Tuesday February 05, 2008

Repainting the Carrera COT Part 2

Once the slot car is disassembled and stripped it is time for paint.  I like to go over the body with 3m 400 grit wet/dry sandpaper.  This will give the paint more ‘bite’.

The body is washed and allowed to air dry.   I like to use Duplicolor auto spray paint whenever possible.  This lacquer based paint dries extremely fast and helps speed up the painting process.  This paint is to ‘hot’ for the plastic so a coat of Duplicolor primer is necessary.  I mount the model on my trusty homemade coat hanger paint stand and spray on an even coat of primer.  The Duplicolor prime flows on very smoothly.  Some modelers may choose to give the primer a fine sanding but in general I think the paint is smooth enough to go right to the color coat.

My favorite driver is Kasey Kahne.  I was excited to find Budweiser would be Kasey’s primary sponsor for 2008.  So after seeing the presentation photos, I had to make this Avenger.  Having an Alps printer I can make a lot of my own decals.  I knew it would be a challenge to design the decal sheet for the #9 Budweiser Avenger, but I was excited to do it.  Designing the decal sheet could be an article in itself, but basically I searched the net for graphics, used Photoshop to size and redraw each graphic until I had the sharpness and sizes I needed.  

I choose Duplicolor Radiant Fire Red for the body.  This is a very bright red but over the gray primer it darkens.  After it dried I felt my choice was a good one.  The body was allowed to dry for 24 hours before I touched it again.

This Carrera COT started life as the Kyle Petty Avenger.  I couldn’t just put the original interior with ‘Kyle’ as the driver; something had to be done to the interior.  Most NASCAR racers have a light gray interior, the Bud car is no exception, so after the interior was disassembled, I painted the interior plate with Testors Gloss Gull Gray, a military aircraft color but also a very good match for the NASCAR gray interiors.  Painting the driver figure mimicked the body, Duplicolor primer and Radiant Fire Red.  I put a few ‘Bud’ decals on ‘Kasey’ and then gave him a coat of Testors Dullcote to add to the realism.

I reassemble the interior and Tada!

The Bud Avenger body is now ready for decals.  My homemade Alps decals go on in the same manner as normal ‘waterslide decals’ except they must be trimmed out individually from the solid sheet of decal paper they are printed on.  Once decals are dry, the body is ‘spit’ shined (literally a little spit on the cloth) with a soft cloth to remove any excess decal adhesive.  The body is ready for a couple of coats of Testors Gloss coat for protection.  When the gloss coats are dry, the windows are put back in place and held with a touch of superglue.  I swear by the Crazy Glue brand superglue.  I think it is the best available.  All that is needed is a touch on the pins that hold the windows in place so no superglue fumes can cause the white frosting that occurs from time to time when superglues are used.  The interior is also superglued in place and finally the chassis is reattached with the body screws.   

This Kasey Kahne Budweiser Carrera Avenger COT is now ready for the 2008 racing season! 

- Matt