Painting Scaley white bodies

[Cobra Freak]

I have a Scaley Audi R8 in kit form that I want to paint. I have the color chosen and am curious about how these bodies take paint. I have chosen a Testors lacquer. It's in a rattle can which I will "milk" and shoot the paint through an airbrush. Who has painted these before. I always wash the parts to be painted. Do you reccomend wet sanding, or will they do OK right out of the box after a wash?

[waaytoomuchintothis]

VERY IMPORTANT!

Scaley is famous for their insanely thick gloss clearcoat on white kits. Not only is it tough, it doesn't take paint very well at all. Scrub the clearcoat off with 91% isopropyl alcohol, then drop the body in the alcohol to loosen more of it. You may have to scrub it again to get the job done. I once did all this, then I still had to sand the body lightly with #600 grit. Use a good quality primer like Tamiya or Testors lacquer primer, and make sure it has "gassed out" before attempting to apply finish coats.

[dreinecke]

I've had great luck simply hitting it with 0000 steel wool and cleaning in Wesley's bleech white.

[waaytoomuchintothis]

That's hit or miss, David. Some of them are too thick get through that way- the Ford GT40 and the '70 Camaro particularly. The '69 Camaros have only a light coat, as do the Mustang TransAms. I never did one of the COT cars, so I don't have a clue about them.

[ListerStormGT]

When I did my white Scaley 70 Camaro I used the steel wool like David uggested just to take the shine off and washed it with soap and water. No problems at all with paint sticking and I had lots of taped areas and nothing lifted while removing the tape. This is the car:

[waaytoomuchintothis]

So its inconsistent even from one identical car to another. I must have been lucky with all the ones but those two. But others have posted about this in the past, especially the '70 Camaros, so I guess you should try one method, then the other if needed.

By the way, you will be happier with the finish if you use #1000 grit abrasive disks. They are backed with soft foam and last forever. Not enough grit for shaping, but its great for finish work. You can even take off drips or orange peel with it, then paint right over what you had. You get it at woodworking suppliers online, like Woodworkers Supply. I use it to take off the ridge that sometimes happens when masking tape is pulled. When the clearcoat or Future is applied, you can't tell it was ever sanded.

[Cobra Freak]

Thanks for the information guys. The Audi shell has a high gloss on it and is very slick. So much so that it looks like it could be left white and run as a street car. I'm going to try soaking in denatured alcohol followed up by sanding where necessary, and see how that goes. Funny, in the model train world, undecorated kits are not finished. The plastic parts are raw styrene.

[waaytoomuchintothis]

I've wondered about that, too. As near as I can tell, all the slot car white kits are coated, but I never saw any of the aftermarket train parts with anything at all on them, even ferrous metal or brass parts that can rust.