This is getting pathetic...LC-Maxx?

I have gotten to the point where I have surrounded myself with cruisers. I work in an office on a computer all day. When the glare of the screen gets to me I sometimes start to daydream that I am in my garage wrenching on one of my cruisers. As if my imagination wasn't enough, I have plastered my office bulletin board with photos of my cruisers in various locations offroading. I have land Cruiser stickers and Land Cruiser Calendars on my walls. On the front of my computer monitor I have a Land Cruiser apron emblem and on top I have a few of the scale models of FJ40s.

At home my office isn't much different. I have cruiser photos on my walls and miscellaneous parts, (glove box door, gauge cluster...) surrounding my desk. I have a small ashomita model on the ledge next to my desk too.

As if that wasn't enough, I finally found the one cruiser collectable that I have been waiting for at least three years for. Proline has just come out with a lexan Land Cruiser FJ40 body for my Traxxas T-Maxx! The T-maxx is a 1/10 scale Nitro Powered monster R/C Truck. I can't tell you how excited I was to find it. It has now been dubbed my LC-Maxx.

The body comes in clear lexan and you have to paint it yourself. Painting a R/C body is a little different than painting a model. Because it is clear Lexan you actually paint on the inside of the shell, so you need to reverse your colors and masks. I wanted to go with a paint scheme that will closely match the 1978 FJ40 Project that I am currently working on. I have decided that I want to go with the stock mustard color with my build up and I wanted to reflect that in my new LC-Maxx. Finding the paint was kind of a chore. they don't make a whole lot of colors in the Lexan paint, especially stock Cruiser colors.

I took a gamble and picked up some of the bright yellow paint they had to use. The paint is somewhat transparent and needs to be backed with a solid color (usually white or silver) to bring out the true color. I then went against the grain and after 2 coats of the yellow I backed it with a brown color. This muted the brightness and actually gave me a halfway decent mustard color. I then backed that with silver for the diamond plate and running boards and then white for the bezel and top. In all I think there is probably 7 or 8 coats of paint on the thing. But I really like the results.

The cool thing about it is that it even came with some Land Cruiser decals including one for the Toyota Land Cruiser Association. How cool is that? I was so happy with it that I even picked up a second body that I plan to paint to match my Seafoam Green 1969 FJ40. Now how am I going to find that color???