The first thing you need to do before you even start a custom paint job is plan out what you want the final results to look like. If you do not have a plan, you are not going to get the results you are wanting. I usually approach a custom paint job basing it on some type of theme. In this example I am painting this Hummer bodied Rock Crawler. The body is an H2 Proline body and my son Cody is really excited about the Transformers movie. So we decided to do a theme paint job on his Crawler pertaining to one of the movie characters. He and I at first wanted to use the character Bumble Bee, but after facing the obvious fact that we were dealing with an H2 body, we decided to base it on the character Ratchet instead. I began a search of the web to find a suitable image to put on the sides of the body. While researching I also prepped the body. I like trimming the bodies and fitting them to the vehicle before painting. As you can see in the next photo.
	I found an image and copied it to my pictures. I then doctored it up in Photo Shop to suit my needs. I did not need the back ground nor did I need all of the image of the character. So I edited out what I didn't need and kept only what I could use. If you chose an image off the web you will need to take some things into careful consideration. Like Image quality or it's resolution. If it is low quality image, witch most are , it will not turn out very well when you print it. Scanned or pre-printed images from magazines or books work much better for this type of process. If you chose an image from the web you need a good photo editing program to get the image ready and sized for use. Determine where you want the image to go on the body, then measure the size of the are you are going to glue the image to. Once measured, resize the image to fit the area on the body. Now is a good time to delete any area of the image you do not need to use as well.
Once you have the image edited, and sized, set your printer options to the highest possible quality and to print the actual size of the image. Print the image on regular copy paper. You do not need glossy paper nor do you want to use it for this a process. It is always good to print more than one copy of your image, just in case. Most printers will also allow you to print an image mirrored to its original state. This mean you can make a left and right image and be able to orient it on the body and the image will face the same direction on both sides. Most photo editing programs will have this option as well. I have done this with the image of Ratchet for this paint scheme. I used Photo Shop to mirror the image.  Once the image is Printed it needs to be set before you can use picture glue on it. Other wise the ink colors will bleed. To set the image you need a spray can of Krylon Workable Fixatif.
	This is the first step in setting the image to keep the picture glue from bleeding the inks. This step should also be used when using images from the news print type paper in most comics books. Magazine images usually do not need to be sprayed with Fixatif, but it never hurts to do so. Comic book cover images do need this step either.
Spray a light coat over the entire image to seal the top layer of the image. Then repeat two more times allowing each coat to dry completely before each additional coat. Once you have three good light coats in place, it is time to spray two heavy coats. This is where you need to really exorcize some restraint. You need a heavy coat but you do not want to drown the image and bleed the ink. You do need to set the ink into the paper. Spray a good even wet coat of Fixatif over the entire image, and let it thoroughly dry before applying the second heavy coat. Once you have two good heavy coats on the image it should be set. Check this by looking at the reverse side of the paper you have the image on. You should be ably to make out most of the details of the image through the opposite side it is printed on. If you can not then apply another heavy coat of Fixatif and check again.
	This is very hard to photograph but the previous photo is of a set image. It is actually very light looking, and the image is allot more visible on the back side of the paper once it is set. ( Please note, that most inkjet printers will set the image deep in regular printer paper anyway. The Fixatif will set it even deeper and seal the top layer. ) You can not check this on images taken from books or magazines. Now you are ready to move to Step 2.

