Tamico Avante Earth Force Project
Page 2: Painting
This was a lot more complicated than painting an original Avante.
The Avante is a single color, but this requires two colors with a very
precisely located line between them. The manual sheet recommended
locating this masking line by listing some dimensions, but there was no
good datum from which to measure them. Instead I cut out the white
band separating the colors from the sticker sheet and taped it to the
outside of the body to use as a guide for masking. Since the white
band is relatively wide, the masking doesn't need to be perfect because
it will be covered. There were also no window masks so that had
to be done manually. The colors are metallic green and bright
silver. I sprayed the metallic green first because it is always a
good idea to back it with silver anyway. I found that the bright
silver is incredibly translucent and much thinner than regular silver so
I needed quite a few coats. You can see the silver backing from
the underside of the wing on the right. I also used the silver for
the under tray. The silver parts never did get fully opaque, but
you can't tell unless you hold them up to the light.
On the left you can see the driver figure which also used some alternate
paint colors. The stickers differ substantially from the Avante Black
and took several hours to apply in total. The little rows of
rivets were particularly fiddly to cut out and apply. The end
effect is a wonderfully industrial looking appearance though. The
Avante always looked a bit like a fighter jet and the rivets just add to
that aesthetic.
©2025 Eric Albrecht
