A rant about flocks of gaudy peacocks

[Coelacanth]

Guys, hopefully you'll excuse me in advance for my rant, maybe it's the grumpy old man in me making an observation. I've been looking through the many paint schemes over on rctech.net's "Your Custom Paintjobs" thread and the more I see, the more disinterested I become. I had to get it off my chest.

What's the deal with all these excessively garish, overly repetitive paint schemes? The tribals, flames, droops, flaming droops, drooping tribals, tribal flaming droops, flaming droopal tribing carbon-fiber-patterned angry squinty-eyed headlighted neonized paint-schemes seem more and more forgettable, even for all the obvious high painting skills on display. Seen as a whole, none of those bodies stand out from the rest. A single peacock amongst a flock of pea-hens definitely is distinctive, but a flock of gaudy peacocks is just a cacophony of color.

It would appear taste & originality has fled the coop, in mainstream RC painting at least. For that matter, would you rather be a highly skilled painter repeating the same patterns over and over again with only color variations, or be blessed with originality and creativity?

Discuss amongst yourselves.

[RichieRich]

If this were facebook, I'd click "Like".

[RedScampi]

I'm not nearly as verbose as you but I couldn't agree more. Modern paint schemes make the cars look like Walmart toys.

[Lowgear]

[ROH73]

100% agree; I loathe modern ADHD paintjobs. I think the Traxxas RTRs are the worst offenders, but many others are not far behind. Give me 2-5 colors with clean, simple lines any day; the kind of paint jobs that real race cars have.

[RC10resto]

Maybe they are just trying to match their gaudy T-shirts
The modern paint jobs do nothing for me - it's too bad because the painters seem to be pretty talented.

[Bormac]

I also agree. Thats why when I painted my Cat SX I went old skool. It keeps within the theme of my older Schueys.

[YZ-10]

I also agree. Thats why when I painted my Cat SX I went old skool. It keeps within the theme of my older Schueys.

Stunning paint jobs mate, really set the cars off, seriously impressed

[Bormac]

Thank you. They suit my taste completely.

[kaiser]

i also agree that the modern multi color flame/drip/tribal has gotten very old and played out.

bormac those cars look awesome. as do most of the cars here, brandon's white/green/gold car sticks out in my mind.
i love the old school inspired paint jobs.

who's the next andy? i need to get some stuff painted. lol

[Lonestar]

agree - modern paint jobs make the car graphically overloaded... nothing beats a set of nicely laid out straight lines with the right colors

[RETRO R/C]

Could not agree more.

I have an airbrush and am not afraid to use it - however I stick with old school. Sometimes the simple schemes are far more attractive.

I won the concourse with my Durango at the State Championships a couple of years ago, I will have to scan in some pics but here are a couple of other modern racers with more "relaxed" schemes that I think are still effective.

Here is my Rango and my B4 from Last year:







Here is my current Rango:






I do all my vintage rides with simple period schemes as well - I cant stand some of the designs out there at the moment - they all look the same - like somone found a way to throw up on the inside of a shell and make it stick.........ouch - that sounds a bit harsh.

Dont get me wrong - I truly respect the awesome skills these guys have, but I cant help but wonder just how many classy, standout simple designs would be available if they turned their skills to doing just that.

We should turn this into a retro paint appreciation thread.

All good

Cheers

Darryn

[RichieRich]

Yeah, I like to follow the lines and separate the colors with a stripe. Real basic. All the paint jobs in this thread are fantastic and are exactly something I would do.

[Coelacanth]

Yeah, I like to follow the lines and separate the colors with a stripe.

I think that's one of the main problems, and thing I hate with almost all the paint schemes I see on today's buggies: a total ignorance of a body's flow & lines when painting on tribals, flames, droops, or other graphics. Even though my Zebra-themed Optima may seem pretty "out there" by some, it still only uses 3 colors, the red trim follows and accentuates the body's lines, and it was very original. That job was done around '85 or so and to my knowledge, nobody painted anything like that before. This was way before the "Moo" paint scheme was popularized in the 90's.

[nsr250_repsol]

Guys, hopefully you'll excuse me in advance for my rant, maybe it's the grumpy old man in me making an observation. I've been looking through the many paint schemes over on rctech.net's "Your Custom Paintjobs" thread and the more I see, the more disinterested I become. I had to get it off my chest.

What's the deal with all these excessively garish, overly repetitive paint schemes? The tribals, flames, droops, flaming droops, drooping tribals, tribal flaming droops, flaming droopal tribing carbon-fiber-patterned angry squinty-eyed headlighted neonized paint-schemes seem more and more forgettable, even for all the obvious high painting skills on display. Seen as a whole, none of those bodies stand out from the rest. A single peacock amongst a flock of pea-hens definitely is distinctive, but a flock of gaudy peacocks is just a cacophony of color.

It would appear taste & originality has fled the coop, in mainstream RC painting at least. For that matter, would you rather be a highly skilled painter repeating the same patterns over and over again with only color variations, or be blessed with originality and creativity?

Discuss amongst yourselves.

As a painter, I paint what the customer asks for. If they ask for tribal flame and carbon look, that is what they get. I enjoy the old-school paint jobs as well, just not too many requests for old-school. For my collection I do my best to keep the paint period correct, but I paint the cars I race in a maner that probibly does not meet your taste. I think I do a good job making sure the design flows with the shape of the body though. The one think I can't stand in a paintjob, is when the design goes in the windows of a car. That just looks tacky to me.