Hi all!
I just picked up the ERTL Jimmy Johnson #48 car, and i was going over the instructions and checking my paints before i started it and a question came about… what color (tamiya colors) would you use to paint the body of the car??? I was looking into the Sky Blue which is what the instructions suggested, however my wife pointed out that it was too light and she thought there was some metallic blue that might look better??? the color dosent have to be Tamiya, and i prefer to work with acrylic over enamel paint but can use enamel if its the only thing that has the color match im looking for… Also they are saying plain Silver for the rest of the body which isnt painted blue… also does anyone have any tips on masking this to paint it right? should i lay a base coat of silver? I will probally unless someone else throws an idea my way do a base coat of auto primer grey on the car before i finish it up… im open to ideas. this is my first NASCAR model and i want it to look right =)
thanks in advance
Joe
Most LHS’s that carry a full line of Testor’s paints have spary cans “gasp’s” of the exact Nascar shades if you want to be exact. Otherwise I’m not sure, but you can get Metallic Blue in several shades (mostly enamel’s).
Sorry can’t help with the colours but as far as masking goes, the general rule is to apply the light colour first so that you don’t need too many coats of the other colour which all start to build up on the mask. Make sure that the mask is of a thin material that conforms well to the body and will go into panel lines etc to stop leakage. BareMetal Foil is a great mask because its so thin and doesn’t require too much sanding/polishing to remove the ridged join line. Tamiya’s masking tape is also good. If you haven’t masked anything before try it on an old model or a kid’s toy first and practise there.
Testor’s did carry a line of Nascar colors back in 1998, but had to stop due to a little thing called copyright infringement. They did not want to pay the very high licensing fees so that line was discontinued. Much the same way Slixx decals stopped producing their excellent Nascar decals because of the fees.
As for the 48 car, I think Model Master artic blue looks like a close match. You may want to check out Model Car World or Slixx Decals. They both carry a line of paints for racing that is an exact match to the real thing. The paint costs more but at least it’s the right color.
Darren