Q-steer/Choro-Q Diffuser Painting

This is only a small modification so I won’t be posting this together with the other tutorials. This is just painting the diffusers of the cars I have and only two popped out with obvious diffusers namely the Evo X and Impreza.

I was looking at these cars when I noticed that the whole car is red or blue for the scooby. I wanted to put some detail on the cars. I wished to start on the panel lines but I dont have a fine marker, 0.1 mm point to be exact. So I went to another part and I noticed the diffusers.  I took both cars and took some shots before they were modified:

So, you can see the diffuser at the pictures. For those who don’t know, diffusers are seen under the car’s bumper to improve the air flow underneath the car, thus making it improve the aerodynamics. Though it’s not used as an aerodynamic component for Q-steer. 😀 So to get them look like diffusers which is usually dark and not shiny, I used these:

A Black plastic paint can from Tamiya and Flat Finish from Mr. Hobby! The black paint, of course, will color the diffuser black and the Flat Finish will make the diffuser not shiny or have a matte surface.

But before I get happy spraying stuff, I needed to cover the parts that do not need painting. I used one of the hidden hobby masking tapes at the house and I find them more effective than conventional masking tapes that you can buy in bookstores.

It’s not enough to just cover the places around the diffuser or else it will have the whole body a different color. It is also not ideal to use masking tape all over so what I did:

I taped the cars with small pieces of paper. 😀 After checking the predictions of not painting other parts of the body, I started spraying some paint. Really scary, though. You can’t tell if the paint only goes to the parts you want it to go. After drying the paint for a few moments, I sprayed the Flat Coating and this is how it turned out:

Tada! Now the diffusers look realistic! Heheheh~! There you go!

Choro-Q Subaru Impreza WRX STi GET~! and Conversion

This post remains here since it’s not going to be long. I just want to clear things that this is not a tutorial since the process of converting this body is simple the same as the basic one I posted before. I just want to post this since this is a good body to match one of my Q-steer which is the Lancer Evolution X.

This is how the car looked like before I converted it for Q-steer use. I didn’t had the chance to perform the conversion immediately since I have a lot of requirements to finish back at school.

First, I need to get rid of the screw area of the body by cutting it off, just like my Evo 7. However, the screw area is really tough that when I forced a small part to be removed, the whole half of the screw area went off. I was scared because I thought the hood will be affected but good thing it was not affected. 😀

Second move was to make sure the rear lock would fit nicely so I filed the lock at the rear. Eventually, I got bored and used a Swiss knife to trim the part.

Last but not the least, I had to open up a space for the front mount. 😀 It was tiring since I’m using a partially damaged knife, used for Gundam models. 😀 but with a bit of effort, tada!

I posted the conversion gallery for this particular body and the link can be found at the Hangar section. Cheers~!

Project RX-7 to Q-steer : First Night

Yes, I started the project last night and it was a nightmare. Before I started, though, I backed up the project by buying my first 32g tube of Tamiya Putty white. Just in case I screw up with the body. So I started doing the very basic step which is trimming. I also have the idea in my mind that the front spoiler of the body is not on the body itself but rather on the Choro-Q chassis. So I have t unmount the front spoiler permanently. There are other problems:

1. THE VERY BIG ONE : The terminals used for the motor soldered on the IC were hitting the window area of the body.

2. It seems that the whole body will not make it to the front mount. In short, the body is short.

SOLUTION TO:

1. I have to dig up some space on the area of that window and to get rid of punching a hole, I also have to sand the terminals of the motor. The only worry I have is that the terminals might not work as I might detach the soldered lead from the terminals.

2. This is due to (1). It took me the whole three hours from 9pm to 12am just to get the body lined-up properly

PROBLEM 3: Even if I made the body lined-up properly with the wheels fitting the wheel wells just fine, the front mount of the chassis might be too long for the body

SOLUTION TO (3) – I trimmed the lower part of the front according to the shape of the chassis mount. It fits well now. The only problem I have is how am I going to mount the spoiler without breaking it when I remove and mount the body.

I’ll post some pictures soon.

Choro-Q Nissan GT-R

Oh my, I never thought that this will come out immediately in this series. I’m a big fan of micro cars and I actually have 3 Q-steer cars in my pocket. However, this one, the Nissan GT-R, is not yet released but will come out as a Choro-Q or the pull-back one. I was hoping to get a Q-steer version with all of the Drift Tires and more. OooOoOOOoh How I LoOOOVe It~~! I’m planning on getting 2 units with converting the first unit to a Q-steer body. I’m also getting the Sprinter Trueno Drift version (although it’s red, Carbon fiber hood still looks good on it and black wheels.. :D)

Here’s the AE86:

Link: Hobby Link Japan