Painting Chassis

[renekingcrosby]

hey guys,
I'm going to start my 1st model (ROGs corvette c6), but i don't know in which color I have to paint the chassis. do i have to paint it? must it get a special color?
René

[sportracer02]

Hi,

welcome in the AF.

I admit I cannot give you the desired answer, but if you intend to fix the model in a displaybox later, IMO it doesn´t interest, what colour/how detailled is the chassis, nobody will see later

[godfather23]

That depends on what you want to achieve. Personally I like to have a fully built and painted model. For that reason I paint my chassis´ even if I display them later in a clear box.

Regarding the color...You can never go wrong with black. Use different colors (aluminium or silver shades) for engine, drive shaft and gearbox. IMHO a little creatity doesn´t hurt unless a 100%-accuracy is wanted.

Robert

[renekingcrosby]

So if I paint the chassis in black, the best black would be a flat one I think...?
Ok, let the madness begin... I'm interested how the result of my 1st car will be...!!!!

[drunken monkey]

doesn't the instructions tell you what colour to paint it?

[renekingcrosby]

no, only silver for the suspension/brakes units...

[renekingcrosby]

well i think semi-gloss or flat black will look good... but how do i get this "used", weathered look?

[KevHw]

Simplest way is drybrushing. This is used to highlight raised details and create a general 'wear and tear' look. Dip your brush (preferably an older, slightly frayed one) into a metallic/silver colour then wipe off the paint with a tissue until pretty much all the paint has gone from the brush. Then lightly brush it over the details.

It's best to have less paint on the brush than more, as you can build up the effect and gain more control of it than overloading the area with paint (much like with an airbrush). Weathering sets are also a valuable tool to have and are especially useful for weathering of things like rally cars.

If you have an airbrush, you can apply very light shades of greys and blacks to areas to simulate dust etc. You can also use silver in the same way to create the metallic look.

All these methods I've used on my R32 chassis:

[renekingcrosby]

Ok, I heard alot about drybrushing. But your chassis is in car color. In the manual from my C6 Corvette there is no color noticed for the big main chassis part. it is black plastic, so i think the original c6 chassis is also black...

[Luchato]

I think that if the instructions don't say a word abot the color, you should use the same color of the body. But if you thik black is better, then go and paint it black

about the used weathered look, as KevHw say, drybrush is the way. diferent colors like sand or light brown, can help for a better aspect.
here is one i done a few months ago

[renekingcrosby]

hi luchato,

the chassis-plastic is already black. i just want to make the car realistic-looking .

[Didymus]

Originally Posted by renekingcrosby

hi luchato,

the chassis-plastic is already black. i just want to make the car realistic-looking .

Bare plastic never looks good. I guess that's because it looks like... plastic.

Sometimes flat black paint looks just too black, so some modelers use very dark grey rather than black for chassis parts. If you want to use spray-can lacquer (it's easy), Tamiya makes a huge number of greyed-down colors in their AS series, which is mainly used for military and aircraft models. I don't think you need to prime chassis parts, but I guess some people do.

I'd suggest acrylics for the dry-brushing. They'll go over any other paint without any problems.

Ddms