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.
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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??? |