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Painting lexan body with white

3K views 5 replies 4 participants last post by  ozziii 
#1 ·
Hey guys,
Just wondering as I have a new body to paint and I'm not sure if painting white requires a backing colour at all.
Any help appreciated

Dan
 
#2 ·
I'm not 100% sure on lexan.

Aren't they usually painted from the inside, so as not to scratch up, leading to paint flaking?

If you want a pure white finish, usually a grey under coat is used so it takes less coats of white to achieve a solid white, in that it's not translucent in the sun allowing the under coat to show through as it were.

However, if painting from the inside you would start with white, don't be tempted to lay down heavy coats to build a solid colour too fast. It will run.

In my experience white can be one of the hardest to work with, it is one of the worst for running, I don't know if it's just the make up of the white, or if colored pigments are less likely to run as its easier to see the flow onto the surface so as not to apply it too heavy, or if coloured pigments run less because of the mix and they just simply have a tendency to run less due to the extra pigments. Metallic runs less again.



If you paint from the outside, put a few coats of clear on.

I'm yet to see is lexan is 2k friendly. I may dig out the hsp body ans experiment. :)
 
#4 ·
You shouldn't need to back it with anything, just use the right paint, like the Tamiya PS paints for polycarbonate bodies.
Make sure the inside is clean & there should be a plastic film on the outside to protect from overspray so leave it on until painting is done & dry.
Being white, you may need to put a few extra coats on just to make sure its completely covered properly with no thinly coated area's, but just make sure you only spray thin coats so you don't get runs & it also dries faster between coats.
If you did want to put a backing spray on, then wait for white to dry completely & use a light colour for backing, like the Tamiya bright silver (PS-41), that shouldn't darken the white to much if any.
I think there is also a protective coating that can be applied, some sort of clear coat sprayed over the paint, meant to protect paint a bit more from chips/scratches etc.
 
#6 ·
Is the pearl a polycarbonate paint, poly paints are specially designed for the smooth bodies so it sticks, using non polycarbonate paints will cause peeling, if the pearl is non poly then even with the white backing it will still peel. I used (Aldi) non scented baby wipes to clean before painting, seemed to work alright but acetone is meant to work best, never tried it on bodies myself though.
 
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