For many years I’ve been limited to the about six months of the year if I wanted to paint a new body due to the weather here in southern West Virginia. From around October 1st to around May 10th (yes, we always get a 10th of May cold snap) it is too cold to paint using my airbrush in the shop. I’ve sprayed Createx airbrush paints from Hobby Lobby for many years with great results but one thing that paint does not like is cold weather. If the paint is stored too cold it will coagulate and become unsprayable and even if it does spray it will not dry properly and will likely flake off shortly after application. Key takeaway here: keep your paint at room temperature and it will thank you! For the winter season I wanted to switch to a spray paint that could be sprayed outside relatively quickly and then dried inside where neither I, nor it, would freeze.
I started out with Spaz Stix and their color shift, chrome and window tint paints and were immediately impressed with its easy application and quick dry time. These paints are the real deal but had to be ordered online. Amazon raised their price to nearly $25 per small can thanks to shipping regulations and that was just too much money for too little product in my opinion. I switched to Tamiya and their PS line of paints next and was again extremely satisfied with the results. This paint lays down smooth, dries fairly quickly and sticks well. It was nearly everything I was looking for. I say nearly because each can was only 3oz. and costs north of $10 each, adding up quickly with as many multi-color paint schemes as I do. This led me to try the Traxxas paints. My (not-so) local hobby shop has a small selection of Traxxas 14oz cans for around the same price as the Tamiya PS paints making the decision fairly simple. That first day I bought the Metallic Black and Metallic Silver to try as backing colors first.
The paint on my Red Bull themed Class 2 Fun Truck (seen here ) is backed with the silver to make the blue pop and then covered in the metallic black for opacity. The silver went down fairly thick and covered in two thin coats while the metallic black took four thin-to-medium coats to achieve coverage. Overall, I was satisfied with the results and the interaction between the Traxxas paint and other brands was a non-issue.
The silver on the hood’s “It Gives You Wiiiings” graphic is teh actual color of the Metallic Silver and is much more vibrant in direct sunlight; the flakes sparkle like a bass boat outside in a way that photos don’t do justice. The silver brightens the pearl blue, giving it depth and a rich tone that is subtly different from a white backing.
Fast forward to a few days later when I was ready to start on the next body and discovered that all of the propellant had somehow gone bad in the can of silver, causing the paint to dribble out of the base of the nozzle and run down the can uncontrollably. There was roughly 7/8 of a can left and it all had to be tossed. I contacted Traxxas to let them know about the issue and after taking down all of the info from the can they happily replaced the can for me; I appreciate their level of customer service. I wanted to ensure that if there was an issue with that particular batch that it was reported and that, hopefully, no one else would have the same problem. Fast forward a week and the new can was here. This can has had no issues and is now about 3/4 full after painted a total of six bodies.
The black is holding up just fine but is nearly empty thanks to the thinner coverage of the Metallic Black. I find myself using between two and three times the amount of coats to achieve the same level of opacity as other brands. The paint does have a smaller flake size compared to the silver but still has the same level of depth and character. I used the black exclusively on a Days of Thunder truck body for my recently built Team Associated RC10DS (review coming soon) and it took 5 coats to achieve the level of “solid” that I was looking for. The metallic black adds just a touch of character above a standard solid black scheme that I feels sets this truck apart from other Rowdy Burns replicas.
I should also mention that this particular body is a Sabula Tech Chipotle on the RC10DS Classic chassis. For vintage bodies, such as these Bolink originals (he restores the original molds and produces high-quality brand new pieces) and others. I have bough all of mine on Ebay but he has a website as well; visit https://store.sabulatech.com/ for more photos and to order your own.
My next project was a Pro-Line Sumo L body for another Crawler Canyon Class 1.5 build based on an inexpensive Temu carbon chassis and alloy Capra axles. I drove a lime green Suzuki Sidekick Limited in high school and loved that little rig. It had wet-suit seats and drain plugs in the floor pans, making it the ultimate lake-day vehicles. It had purple pinstriping down the side and after I creamed that deer late one night it got a color changing green to purple grille. Her name was Suzie and to this day she is one of the few vehicles I regret not still having. I wanted to use the Sumo as a 1/10 tribute, despite the Sumo being a Samurai based body rather than a Sidekick, but it was the closest thing I could procure to recreate this fun little car. I chose Traxxas’ Fluorescent Green (#5062) backed with the Metallic Silver to closely recreate the lime green that Suzuki used, along with Testors Green to Purple styrene model paint on the outside of the shell for the grille. Eventually I’ll draw up the side graphics and cut them out of purple to more close match my 1:1 but for now I’m happy with the result.
The Fluorescent Green comes in a 5oz can and I used nearly the whole can to get proper coverage on this 12.3″ wheelbase crawler body. This paint is thin and relies on the backing coat for its opacity. I used this many coats to darken the green slightly, as the reference material showed the lime from Suzuki to be quite dark, though the metallic flake of the backing silver still shows through fairly well. The green does splotch easily; take extra care to apply even coats and not coat unevenly. I have a few spots on the roof that are due to paint dripping off of the nozzle after building up despite spraying in shorter bursts. I spray my paint just like I would on a 1:1 car using an HVLP gun; one panel at a time, 50% overlap on each stroke, thin coats to start and medium coats to follow. Despite trying to even out the spots of paint in the subsequent layers they both always showed through. This is the only downside to the fluoro colors: they can be temperamental but in the end the result is worth the effort.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Overall, I can recommend this paint for anyone who enjoys the task of RC painting. It sticks well, is easy to apply and is economical considering the larger sizes (13.5oz. and 5oz.). For the money these paints are hard to beat and the color selection is quite impressive. Below is a link to the product page where the full line of ProGraphix paints can be found. If you have any questions or comments please post them up and we’ll be sure to get to you soon. Thank you for reading and we hope you enjoy your next RC painting project!
Link: https://traxxas.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=green+spray+paint