140 replies to this topic

[Mike Patterson]

Duffy,

 

From a design standpoint, I wouldn't worry about "stretching" the design (in this case a face) to look "right" from a certain angle. I would lay the design down on the body and paint it. To coin a cliche: It is what it is.

 

Design advice I can offer, painting advice, not so much.

 

Purdy body, though.

[Duffy]

Here's a fun little exercise I did for this weekend's Jaildoor race: it's John Dilworth's new Lotus 49. It's a beautiful pull, with tiny rivet detail and a gorgeous Cosworth - & John's made two wings, the precarious one shown here and the more practical, lower-mounted "Cheese Slicer" one (which hadn't arrived in the mail yet). I hear he's got three or four of these a-carving...
The body is a year later than the R&C '66 cut-off date, but it was too cool to not-run! Let someone challenge me at the race!



The painting was real quick: playing on the "Elf" theme, I mixed up a sorta-color-reverse of the original blue: two parts Faslucent Orange & one Faslucent Red, backed up with black. The rondels and ubiquitous "duf" are brushed on outside, with the "7" areas left clear to show the original color through.

By the way, it was too late a day to run the non-points JD race, so I didn't get a chance to run in traffic with this. Scotty & I did some laps in an idle moment & it was a total kick to see this tooling around out there in company, but I had to drive it carefully - if I popped out, it'd just tumble along like tossing a toilet paper roll down the track!

Duf

[Paul Jurczyszyn]

Duff good painting on body's.
Paul

[Duffy]

I keep saying, this isn't a "showcase" thread, it's a discussion of what goes on with at least one guy's learning curve, hopefully informed by others from all levels of painting.
So, here's a story of what I think I can do very right and also very wrong. "Your Discomfort will be instructive to us all..."

TonyP suggested I do a "Veteran" rendition: scraped paint, a ding or two, all the marks of a hard day of racing. Cool, said I, I'll get on it.
Now as luck would have it, I'm very familiar with markings like this. Not because I race, exactly, but from where I COMMUTE - Brooklyn's Gowanus Expressway / BQE corridor is a great place to take notes on what body damage looks like! The only thing I couldn't use in my project was the torn-up sides from driving up against one of those trucks with the Ben-Hur wheel spike lugnuts, but just about anything else worked...

So, first, the undercoat.



My "Sponsor" for this one is the manufacturer of the paint I use on the outside of my shells, 1-Shot Lettering Enamel. As an in-joke to a friend, I utilized the 1-Shot logo in such a way as to also serve as my roof number on this stocker body.



To get the positioning of the wraparound skin just right, I sketched my layout on masking vinyl and draped it over the body. This first one was too big: I wanted to drape over the sides to some extent, but I needed to also keep enough of the main target rondel up & off the windows that it'd be recognizable as a circle. So, try it again smaller.



This one's more like it.
Using the same template as I used to draw the skin - a 1-Shot paint can, by strange coincidence - I cut up masking-tape scraps & built up around the curves in the shell, & then filled in the middle.



First color pitched & peeled. I'm leaving my outer skin sketch in place for reference.



Inside colors done. This car is Fascescent Yellow dusted on in two coats & backed up with Faspearl Gold, then the rondel and arrow a single dust of Faspearl White & solid Faswhite over all.
Then, starting to lay out the lettering outside. At this point, I can sketch the basic outlines and look 'em over, & if it don't go right I can wipe it off with a rag & brush cleaner and try again.



Okay, so here's the basic job, complete. Hey, look, I forgot to do the tail of the arrow! Dummy.

Continued on next post.
Duf

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[Duffy]

So, now, the damage starts.

I'm playing in the spirit of that bit from Days Of Thunder - "I want you to go back out and HIT THE PACE CAR!!..."

So, somewhere in the carnage, it becomes necessary to quickly swap-in a fender panel that don't quite match:



Please notice my wry comment on recent interseries skirmishes and their collateral damage. I hope I wasn't too subtle here.



