Kyosho Turbo Optima Project
Page 2: Painting the Body
Kyosho really went all out to make finishing the model easy. In
addition to window masks, the kit also comes with masks to allow easy
painting in the box art style. After applying the approximately 15
masks to the inside of the body it looks like this. Some of the
little masks down in the crevices are quite difficult to apply,
especially considering that the edges of them need to remain flush with
the adjacent masks.
The first layer of paint is red. After a couple of coats of red,
you remove the first group of masks but leave the window masks as
shown. After that you spray the white and end up with the result
on the right. The complex geometry between the color especially
around the rear end came out really nicely.
After the white is painted the window masks can be removed, the
overspray film removed, and the stickers applied. The result is on
the left. At this point I still haven't trimmed the body.
On the right is the polycarbonate driver figure. Most of the
detail is stickers so you really only need to paint his suit white.
Now the body has been trimmed and installed. When I first bought this car I was mostly excited about the gold chassis
and I didn't think much of the body based on the box art. Now,
having built and finished it, I think the body looks incredible.
This is a beautiful car with or without covering. Even the wheels
look great. Don't neglect to note the netting visible through the side windows.
The Le Mans motor came with this lovely metallic sticker which I wanted
to put somewhere visible. Take a good look, because it disappeared
after its first contact with terrain.
Update:
Here is my replacement Turbo Optima after the fire. I
was a bit more careful with the paint and I think it looks great.
I'm going to be a bit more careful driving it as well because I flipped
the original on the pavement so it was covered in road rash.
This time there was a special gold version of the Le Mans motor
available and it seemed like a perfect match for this chassis.
However, compared to the 15.5T Le Mans motor I used the first time, this
one is only 21.5T so the rpm is much lower. To compensate, I
bumper up the stock 25T pinion to 30T. It is now plenty fast on
3s.
©2019/2023 Eric Albrecht
