2004 F-150 SuperCrew With Flames
This was to be the first body that Zac would paint himself. I encouraged him to keep the design on the simple side for his first attempt, to help him get used to airbrushing. The one thing he did want on the body however, was flames. So he used one of my flame templates which you can download from my Masks and Templates Section.
Instead of using traditional flame colors, Zac opted to go with a green to purple fade. Faspearl Green and Fasescent Purple work well together, so the blending of the two colors would be a little easier for a 13-year old painting their first body. The rest of the body was to be blue. The body chosen for the task at hand was the Pro-Line 2004 F-150 SuperCrew, which would make an excellent and tough shell for his Team Losi LST.
I used the following colors.
The first thing we did was to take the clear body and mark, with a permanent marker, the location for the body posts. It's easiest to do this while the body is still clear. Then the window masks were applied and, following that, several coats of liquid masking throughout the entire inside of the body. Zac then laid out the design with a permanent marker on the outside of the vehicle. When that was completed he used a hobby knife to make all the cuts where the masking would be peeled away as the colors were applied.
We first focused my attention towards the toolbox area that would be given the chrome treatment. After the liquid masking was removed from this area, Zac sprayed several light coats of AlClad II chrome on it, followed by a backing of black.
He then focused his attention towards the flamed portion of the design. After removing the liquid masking for the front, he painted the rear halves of the flames with the Fasescent Purple. He then followed up with the Faspearl Green for the rest of the flames, and then used Faswhite to back the entire flame pattern.
The next order of business was the fading carbon-fiber look at the bottom of the truck. We peeled away more area of the lower liquid masking than we intended to paint. Using some toolbox matting cut so that it fit the area the Zac wished to paint. He started by spraying several coats of Faspearl Charcoal, pulling the brush away at the front to introduce a fading-away effect. Then the matting was removed and a light coat of Faspearl silver was sprayed over the unpainted squares in the same manner. This was followed by Fasblack as a backing, and it was faded out as well.
During the time he painted the fading carbon-fiber, he also gave the truck's bed a carbon-fiber look as well. The same general technique was used, although no fading was performed.
After painting the flames and carbon-fiber design, he removed the remainder of the liquid masking that covered the rest of the body which would end up being blue. He then used the Faspearl Blue and sprayed the remainder of the truck with it. After that was complete, the entire paintjob was backed with white.
With the design painting out of the way, I then backed the entire job with clear lacquer for him. This would protect the paint from water and nitro fuel. Then he removed the window masking and cut the body post and cooling holes.
Click on a picture to enlarge it.
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