Okay, so here's the "Distressing Station" - draps of paint in colors and in blacks&silvers, to create "rubbin' paint" episodes interspersed with all-out scrapes and gouges. A good way to smear these on is with Q-tips, or in my case these neet long-handled swabs that I got somewhere for use in dipping drops of acid flux. - These also work a treat to wipe up paint goofs in tight places!
The basic procedure's to just pick up paint on the swab, wipe it on a paper towel to cut down on how much to apply (you can always apply more), & daub it on / wipe it on / rub it off. I figure the picture of my work station tells the story.
Also notice the tyre here, with silver / black paint on it. It will figure in the next shot up.



Here's the right side of the car, then. It's got the "Talladega Stripe" of white paint, from riding the wall - and there's not too much white, it's lost in the rest of the damage.
I left a bit of the rear quarter panel unpainted and backed it up with some tubing, as though a whole section was carried away - okay, two things: this is pretty much impossible in a real stocker, since they're one shell over the whole car! - But then, a real stocker don't have door lines, nor handles, not to mention damn windshield wipers...and the other thing: turns out the rules don't allow unpainted bodies, and we hadda take a Sharpie to the clear spot at the tech table!



Like I say, I see a LOT of cars lookin' like this on my morning commute! This was done with the tyre I showed up above, and a little daub or two of someone else's paintjob to make the message clear.

All in all, I'm sorry I spoiled a nice 1-Shot car with all the damage. I liked the basic layout more, but I had already masked out & painted the "replacement" fender, so I was committed to it from the gitgo. I won't do it again, not like this.

But the job got me a "Concours" win this weekend, so there's some consolation.

Duffy

[Tex]

Man, that is just TOO COOL!!! A REAL race car!

[Noose]

And he won Concours with it this weekend. It was very cool!

 

[GearBear]

Oh My God that is cool! VERY VERY nice! Thanks so much for sharing this.

[Tex]

DANG, dood; it's startin' ta look like ya know what you're doin'! I gotta start drinkin' the same water as you! That's some real nice work, Duffy!

[Joe Mig]

will you be bottling up that Brooklyn tap water Duffy?

[Paul Jurczyszyn]

Duffy,
We're are you getting your lettering paint?
Paul

[Duffy]

I'm betting every artists' or pro paint store carries it, it's the biggest seller for detail work anywhere. There's a Dick Blick 20 minutes from me by the F train, & that's what I do. You can get it on Amazon, prolly at a better price too.

Duf

[Matt Sheldon]

Online TCP Global, Eastwood or Coast Airbrush are great sources.

 

Locally you can also try Sherwin Williams paint stores. Not all carry 1 Shot, but a fair amount of them do now.

[Duffy]

I gotta couple notes to put down here for the next time -



Getting some controllers rebuilt, & I figured I'd paint them all the same so I'd recognize 'em when I'm hurrying back to the drivers' panel. My first was a Noose-painted one, and he originated the lane-change idea I continued here. I didn't really intend to do the dots & arrows in just the pattern where they cross over in reality, but now that it's happened I'm gonna keep doing!

As usual, all outside work is 1-Shot, & the dots are actually just dips of a Q-Tip & throw away.

The biggest challenge here was painting over the sudden ledges & dropoffs from the ribbing on the controller body! I had to be ready for the elevation change, in order to make the line look about the same. - More Q-Tips were sacrificed in the name of cleanliness here, many more.

The other thing to mention: when doing text stuff in this conversational mode like here, it's actually wise to paint the letters on backwards, from the end of a word or line. So, I started lettering from the "y" on "Thursday" and went from there, in each line. It helps with plotting out where to begin & end a line, and also in deciding how to space out a line in relation to its neighbor. All this gets more natural with experience, I guess, but this is the first experience in this for me. See how the next works out.

Duf

[Duffy]

While we're on the subject of working backwards:

I wanted to do actual rondels for the race number. Lacking those stickers everyone else uses as masks, a quick swoop of the pen inside a circle template & some X-Acto work got me what I wanted, & in more sizes too, I betcha.



The rondel mask went on first, then the striping over it. I've drawn bold lines on the mask to show where I stuck bits that "walk around" the curve I'm masking out, saving me some cutting time; the big transverse nose piece is all that I cut out on the mat & applied, all the other curves & tapers are done in stock widths. The outside cheat line would make everything look like smooth radii.
Once I had everything laid in, I went back and cut out the stripe masks to make a border around the rondels.
Color was a quick black fog around the bottom, then Fascescent Blue over all & backed up with silver, then a blend of Faslucent Orange with some F'lucent Red, all backed with silver, then a Faspearl White dusting for the rondels, backed up with Faswhite.

