Time to get some paint on the Mosler body. The white ABS body came with all needed parts, like the brown-tinted window, transparent front- and rear lights, front body mount, stiffeners and rear mirrors. The package also includes sime nice multi-spoke rims and last but not least a non-functional rear-wing.
The overall quality from TRP is very good I have to say. The plan was to use the same colours for the Mini-Z bodies as I use them for my off-road buggies and started straight with taping the body for the first colour splash with Tamiya TS spray cans for plastics. They are the same as used for static plastic models and not the PS sprays for Polycarbonate (Lexan) body shells!
I started with the green colour, followed by yellow and white and I noticed, that the order of painting was the completely wrong! I did it like painting a clear body shell from the inside which basically means that darker colours are laid out first followed by brighter paints. As this was the first 'solid' body I painted I mixed things up and used dark the darker green first but it would have been better to start with the brighter (white and yellow) colour. But it was too late to change things. I had to mask it all again and somehow I managed to get a finish.
The result was far away from brilliant but given this was my first plastic body shell the outcome was ok. The last step was a clear (protection) coat with Tamiya clear for a nice and shiny finish. My paint jobs have to shine like a mirror! But after after laying down the final layer, I was shocked! Accidentally I picks Tamiya TS-80 „Flat Clear“ that of course gave me a flat finish! Later I found out that 'flat' sprays of course make for a 'flat' finish on the body … Well, that's the problem when not making myself familiar with the characteristics of plastic paint sprays. So, for all of you who's native language is not the english language: Use 'flat' for a 'flat' paint finish and 'gloss' for a nice and shiny (glossy!) finish …
At the end of the day I had a brand-new partially ruined TRP Mosler body with matt finish – time for a beer and a cigarette. I managed to calm down after a while and I started to apply some nice decals on the body but I am still not very happy with the result. Maybe Flo's idea is much better: his plan is to stick with a plain white body without additional paint. So, for the moment it's 1:0 for the Flea in the paint battle I guess. He is sitting on the stony beach of the Lake Garda in Italy and won one round without doing anything.
So long, Michael
