge of colour in your glue. Not a big deal but if you're anal then this will bug the crap out of you. Oh yeah since I printed on white paper I'm painting my body white to cover up the paper. I wanted white anyways.
Here it is after the first coat. Let dry for at least 12 hours. You could use a hair dryer on low setting to speed up the process.
So while that's drying I took some pics of my setup:
Mico engineering servo plate ($12) grinded in the critical areas to give more steering throw and to avoid tire rub. Hitec 645MG servo ($30 ebay). Steering link from some dude on ebay ($12).
CC Bec for high amp steering and eletronics stability ($25)
CC Sidewinder programmed with the CC link. I love this ESC! It's got lipo cut off, handles up to 3s, runs brushed or brushless (uncensored), programmed the throttle curve with a shallow slope for good slow control, plus the latest software upgrade has a crawler drag brake setting! ($70 from Stormer Hobbies)
Airtronics MX-3 2.4 ghz system...tiny receiver. Great radio system. ($120)
Integy 55T motor, Orange Integy springs rear, 80 wt oil rear, 40 wt front, stock springs front, 1/2" nitro fuel line under pistons of shocks, crawler conversion kit, middle bend STRC rear links, Turnigy 3000 mah 3s Lipo for awesome wheel speed (soon to be 1250 mah 3s Zippy for half the weight, HPI 96T spur gear, RR 15T pinion, screwed and glued tranny slipper, HB pink Rovers with Proline std foams front and stock Rover foams rear, Proline Titus beadlocks with 8 ounces each wheel fronts and 3 ounces each wheel back...I think that's it!
Okay...The next day I cut out the areas that I want to paint black like the roll bars, bumpers, and fenders. Use a sharp hobby knife and don't use too much pressure or you'll score the body too deep. Once I was done I used a dry swiffer cloth to take off any excess dog and cat hair (got 2 dogs and 3 cats = lots of hair). I then marked my mounting holes with perm marker on the outside of the body. From advice of others and other amateur painting projects I applied multiple light coats to get a deep black starting to spray before the body and not letting go until past the other end.
The next part is to remove the rest of the mask from inside the body. I applied the included window masks but there wasn't one for the rear window. I made one out of left over window mask stuff. I designed my decals in Microsoft Word and downloaded some pretty cool free fonts. JerseyCrawlers, Sevan, Le Pusa, even the For Sale sign was from fonts downloaded. Using XXXmain lexan picture glue I affixed the home made decals just like in the youtube video (search xxxmain picture glue in youtube). Make sure you wash and dry your hands often because the inside is exposed to your oily fingers. If you do get oil on your body I used some Isopropanol to clean up. Simple process but you gotta let it dry again for several hours. Glue dries clear. Once it dried clear I painted the inside white with several light coats.
Here is the final product! I still have to paint the fenders from outside to get the matte look. Hope you guys like it!
Now some action shots!
What it looks like with the stock Wheely King body.
All in all I had fun painting and adding my personal touches to the body!
Here is a pic of my finished product just taken a couple days ago.
Starting with the fresh body I used lexan body scissors to trim excess lexan. I sucked at it and you can see it in the wheel wells. I guess I could have sanded it down...oh well. I've read everywhere that it is necessary to wash the inside of the body well with soapy water and rinsed. Pat with lint free something and let air dry. Note that there is a protective film on the outside of the body which is awesome.
I wanted to make my own decals by printing them out on paper and using a hobby knife to cut them out and then affixing them to the body using XXXmain lexan pic glue...so I chose to use a liquid mask and covered the entire inside body. I applied 2 heavy coats with a paint brush which is essential or you'll have a hard time peeling the areas you want painted for hours. If you're going to do the printer route just print in normal quality. If you jack it up to maximum or best quality then too much ink will be dumped on the paper. When you go to apply the glue it partially dissolves the excess ink that the paper hasn't soaked up and you get a tinge of colour in your glue. Not a big deal but if you're anal then this will bug the crap out of you. Oh yeah since I printed on white paper I'm painting my body white to cover up the paper. I wanted white anyways.
Here it is after the first coat. Let dry for at least 12 hours. You could use a hair dryer on low setting to speed up the process.
So while that's drying I took some pics of my setup:
Mico engineering servo plate ($12) grinded in the critical areas to give more steering throw and to avoid tire rub. Hitec 645MG servo ($30 ebay). Steering link from some dude on ebay ($12).
CC Bec for high amp steering and eletronics stability ($25)
CC Sidewinder programmed with the CC link. I love this ESC! It's got lipo cut off, handles up to 3s, runs brushed or brushless (uncensored), programmed the throttle curve with a shallow slope for good slow control, plus the latest software upgrade has a crawler drag brake setting! ($70 from Stormer Hobbies)
Airtronics MX-3 2.4 ghz system...tiny receiver. Great radio system. ($120)
Integy 55T motor, Orange Integy springs rear, 80 wt oil rear, 40 wt front, stock springs front, 1/2" nitro fuel line under pistons of shocks, crawler conversion kit, middle bend STRC rear links, Turnigy 3000 mah 3s Lipo for awesome wheel speed (soon to be 1250 mah 3s Zippy for half the weight, HPI 96T spur gear, RR 15T pinion, screwed and glued tranny slipper, HB pink Rovers with Proline std foams front and stock Rover foams rear, Proline Titus beadlocks with 8 ounces each wheel fronts and 3 ounces each wheel back...I think that's it!
Okay...The next day I cut out the areas that I want to paint black like the roll bars, bumpers, and fenders. Use a sharp hobby knife and don't use too much pressure or you'll score the body too deep. Once I was done I used a dry swiffer cloth to take off any excess dog and cat hair (got 2 dogs and 3 cats = lots of hair). I then marked my mounting holes with perm marker on the outside of the body. From advice of others and other amateur painting projects I applied multiple light coats to get a deep black starting to spray before the body and not letting go until past the other end.
The next part is to remove the rest of the mask from inside the body. I applied the included window masks but there wasn't one for the rear window. I made one out of left over window mask stuff. I designed my decals in Microsoft Word and downloaded some pretty cool free fonts. JerseyCrawlers, Sevan, Le Pusa, even the For Sale sign was from fonts downloaded. Using XXXmain lexan picture glue I affixed the home made decals just like in the youtube video (search xxxmain picture glue in youtube). Make sure you wash and dry your hands often because the inside is exposed to your oily fingers. If you do get oil on your body I used some Isopropanol to clean up. Simple process but you gotta let it dry again for several hours. Glue dries clear. Once it dried clear I painted the inside white with several light coats.
Here is the final product! I still have to paint the fenders from outside to get the matte look. Hope you guys like it!
Now some action shots!
What it looks like with the stock Wheely King body.
All in all I had fun painting and adding my personal touches to the body!
