My first attempt at customising a body
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This morning, looking down the barrel of an otherwise unplanned lazy Sunday, I decided I would have a crack at modifying/customising a Bit Char-G shell.
My inspiration came from the excellent work done by fellow ausmicro.com member, ZeroBXU, as displayed on his site The Admiral’s Lair. Having discussed the usage of dry transfer lettering; wet decals; marker pens and so on – I figured I was ready to have a crack at it.
The photos that accompany this brief writeup are located from the homepage at Tech’n’Tips –> Bit Char-G. Or, you can jump straight to the images here
Step 1 : Find a suitable Bit Char-G body
Today’s victim was a blue WRX body that had a TERRIBLE factory paint job (must have been a Friday afternoon special – LOL). I kinda figured that I couldn’t make it anyWORSE
if nothing else!Step 2 : Gather the tools and materials
You’ll need a 0.1mm marker, some try transfer lettering, some wet-apply decals, good quality tweezers, an Exacto knife, spray lacquer, ‘smoke’ spraypaint and a LOT of patience (or someone to kick!)Step 3 : Start cutting, dipping and rubbing
This is obviously the most painful part of the process. Each tiny wet-decal has to be cut and soaked in water before CAREFUL application to the body using a pair of tweezers. Just find some interesting shapes/objects/colours, cut to fit and apply.Dry lettering is, at best, CHALLENGING to apply to a curvy, fiddly surface like a Char-G. Take your time and be prepared for a few “scratch off and try again”
Step 4 : Paint the exhaust tip
This bit is dead easy. You just need a steady hand to work a fine-point silver marker around the exhaust to give ita nice metallic finish.Step 5 : Body lines
Whip out your black marker and SLOWLY trace out the body features that you’d like to highlight. This bit is easier said than done – trust me
Step 6 : Tinting the windows
As a 1/10 scale nitro racer who has done this MANY times before, it seemed likea good idea to do the same thing tothe Bit Char-G.The result was windows that looked like they’d been painted jet black and ended up obscuring all of the window line accents and artwork I’d just put on there. My advice – DON’T DO IT. Oh – one SMALL upside – now the tail-lights have a tinted effect
Step 7 : Some lacquer
Some high-gloss lacquer from your local hobby shop will give the best result. Protects the decals/lettering from damage andgives the car a nice shine.All I had lying about was some matt spray. It actually gave an interesting effect. The metallic blue UNDER the matt coat gave the illusion of a ‘pearl’ effect.Step 8 : Admire+Race
ORCurse/Swear + Hide 
I’m not going to say that I was happy with the result I produced today(understatement of the year?). Wonky body lines – crappy sticker selection – windows too dark etc etc. I’m going to put this down to experience – even if it is to tech me that somethings are better left to people with artistic skills like ZeroBXU!Will I try it again?
………….maybe. 
Cheers
Derek
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