John Andretti 1998 #43 STP Pontiac

I thought I'd started a wip on this one, but I guess I didnt. I did have a thread looking for advice on painting it, but no progress wip.

I figured I'd do a wip on this one since this one is way out of my comfort zone. Ive not had much success in the past when it comes to doing multiple color paint schemes. So far Ive only managed to pull off a couple of 2 color schemes, beyond that Ive only done single scheme paint jobs.

I decided to go all out w/ this model.

First, a couple pictures of the real car, run in the 1998 Daytona 500

http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh218/RangerMach1/98stp.jpg

http://www.jayski.com/schemes/98/43wcp.jpg

Here are the decals, produced by Slixx:

http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh218/RangerMach1/Models/Nascar/JA%2098%20Daytona%20STP/98STP.jpg

I decided to paint the fluorescent red areas of the car, instead of trying to use the decals and then match paint to the decal, which I knew would be a nightmare, and never look quite right. I knew from the start that painting everything would be very difficult for me to do, but I know that if Im able to pull it off, I'll be a lot happier that I went to the extra effort of painting everything.

Another hurdle is painting the nose. The white to yellow to red on the nose is supposed to have a slight feathered edge, and that gave me all kinds of trouble trying to figure out how to paint it over the complex angles present on the nose. I finally decided to just hard mask it and paint it, knowing I'd get a better paint job that way.

So now for the pictures, I hope they arent too large. If size is a problem, let me know and I'll reduce them so they arent so large.

The first pictures I have, of the nose masked off for hte yellow stripe. I had started by painting the nose Tamiya Gloss White, then masked for Tamiya Gloss Yellow:

http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh218/RangerMach1/Models/Nascar/JA%2098%20Daytona%20STP/S4010033.jpg

How things turned out after I removed the mask. Have to say I was pretty happy w/ it. However, I had some interaction problems w/ the detail tape I used to mask off the nose. I got some 1/16" wide stripe tape from Office Max, and I guess the adhesive in it reacted w/ something in the Tamiya paint. But thankfully it didnt kill the whole paint job. I just learned that I wont ever use that tape again when painting w/ Tamiya.

http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh218/RangerMach1/Models/Nascar/JA%2098%20Daytona%20STP/S4010037.jpg

And how it looks now w/ the Tamiya fluorescent red paint on it. Overall Im very happy w/ how its come out so far. Unfortunately I managed to get quite a bit of trash in the paint, which sucks b/c it means more work to clean it up before the final coats of blue paint. But thankfully all I really ahve to do in most places is to smooth the paint out, and not completely remove the trash, since about 75 or 80% of whats red now, will be blue when Im done, so most of the trash spots wont be visisble, and Im banking on most of hte trash spots that are still visible after the blue is put down, will be covered w/ decals. Unfortunately I also got some bleed under the mask and got some red paint into the yellow stripe. I tried fixing this as best as I could but I started to sand through the yellow paint, so I stopped and left it alone to keep from making it any worse. The plan right now, is to wait till after all of the other painting is done on the body, and then I'll go back & hand paint the messed up areas and carefully work on blending it all back together.

http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh218/RangerMach1/Models/Nascar/JA%2098%20Daytona%20STP/S4010053.jpg

To create the masks to paint the car, I scanned the decal sheet into photoshop, and then created mirror images of the sheet, and then printed the sheet onto a piece of .002" thick frisket paper. Im triming the frisket paper to match the scalloped areas, and then apply the frisket paper to the model. Thats the step that Im at right now. Im hoping I'll get the masks cut out and applied to the body tonight, and hopefully I'll get the first coat or 2 of white paint down. I plan on putting white down, to help keep the red paint from bleeding through to the blue paint, causing an unwanted color shift.

Hopefully I'lll have progress pictures to post tomorrow, and I hope this is something that interests everyone.

Looks good so far adam.... I admire your bravery in doing the scallops with paint!

DaveT

Thanks a lot Dave. That means a lot coming from you, and the beautiful work you do. I have one side of hte car masked off right now. Just need to mask teh other, and then mask the nose, and it'll be time for paint.

great start, looking forward to see how this masking job turns out :popcorn:

Looks good so far adam.... I admire your bravery in doing the scallops with paint!

DaveT
Me too, just take your time, looking forward to your progress here.

Well, Ive managed to get the biggest part of hte masking job done, and Im kind of at an impasse at the moment.

I have the frisket paper down on the model, and it looks ok, but I just dont know if it will do the job or not. It keeps trying to come up in a few places, and I also didnt do the greatest job cutting the frisket paper.

Im trying to figure out what I want to do now. Im wondering if part of the problem is maybe the frisket paper actually isnt sticky enough to get good adhesion on the model. Anywhere that its totally flat w/ no curve to the body, the frisket sticks just fine. But places like the area at hte top of the fender well, where it curves in 3 different directions, its not sticking very well.

Im very concerned w/ trying to paint it, and not having it work, and have to strip the body and waste all the paint I put on the body. W/ Tamiya paint being as expensive as it is, thats a pretty painful thing to think about.

Yes, frisket paper is very low-tack. You have to be carefull especially where the surface area is not flat, like you say. Also, the airbrush could even lift up the edge if you spray against the cut in the paper. Maybe if you cut slits around the curved parts and overlap the frisket paper and put some tape over the cut, you might get some results. I use it all the time and get great results, just have to be carefull.