It’s happened to all of us. You go into a custom paint with good intentions...you’ve got a plan, you’ve got your supplies, you’ve done it a hundred times before. But then something stupid happens and you’ve created a buttload of extra work for yourself.
Such was the case when I undertook a custom paint job on a Revell/Monogram ‘67 Plymouth GTX slot car:
Now, I had never done a custom on a RM slot car, and all of the brands are kinda different. Scalextrics are great, you throw them into a tub of Super Clean and an hour later you’re good to go. Carreras are much the same, Nincos are easy too. Think you’re going to strip the paint off a Fly? Yeah, no, you should have just bought the color you wanted because that clear coat is an inch thick apparently. But the RM appeared to be un-clearcoated, so I thought it would go easily. As you can see above, I was extremely wrong.
Here’s what it originally looked like:
Originally, a fine looking car, but not what I wanted. See, we run these cars in a classic NASCAR class, and I’ve already got a ‘67 Fairlane for that. I’ve also got another ‘67 Fairlane for a ‘modified’ version of that class (upgraded motor, wheels, gears, and magnets) and a ‘65 Galaxie because it’s a paint scheme Dan Gurney drove, and Dan Gurney is the best. But anyway, I wanted to run this one in a drag racing class, and it would look silly to drag race with that scheme.
I decided I wanted to try and save some money, so I got my Rustoleum paint (rather than my usual Tamiya spray lacquers) and got to work. I stripped it off as best I could, washed it off, and primed it...and it looked good! I thought man, I’ll be able to save a lot of money like this. A giant can of Rustoleum is $4, a tiny can of Tamiya is $7. This is great! Then I painted the white...and after it dried, it looked like milk that had separated into curds and whey. All cracked and bubbly, no idea why. So back into the Super Clean it went.
Two days later, I’m sitting on my couch literally scraping the paint off with the finger nail cleaning part of a pair of nail clippers. It was not a happy time. Eventually I got it down to an acceptable base and laid down my primer, followed by the gloss white, the gloss bright red, and the metallic blue. Here’s what we ended up with:
Considering what it was a week ago, I’m fine with how it turned out. I could have done a nicer job on the window trim, but I got lazy and didn’t go buy a paint marker to do it right. Probably the part I’m happiest about is the front wheels...they’re off a Carrera ‘66 GTO, and are just about right for what this car was supposed to have. I was also happy to see Sox and Martin ran a version of this car with a 440 instead of a Hemi that didn’t have the big hood scoop like the 426 car did...it’s hard to find resin hood scoops in 1/32 scale.
Now I just wait for the decals to show up, and while I wait, I’m painting a Carrera version of this:
And the aforementioned ‘66 GTO is becoming this:
So guys, how have you screwed up and then redeemed yourself on a custom paint job?