I had thought far enough ahead on this body to know where I wanted to go with it, especially as regards the "Porsche" sidewall paint scheme I parody here. I didn't want to just mask right through the wheelwells again, I actually wanted to make it look like I'd intended to cut out where I did...which, of course, predisposed me to cut out where I intended...



So, some layout with a ruler and some draughtsman's circle templates got me in the ballpark. You don't see all the Sharpie notes on the outside of the shell in this pic, but they're there. The strip masks on the side were trimmed shy of those layout circles, & then I matched the dusky red in 1-Shot and painted "Duffy" on the outside. You can see Sharpie hatch marks on the bottom perimeter to help me space those letters.
Worked out pretty well.

At the race this weekend where I had this out, Ray & Eva Duran informed me that, as they had learned previously, the font and rocker panel arrangement I've parodied here from Porsche is proprietary and write-protected by Porsche. I can expect a cease-&-desist any day. Oh well.
- Similarly: in the '70s in So. Cal, I had reason to take out a business license for myself as an independent machinist "contractor" - and, as 27-year-olds in that day were wont to do, I blithely & a little nastily (mid-'70s, right?) documented myself as "The Huge Tool Corporation." About five weeks in, I was visited by two nicely-suited gentlemen with an official legal request to change my name, accompanied by a low-four-figure check from Mr. Hughes to persuade me. Sure, no problem at all.

Duf

[Rick]

Rondell mask = lane sticker....................

[Duffy]

...Y' didn't even read my FIRST TWO lines, not to mention the rest of the gobblygook? Strike a blow for Literacy, I declare...

[Mike Patterson]

I like that blue and orange body. Dark blue, orange and yellow always makes a sharp color combination.

 

For roundels, I went to Staples and bought a box of yard sale price stickers. They come in purdy colors with various prices pre-printed on them (even some blanks), they're 3/4" in diameter, and they peel off easily. Since I use 1/2" numerals, things work out nicely.

[Gator Bob]

Duffy,

The "The Huge Tool Corporation." story ... Bravo  

   ... Beware of any letter shapes (or order) learned previously or not self claimed as such. 

 

With admittance... that I don't cut my own rondels but this is a pretty good cut to do it by.  

[GearBear]

For roundels, I went to Staples and bought a box of yard sale price stickers. They come in purdy colors with various prices pre-printed on them (even some blanks), they're 3/4" in diameter, and they peel off easily. Since I use 1/2" numerals, things work out nicely.

Those work great for front wheel well masks too! Although I buy the ones without the prices printed on them.

[Gator Bob]

Those work great for front wheel well masks too! Although I buy the ones without the prices printed on them.

 

So then ...   ... you have to wait to scan them at the register?  

[Duffy]

..Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh. Bob, you are honing for a Lubowsky "You're out of your league, Donny" moment.

"Scan at the register," ohhhh God......

[Mikey]

Duffy, Great work. I can't wait to get started Pinstriping, Hand lettering, and Hand numbering.

This reminds me of when I started lining cars with the black Sharpy, then I started detailing interiors, and here I am.

It always happens in this hobby.

 

8 years ago it all started with 2 - H.O. cars. 

 

Did you practice a lot like Noose suggested before you lettered a car, or did you just start right away ? What kind of materials and tools do you keep around to fix mistakes ?     

[Duffy]

"What d'you keep around to fix mistakes"...great subject. I'll do some pictures. Gimme a couple days.

[Tex]

I use water-based acrylic paint just so I can clean up in the kitchen sink; no solvents or carcinogens needed(other than what's in our water LOL). I use a toothpick to blend a supposed-to-be-straight-but-turned-out-squiggly line into a straight line(or whatever the desired shape is). Another thing for any aspiring body-painter/hand-letterer to bear in mind is that "we" are our own worst critics. We cringe at the imperfections(made larger than life, literally, with our geezer goggles) while the general populace accepts our work for what it is. In other words... don't sweat it. Do the work the best you can, learn from mistakes made, and move on to the next and hopefully it will be better.