A while back, Redcat offered to sell a non-standard version of the Gen8 to those of us who bought & tested the beta-version of the portals and also provided feedback to Redcat on those portals. This truck differs from the production truck in that it comes with standard metal bearings instead of the rubber sealed version, it comes with the older style bullet battery plug instead of a Deans plug, it comes with a clear body instead of a painted body, and it comes in a plain white box instead of one with the usual box art.
Since this is a somewhat unique variation of this truck, I thought I'd make a post about it, and it can serve as a place for me to log all of my upcoming changes to the truck.
Here's my initial unboxing video:
<iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/LMad_igeAEU" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Because of our craptastic weather in the Northeast, I haven't even plugged a battery into the truck yet. The only thing that I've done to the truck so far was to paint the body. There's nothing revolutionary here, but I figured I'd take everybody through the torture of my paint process since it may benefit somebody else who decides to paint up one of these.
My Aesthetic goals for the truck are to make it look like this 1:1 Scout:
I started by adding the window masks and also masking off the black roof area. I use a thin 1/4" tape for clean masking lines, then blue painter's tape to fill the rest of the area.
One very light coat of white. My first coat is always a very light, very thin coat. I spray it from a bit further away than normal. I do this because I don't want a lot of pressure to push the paint under the tape. By doing it lightly, the paint helps seal up those masking lines, plus it provides good adhesion to the body.
2 more coats of white, this time a heavier application to ensure good coverage.
Because I'm painting the lighter coat first, which is more or less a no-no, I sprayed one heavy coat of silver just to seal the white:
Next I unmasked the roof area that's going to be painted black. I'm painting on the outside also, but if the body gets scratched up I don't want white showing through the scratches.
I didn't take pictures of my next few steps, but once I had paint on the inside, I carefully cut the clear protective cover off of the roof area on the outside that I wanted black. I lightly scuffed it with 800 grit sandpaper to provide some tooth to the body, then sprayed one coat of the same black lexan paint that I used on the inside. Once this dried, I sprayed a couple coats of Duplicolor bed liner aerosol paint.
Here's the body all unmasked:
And here's the payoff with all of the decals and accessories added to the body:
Overall I'm very pleased with how the body came out, but I do still have some cosmetic improvements to make. First, I don't like how foggy the clear windows look now that I applied the window frame decals, so I'm going to cut out the clear sections of the decals so that only the frames remain. I want to get an LED light kit for the truck also. My next change will be to paint the chrome wheels black, and while I'm in there, I plan to replace the rock hard tire foams.
Stay tuned!
Since this is a somewhat unique variation of this truck, I thought I'd make a post about it, and it can serve as a place for me to log all of my upcoming changes to the truck.
Here's my initial unboxing video:
<iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/LMad_igeAEU" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Because of our craptastic weather in the Northeast, I haven't even plugged a battery into the truck yet. The only thing that I've done to the truck so far was to paint the body. There's nothing revolutionary here, but I figured I'd take everybody through the torture of my paint process since it may benefit somebody else who decides to paint up one of these.
My Aesthetic goals for the truck are to make it look like this 1:1 Scout:
I started by adding the window masks and also masking off the black roof area. I use a thin 1/4" tape for clean masking lines, then blue painter's tape to fill the rest of the area.
One very light coat of white. My first coat is always a very light, very thin coat. I spray it from a bit further away than normal. I do this because I don't want a lot of pressure to push the paint under the tape. By doing it lightly, the paint helps seal up those masking lines, plus it provides good adhesion to the body.
2 more coats of white, this time a heavier application to ensure good coverage.
Because I'm painting the lighter coat first, which is more or less a no-no, I sprayed one heavy coat of silver just to seal the white:
Next I unmasked the roof area that's going to be painted black. I'm painting on the outside also, but if the body gets scratched up I don't want white showing through the scratches.
I didn't take pictures of my next few steps, but once I had paint on the inside, I carefully cut the clear protective cover off of the roof area on the outside that I wanted black. I lightly scuffed it with 800 grit sandpaper to provide some tooth to the body, then sprayed one coat of the same black lexan paint that I used on the inside. Once this dried, I sprayed a couple coats of Duplicolor bed liner aerosol paint.
Here's the body all unmasked:
And here's the payoff with all of the decals and accessories added to the body:
Overall I'm very pleased with how the body came out, but I do still have some cosmetic improvements to make. First, I don't like how foggy the clear windows look now that I applied the window frame decals, so I'm going to cut out the clear sections of the decals so that only the frames remain. I want to get an LED light kit for the truck also. My next change will be to paint the chrome wheels black, and while I'm in there, I plan to replace the rock hard tire foams.
Stay tuned!
