My Tamiya Buggy Champ build
- final stages
This page covers the final stages of my Buggy Champ build, primarily the body painting. As a step away from the norm I opted not to follow the traditional box art finish but came up with my own unique colour scheme. I'm still not convinced it was the right thing to do, but I justified the decision by knowing that my original Rough Rider rebuild, a project set aside for the future, will result in a box art RMR 110 look. Also, my new Buggy Champ is to use and have some fun with, not be a shelfie all its life!
(This page continues on from the build stages 16 to 20).
Left, the body shell and other parts primed in grey. I used Humbrol spray paint - grey primer and gun-metal grey, midnight blue and ferrari red for the top coats, then clear lacquer to seal it all after applying the decals.
Take your time with the priming and smoothing after, and the top coats will go on a lot nicer!
Above left, the body shell masked up ready for the gun-metal grey coats to be applied. Right, three coats later. If you're wondering, the light-silver object behind the body is a stone used to secure the green sheet that I was spraying on!
Above: the following day the gun-metal grey was masked over ready for the Ferrari red coats. Three coats applied.
Above: same procedure as before; the red was left to harden for a day and then masked over, ready for the midnight blue. It's a drawn-out process when using a few different colours.
Left, all done! Painted, decalled and lacquered, and the driver and roof ready to be fitted. The driver was painted to match the body shell (team colours!) with Tamiya acrylic paints I had left over from my Sand Scorcher renovation.
Well, that just about covers my Tamiya Buggy Champ build. I neglected to take photos of very final assembly stages, such as attaching the spotlights and the driver and roof, so below are some pics of the completely finished Buggy Champ, ready for action!...
Above: front and rear 3/4 views of my completed Tamiya Buggy Champ. Not a bad job, if I do say so myself! Even without the RMR 110 look, it's still definitely a Rough Rider!
Above: rear and front suspension detail. Look at those shiny new dampers and components - it's almost criminal to get it dirty! Now I see why some folks bought two kits...
Left, it's worth taking a bit of time painting the driver - he's very much on show for all to see! I found the eyes to be tricky, it's very easy to unwittingly give him a seriously spaced-out look if you don't keep the eyeball paintings small!
A Buggy Champ action video is to follow...
Related pages
Tamiya Buggy Champ - introduction to these build pages.
Stages 1 to 5 of the Buggy Champ build.
Stages 6 to 10 of the Buggy Champ build.