Next I rough trim the image to check it to the body and make sure it fits the way I need it to fit. For this scheme, I made the image slightly over size and will be trimming the excess off after I get the image glued in place.
	Now it is time to trim the image. This is going to differ for every paint scheme. I can not tell you how to trim out your image. You will have to decide how you want your image to look once it is cut out. I always focus on a specific object in the image and cut it out to where it stands out the most. I will sometimes leave part of the images back ground ( like in this scheme ), but most of the time I cut out the entire object of focus. Use a new sharp knife blade for trimming the image. Trim around the image as close as possible removing the back ground areas you do not want. Pay close attention to areas within the focus object where the back ground may show through. You may or may not want these back ground areas so trim them if you need to. The more detail you put into trimming the image the better it will turn out when finished.
Now that the image is cut out test fit again to make sure it is going to fit how you want it to. Trim anything else that you need to in order to fit the image on the body. For instance if you need to remove part of the image to clear the windows or another area do so now.
	Now it is time to final set the image and then glue it in place. Start first with final setting the image. Do this by applying a light coat of picture glue to image. Let the glue dry completely before applying any more. Once dry apply a very heavy coat of picture glue to the image. The image is going to want to curl once you do this. Do not let it fold up on itself. Once you have the image saturated with glue immediately position it on the body. Try not to slide the image around to much.
While the glue is still wet use a burnishing tool or a dull kitchen butter knife to push the image into body reveals. Be careful not to tear the image while doing this. Then trim off any of the image that hangs out past the body. If the image is over any body mount holes you will want to trim these now as well. If the image needs to be glued around the body edges or body mount holes to make it seat and hold, add more glue now then burnish it down.
	Now it is time to wait. This is the fun part! Go do something fun until tomorrow !!! Like running another RC car if you have one. The body should not be touched for 24 hours. Let the image and glue dry completely before going to Step 3.

This body has areas that need to be painted black. These areas are actually plastic parts on the real vehicle, so I want to duplicate that on this body. The grill, the front and rear windshield frame, the inside of the bed, and the roof racks need to be painted black. Exercise patience and take your time.
	I used Pactra Outlaw Black and an artist medium width sable paint brush to paint these areas. Notice around the windshield I painted the edges first then started filling in the center. You can also use a black Sharpy marker to outline the areas then fill in the middle with the paint.
Most of the areas will need two to three coats to cover them completely. Be sure there are no areas that are transparent. If you leave transparent areas they will show the body colors after you spray the remainder of the body.

	Since this body is supposed to resemble Ratchet's, I wanted to add the red safety stripe down the side. I taped off the strip and added the ending dashes using 3M 1/4" Blue Finline Tape. The spacing between each dash is 1/4". I used a piece of fineline tape to space the dashes out.
To give the image a little depth, I sprayed a soft white outline around the edge of the image. This will make the image seem less like a decal and more like a mural. After this I was ready to lay down the main color. I used Pactra Fluorescent Yellow as the main color. I then backed it with Pactra Sprint White. I must warn you! Working with Fluorescent colors is difficult. It takes a mass amount of coats to get the color to cover evenly.
	Once the main color was dry I removed the blue finline tape. I then Mixed up some Pactra Fluorescent Racing Red and sprayed the exposed area where the finline tape had been. Again this took several coats to get coverage. Now! I actually made a small mistake in doing this. ( It was late and I was very tired ) I should have sprayed a coat or two of Black along the area where the stripe was before I removed the finline. This would have prevented any bleeding of the colors. I lucked out on this one and got only minimal bleeding. After spraying the Fluorescent Racing Red I coated the back side of the stripe with Pactra Sprint White.
	After the color was dry I removed the plastic paint mask from the outside of the body. I also removed the window masks from inside the body. Now it is time for the decals.

Applying the decals is my favorite part of the paint process. It is what makes the body come alive. A good rule to live by when applying decals, is make a layout plan before you begin. A plan will make the process go faster! Cut all decals as close the actual image as possible. This will make for a cleaner over all finish. Also! I use a spray bottle with water and some dish soap in it to assist in laying out the decals. I spray a light coat of water on the body in the area where the decal goes. I then locate the decal in place and press it down with a soft Micro Fiber Towel. Using this method will allow you to locate the decal and make them straight.
	A good use for logo decals is to cover up or distract from minor paint mistakes you may make! Not every paint job you do will be perfect. So use the decals to your advantage!

Body details such as add on lighting and a driver figure can really bring out the coolness and realizim in a body and it's paint job. I decided to add a driver figure and a set of lights from a Tamiya Frog kit. They work great in a lot of aplications. So I began painting the driver and the lights. I installed the lights after adding some detail stickers from an old Hot Bodies decal sheet I had left over from a previous project. Oh yeah! It's a good idea to save any and all left over decals from a build. You never know when they will come in handy.