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I've just finished masking off the window surround on a new body and applying a first coat of paint , I just looked up and saw the time and it's taken the better part of two hours ! And that's just for the black edging around the window , no other colour !
It got me thinking , how long does it take you to paint a body ? I'm not including trimming the body as I did that last night in about two and a half hours , I'm just interested in the masking and painting really and I guess it also depends on the complexity of the body and number of colours , this one of mine will be four colours and I guess that's average , black details ,green ,red and white main .
So how long roughly do you take ?

It usually takes me 4-6 hours from the time I start taping off the windows, until I spray the final color. Laying out the design and taping it off is definitely the part that takes the longest.

I'm guessing your not including drying times , if you are including drying time then that's way faster than I can currently manage and you do a way better job than me .

I've learned a couple tricks that save time and result in cleaner lines, like using a fresh exacto blade, no matter how sharp I think the old one is. I also layout and mark all my cut lines and tape lines on the outside of the body with an ultrafine sharpie. This keeps me on track and not second guessing my lines and having to do them multiple times. Paint drying time really depends on the next color, backed or not backed, etc. Sometimes there is no wait time between colors and other times I have to wait for the paint to dry for 15-20 min if i'm peeling masking off of a visible edge. The masking portion of the process takes up the most time though for sure.
I appreciate the compliment, but you only think I do a good job, because I only take pics of the good ones.

4-6 hrs is my "ballpark" also. Drying time? What's that? I've never had drying time patience. Cutting window masks from trial and error takes some time.

If I can muster up the motivation and work on it consistently, I can usually do a 1/10 stadium truck type body with ~4 colors in 48-72 hours. And then still not be completely satisfied with the results.

I guess I'm not going to be far off 6 hours , just masked and put the first vote of the second colour , for the third colour it's just lifting some mask off ,then strip off more mask for the final colour , then repeat for the wing so 8-10 hours , and I'm never satisfied either

Depending on the paint scheme, number of colors, effects, body size...
It can go from 1h to more than 20h for masking and painting (without drying times, cleaning sprayers)
For my racing bodies, a well known job , it's around 3h
The biggest/"nightmarish" job to me is SC bodies

I haven't painted an RC10 yet, but when I paint one of my similarly sized RC tanks, it takes me from 4 to 10 hours of work according to how I want to paint them (flat Russian green is quick, complicated German "Ambush" or American MERDC camo is long).

I'm strict to details so I usually spend all my weekends but It's worth it!

Anyone use a hair dryer to help speed drying times? I saw a guy at a shop, whip up bodies real quick hitting them w/ a hair dryer. Not sure if it was coats of same color, backing, switching colors... but he was moving fast.

It's been a while since I've done an offroad body, which I usually spend more effort on as they last much longer than the short-lived onroad bodies, but yeah, the cutting/dremeling takes about 2hrs for something pre-marked about correctly, to more for the old vintage stuff that you have no clue about and that has crappy lexan.

Then masking/painting: The great max I will do for complexity is 4 colors, and I only do straight masking lines with tape... takes about 4hrs to do this, decals included :







yes - hairdrying the layers to a low-temp actually helps. Plus, it's quicker and less likely to be messed up to do 3 super-fine coats of a same color than 1 thick one.

For Touring cars, I'm done with doing anything else than a 1-color job - usually fluo yellow for me. Well, technically there's some white backing but I'd say it doesn't count. The cutting/adjusting on a touring car has to be perfect, it usually takes me a good 2 to 3 hours to position and cut the shell properly... and 1hr to paint and decal , drying included

Are the touring car bodies more easily damaged or is it just that even small cracks effect the aerodynamics badly ?

Touring car bodies usually get smashed, thats why most people practice with 1 color bodies and use the fancy painted bodies for qualifying and the mains

RC10th wrote: ↑Mon Sep 16, 2019 6:32 am Touring car bodies usually get smashed, thats why most people practice with 1 color bodies and use the fancy painted bodies for qualifying and the mains

I do both practice and races with mono-colored bodies