Incredible paint jobs on cars are part of the huge attraction for the hobby. Who doesn't want a custom painted shell to top off your favorite ride? Most of those paint jobs are done using the skill and precision of an airbrush to create those works of art. Unfortunately, not every one has the equipment, the experience or the desire to use an airbrush to create the ride of their dreams. Great looking bodies come down to more then equipment though. If you only want one or two show bodies, pay a professional to do them; it will be cheaper in the long run. However, if you want great looking every day race bodies, imagination and determination are all you need to create amazing looking bodies without an airbrush though they will lack some of the finer details an airbrush can afford.

This picture of a Proline Ferrari Modena was airbrushed. Ever since it was posted on numerous R/C boards, it has received rave reviews. I've received 20+ emails asking, "How did you do that and can I do it with cans?" You can't do it exactly like that with cans since: 1. The main body is FasGlitter pearl and FasGlitter is an airbrush only paint. 2. The blue fogging around the lightening is to narrow to spray successfully with the wide pattern of a spray can. The good news though is that you can come very close and we're going to show you how with a few supplies and simple R/C spray can paints! The challenge to the readers here is, try and reproduce it with cans! Whoever sends me the best picture of the best version of this car painted with cans will not only get it posted, they will also receive a free paint job from me! Let's get started!

1. Go to an arts & craft store like Michaels and pick up a white acrylic opaque paint marker in white to paint the lightening.
2. Prep the body by washing it with dish soap and warm water. Make sure to rinse it completely.
3. Put on the window masks.
4. Mask off the entire car with Bob Dively's liquid mask, 5 to 6 thick coats. You'll want at least 5 coats because the lacquer based paints seem to weaken the LM. Any less and you'll have a hard time pulling up the mask.
5. Draw the design on the outside of the body, including the lightening. (Lots of people don't draw out the lightening first and check it for looks, they just draw it on and often it looks awkward.)
6. Cut out the whole lightening area and draw out your lightening strikes with the white paint marker.
7. Now just "dust" the sky area with dark blue metallic paint. Just a quick sweep, resist the urge to keep spraying.
8. Now just "dust" the sky area with black paint. Just a quick sweep.
9. Repeat with the blue, again, a one quick dusting. You are just dusting for highlights.
10. Finish the night sky with the black; you want it solid when you're done. This will probably take 2 to 3 coats.
11. Now carefully cut out the thin jagged edge. This takes longer then it looks, set aside about 30 minutes to an hour.
12. Spray the jagged area with silver. This will probably take 3 coats. Don't worry about backing it, since it will be backed by the white shortly. Go ahead and spray the wing at this time too!
13. Remove the liquid mask from the rest of the body. Spray 2 coats of Pearl White (or whatever your favorite colors is).
14. Back the whole car with Sprint White
15. You are done!

As you can see, the "canned" version, while not containing the subtle nuances of the airbrushed version, still looks killer and you would be proud to show or race it! Most airbrushed paint skinz can be recreated similarly with cans and careful planning. Figuring out how to spray them is a simple matter of working at de-constructing the body you are trying to copy and then seeing what needs to be masked and painted in the correct order.

• Xacto Knife with a fresh blade
• White Opaque Paint Marker
• Sharpie Marker
• Bob Dively's Liquid Mask

• Outlaw Black
• Pearl White
• Sprint White
• Indy Silver
• Dark Metallic Blue

Perhaps you've read this far and aren't really interested in painting car bodies for yourself, but you appreciate well painted cutting edge designs and want to know where to go to buy a custom painted body. While this list is short, it is just a small section of painters from the soon to be HauntedMyst R/C Painters Yellow Pages. Those listed below are the best of the best, the people I look up to in the painting world. What makes each of them unique in the painting world is that they are the innovators whose styles other people follow, as a result, they usually have a back log of work.

• Charlie Barnes - Charlie is one of the premier painters in R/C and to see his work is to be amazed by it. Once you've clicked on his name, scroll down each paint job to the AND MORE button to see more of his amazing work. Many of us paint r/c cars. Then there are the few "others." These rare people go well beyond simple cool paint jobs and turn to Lexan as their canvas and step into that ethereal realm of producing "art." Often hard to describe, though known in an instantly upon sight when you see where incredible craftsmanship and vision become interwoven to produce something amazing for our viewing delight. Charlie Barnes is just such a person. Interestingly, few people imitate Charlie's work, but its not because they don't want to, it's because they can't! Charlie's extraordinary talent is being able to do freehand with an airbrush what most of us only dream about doing using masks. I am consistently blown away by not only the quality of his work, but also by his ability to produce visually perfect results time after time.
  
  
• JS Bodies - You know you've made it to the master painter level when people start copying your paint jobs and people have been copying JS Bodies paint jobs for years. JS Bodies is one of the oldest R/C Custom painting shops around and they are going stronger then ever. As the saying goes, often imitated, never duplicated, JS Bodies produces impressive work, time after time. His legions of customers are a tribute to just how good a painter James is. While his trade marks are his use of intensely bright fluorescent colors and his flames with in flames, JS Bodies can paint in virtually any style. A simple scroll through his galleries will expose his incredible range of painting skills and styles.
  
  
• Headcase Graphics - (be warned, tons of pop ups, but worth the view!) The people on the HPI forums watched Jason of Headcase change the face of painted bodies right before our eyes in 2000 and 2001 with his remarkable new painting styles. Within months, nearly everyone was trying to paint like him, including myself. I have to credit Jason for re-igniting my desire to learn to paint and for his help with walking me through portions of the painting process. Of particular interest were his full body length flames and full body length free form shapes. While being radical and rich in bright colors, his designs would also tranlate well into full scale 1:1 cars. In fact, if I could afford a full size custom play car, it would have this paint job on it! I know the web page is still active, but I don't know if Jason is still active in painting r/c cars.
  
  
• Mike Ogle - Mike is one of the true innovators in r/c painting! In addition to doing exceptional work, Mike is an amazing detailer. He often writes about different writing techniques and as far as I know, Mike invented the Picture In the Body technique. Given Mike's very busy schedule, he rarely accepts custom paint work unless it will be an appealing challenge to him, but his work is worth viewing for the inspiration alone!
  
  
• Motion Graphics - Richard Muise is the great grand daddy of R/C painting and the first to prove painting R/C car bodies is a full time legitimate business. It's no wonder too, if you look through the many pages of his gallery, you'll find body after body that have appeared in R/C car magazines and paint company ads through his 14 years in the business. In fact, many of the R/C paint styles popular not only today but through out the years were invented by Richard.
  
  
• Bob Hastings - Bob does not custom paint bodies for the general public. Instead, Bob focuses his extraordinary talent at producing many of the bodies appearing in R/C Car Action every month. Bob's talent seems to know no bounds since he is able to do so many styles well, and he does them with such remarkable quality month after month for publication. Bob also has his own monthly column where he shares his painting knowledge in easy to understand topics aimed at helping fledgling painters understand different painting methods and styles.

These are all the techniques and finishes I know thus far. As I said earlier, practice and commitment are the only ways to improve your painting. There is nothing like seeing the paint form on your body and seeing how the different spray patterns and colors interact. I hope this simple guide is helpful to you in learning how to paint and finish your car bodies. It is by no means exhaustive and I will be updating it from time to time as I learn more techniques. In the mean time, if you have any questions, please email me at HauntedMyst@comcast.net.