squarehead.design: r/c & helmet painting

[ApexSpeed]

I figured it was about time I posted some of the work I have done over the years. I have been painting R/C bodies for over 25 years now, and in the last year started painting helmets, too, for a living.

Hope you enjoy my efforts...


doug

[ApexSpeed]

The "trophy girl" car from the 80s Associated ads:


A replica of the RC10 from the original RC10 manual:

[ApexSpeed]

Early RPS Yokomo reproduction body, from the original mold:

[ApexSpeed]

A reproduction Kyosho Ultima Pro scheme, based on the customer's original body colors:

[ApexSpeed]

Yokomo 870c reproduction, with undertray:

[ApexSpeed]

A body for the new Ultima SC-R for a Wisconsin racer:

[ApexSpeed]

Freshly finished, a Cliff Lett "Team Moo" RC10T replica:

[ApexSpeed]

A couple of retro-themed RC10 Protech bodies for the same customer:

[Jamie.T]

Love the SC body, very nice work.

[area52]

Originally Posted by thomj316

Love the SC body, very nice work.

Love all of them!

[jonmiller]

yeh man, nice work buddy.

jon

[ApexSpeed]

Thanks guys. Here's a few of my personal cars over the last few years...

[ApexSpeed]

Thought you guys might like to see this. It's from a few years ago, and was a design challenge. The idea was to paint a car using ONLY 2 main colors. In this case, it was red, and a slightly darker tint of red to create something that I don't think has ever been done on an R/C body before. It was easily one of the most time consuming paint jobs I had done to that point.

Hope you like my creative study...

[ApexSpeed]

Here's a suite of cars I did a few years ago in a bit of a different scheme...

[ApexSpeed]

Here's the last helmet to come out of the paint shop—pearl white & white stars, 3 pearl reds and 3 pearl/candy blues with a nice metalflake in it:

[DCM]

nice work, what paint do you use on the Helmets?

[ApexSpeed]

I shoot water-based on everything at this point. All of the paint on the R/C and helmets is AutoAir, Createx and Parma Faskolor. The helmets are clear-coated with a low VOC polyurethane.

[DCM]

I didn't realise you could, might have to give it a bash, what base coat do you use?

[ApexSpeed]

Yeah, you could use finger paints or Sharpie markers if you wanted to. The base prep needs to be clean and the helmet needs a solvent-based clear coat when finished.

For new helmets, I thoroughly scuff the new surface with a red 3M pad or 600 grit wet/dry paper. Clean well with a degreaser and paint. If the helmet is used or not white, I will scuff the same way as a new, then apply a couple of coats of AutoAir 4001 (white) or 4002 (dark grey) base coat. Mask and paint as usual.

[Gayo]

Originally Posted by ApexSpeed

This thing is
What a steady hand you must have! Incredible skills