9 replies to this topic

[Steve Okeefe]

Du-Bro Bodies

It's a big list; left click your mouse to open, then ctrl+ to enlarge

 

 

Du-Bro started up in 1964 and produced many different high quality scale bodies through 1967. In 1968 however they changed direction and offered five 'Super light-weight" and six "Handling - long, low & wide" bodies, along with only two new scale bodies, in the same manner as their remaining competitors were doing.

 

Unfortunately, the era of building scale model slot cars was pretty much over, and it no longer mattered whether the body was injection-molded or vac-formed; the standard design formula required everything other than open wheel bodies to be not only very light, but also more than three inches wide (more than six feet in scale) and have at least 1-5/8 inches in front of the front axle and be proportioned to fit tires only 3/4 as large as scale.

 

By 1969 the slot car body marketplace had successfully followed the trend in commercial slot racing, and completed it's evolution from scale model to miniature race car. Du-Bro, like many other manufacturers producing scale model bodies, simply dropped out.

 

Photos of some Du-Bro bodies:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Quickcars]

Great post!  What's the best paint to use for these bodies?

 

Paul

[dc-65x]

 

What's the best paint to use for these bodies?

 

Hi Paul,

 

You've got to be careful with the old butyrate plastic bodies. RC lacquer will curl them up into a ball.

 

Some guys like the water based paint but I'm not familiar with them.

 

One option that's super easy, totally safe and with tons of color choices is to use Testors model paint. The flat colors cover much better than the gloss. The metallic colors need to be backed up with gold or silver to bring out their luster.

 

Now in the 1960 the old enamel paint would flake off. Today's Testors enamel works fine, just scuff up the inside with fine steel wool or a Scotch Brite pad.

 

I'm showing a variety of bodies I've painted with Testors to try and dispel the old wives tale that enamel paint doesn't work:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Jairus]

Am I the only advocate for water based paints now?
Wow.

Okay, Parma Faskolor paints are actually very easy to use.
Paints must be thinned with Windex glass cleaner and the body sanded with a steel wool pad prior to applying the color, but it sticks well and cleans up easy!
Custom paints can be sprayed just as lacquer paint, but drying times depend largely on the humidity level.

One must also be ready to wipe out the inside of the body with alcohol to remove all possible fingerprints. But the paints work!

 

[dc-65x]

There you go Paul, there's two options.

 

Thanks Jairus.

[Tex]

Rick,

 

Do you apply the Testor's spry paint on the outside?

[dc-65x]

Hi Tex,

 

I spray on the inside on the clear bodies.

[Tex]

The reason I asked such a seemingly noob question(don't we ALL paint most of our clear bodies on the inside?) was because I was pondering the general difficulty of spraying the curved surfaces of '60s F-1 bodies... how to do it and get good, even coverage with ANY kind of spray apparatus, much less done with the relatively unelegant(ain't no air brush) technology of a rattle can. I like your results!

[Michael Rigsby]

Also an advocate for the Parma Fascolor/Createx water based paints on poly and latex bodies. I use the regular Fasthinner though. Scruff them up on the inside with a little super fine steel wool and never had a problem with paint not sticking.  But I am not a great painter like Jairus or Rick. I have tried the Model Master paints on the inside, and it did work, but I admit I was jittery at what it could do to the body if I goofed, so I stick with the water based now.

[dc-65x]

Tex,

 

The beauty of painting the clear bodies on the inside is how forgiving they are to our technique.....or in my case, lack thereof.   How even the paint is applied and the dreaded "orange peel" don't have much effect on the results.

 

The rattle can flat red on the Ferrari GP was easy to apply and covered so well I didn't need to use a backup color. The silver and yellow Ferrari 3L GP was more difficult. The rattle can silver metallic showed the coarse scuffing I did on the inside of the body. In future I'll use 0000 fine steel wool on metallic colors.  The gloss yellow was so translucent that it took a zillion coats to get coverage.

 

That's the rub with the Testors rattle can paint. There are only a few non-metallic colors available in flat, non-gloss colors. Basically, there are red, white and black. There are lots of neat metallic colors that while also translucent, when backed up with gold or silver, look terrific.

 

There are lots of flat colors available in the little bottles that can be air brushed. For your 60's GP cars you can mix Testors gloss green and flat black to make killer shades of "British Racing Green" from a dark BRM style to a light Lotus version. Since "technique" is of lesser importance when painting on the inside, I bet one of those inexpensive air brush kits with the attached compressed air cans would work just fine.

 

Michael,

 

Don't worry about "goofing" with Testors. I use their brush cleaner (thinner) liberally to cleanup over-spray on the outside of the body. If I goof brush painting details on the inside, I just wash the paint off with it.

 

Steve O,

 

I hope it's OK to discuss painting these neat bodies you shown us in your thread. Maybe there should be a thread pinned in the Body Shop on painting vintage butyrate bodies???

 

Merry Christmas everyone!