TOPIC:

I was wondering if it's possible to paint the body shell of the holiday buggy? The manual say's no as it's made from polythene, but I'm sure I've seen this model painted in various colour schemes on tamiyaclub. Any thoughts?

thanks
Steve

I don't see why not. Just clean the body with benzine, and spray the Tamiya plastic primer. After that you should be able to spray the color of your choice.

I would recommend the white "Fine Surface primer" Item no. 87044.
I find the white one much better than the grey one, because it is finer and does not cover up details as the grey one can.

If you spray your Holiday Buggy shell, let us know how it goes.

-Lars

Cool, now I learned something aswell. Thanks.

Many thanks for your help on this one. I'll give it a try and let you know how it goes

Steve

I've painted both vintage & re-re Hb shells without problem - I'm not sure how well they'd hold up in big thumps, but they've certainly withstood a few knocks and scratches from light running ... I think the main thing is how well you prepare the surface - on the HB PET body far more than on Styrene bodies you need to give it a really thorough going over with wet & dry paper - keep going until you have an even matt medium blue (which dries to a paler blue) - any hint of the original colour mean that's an area where nothing is going to stick ... hycote plastic primer seems to adhere well, hycote grey less so, the same with white

Retro,

Just seen your pink HB on tamiyaclub - fantastic job!!

kiryu wrote:

Retro,

Just seen your pink HB on tamiyaclub - fantastic job!!

Thanks - as I'd already got a boxart vintage HB for the shelf, I wanted to do the 2nd vintage one differently ... but when the re-re came along, I had to top it ... I was tempted by red or white (as per the Corsair "Stripper" car the HB is based on), but they weren't wild enough ... if i could have found a really nasty lime green I might have gone with that, but I spotted the pink first ...

Sorry mate, don't fancy your chances... Yep, the Holiday Buggy shell IS made of polyethylene & NO paint will stay stuck to it (The company I work for make chemical tanks out of the stuff & you're stuck with whatever flavour the poly comes in). What you MIGHT be able to get away with is using flexible PVC paint, the stuff available for painting PVC furniture, car seats & the like, & in theory lexan paint - whilst it won't bond to the plastic, it WILL form a coloured 'glove' (if you get me) & not fall off, assuming the colour scheme is 'one-piece' & not in patches or stripes etc. Incidentally, if you break the shell, you'll have similar difficulty glueing it. It DOES, however, weld well (use an old soldering iron) if you have to repair it

Just had another thought - I've seen people DYE nylon parts (Look on the net/youtube). Don't know if it would work with polyethylene though