How-To: Nitro-to-Brushless Conversion: Part 3

Part 2 can be found here.

Part 3 of the brushless buggy project was painting and decaling the body that came with the kit. As I've said, and as many of you have noticed, I'm very concerned with appearances and other superficial matters, so this part was great fun for me. Additionally, I must say that the stcok Losi 8IGHT body is more attractive, to my eye, than the aftermarket bodies available from Pro-Line or JConcepts. Here're a couple of good shots of the mounted body:


Yet another reason for going electric is that I won't need to cut one hole in the body to allow the engine's cooling head to protrude and another to allow me to fill the tank. Not only does the vehicle look cleaner this way, but the aerodynamic drag should be lower as well. For a comparison with the stock, nitro 8IGHT, check out this photo.

I'm Brain with the overhead projector about how the paint came out; there are a few flaws in my masking, but you can't resolve them in these photos. I'm also quite happy with how the black and white of the body contrasts well with the orange¹ of the wheels, wing, antenna tube, and body-clip retainers.

For scale, here's a photo with my Associated RC18B,² which some of you have seen:


Also for scale, here's a shot with everyone's favorite Bichon, Newton:


My plan now is to report on the real guts of this project---the brushless/Lipo power system---once I get that done, whenever that turns out to be.

¹ I've chosen orange as my signature color in the world of RC.
² I converted this thing from an RC18T, which conversion basically consisted of attaching some wing-mounting hardware and a new body.