Good evening,
I've been in full Translation Mode tonight as i really wanted to end this thread now! So without further ado, let's finish this.
19) The Grip.
a. b. Sidewinder's grip is cold cast which is perfect to obtain really convincing metallic reflects without much efforts by just sanding it with wirewool 0000.
a. However i still needed to weather it so firstly i applied a generous overall Black wash.
b. Secondly i applied a Brown wash more sparingly.
c. Then with wirewool 0000, i polished the flat surfaces until it shines again and normally the creases should stay weathered giving a nice depth to the grip.
20) The Chrome Tube.
a. b. With my airbrush i applied a coat almost opaque of Humbrol Black n°33.
c. d. I added slight touches of brown around the muzzle and vent holes.
a. b. c. d. e. f. With sandpaper (600) i sanded the chrome tube to make it shine again and removed some of the black paint. I purposely kept the sanding light around the vent holes and muzzle as it makes sense to have more weathering here.
21) Painting the blaster parts.
a. b. c. As i have many mobile parts i needed a thin yet resistant paint to apply on the blaster. For this step i favorized the paint resistance over the accuracy as i didn't want the paint to chip off during troops. So instead of trying to reproduce a dark steel appearance i chose a paint used for firearm finish.
Also when it comes to paint thickness the airbrush is the best way to obtain very thin layers so i prefered it over rattlecans.
All the parts (almost) and hardware painted. And yes, there's two scopes.
22) The second scope is courtesy of Intwenothor and is a real one with real scope rings and is extremely close to what was used as the original prop.
a. b. We can see that my resin scope (the aluminium tube) is slightly shorter than a working scope.
23) Weathering the Black.
a. Firstly i hit the edges with metallic paint, or sandpaper for the coldcast parts.
b. c. d. After that, i added hints of rust weathering using pigments. I purposely had a heavy hand during this step as the fixative (to lock the pigments on) i am using tends to dull them down.
a. b. c. When applying the pigments, i focused on the creases and kept it very light on flat surfaces.
The blaster once painted, reassembled, and weathered but without the stock. At this point i had already applied the fixative and as you can see the rusty hints have been dulled down and are now only visible up close.
Eventually i may add some more silver weathering with rub n' buff for a more steelish look..
24) The stock. Honestly i didn't really know how i was going to handle this in order to have a convincing "wood" feeling. This was for me the key point to have right and firstly i thought about buying a wood stock and then tint it with wood stain, but then i thought i'd give the paint a chance before doing that and it finally went quite well.
a. b. The base layer is a mix of Humbrol n°62 + few drops of Black n°33 and is applied with an airbrush. As you can see the layer isn't uniform as i didn't prepare enough paint and i had to overspray the lines i traced for the greeblie positioning as they would still have been visible if not. But all in all, nothing dramatic.
c. d. This is where the wood is starting to take life. I applied an overall wash of "Devlan Mud" not thinned, not shaken. The "Devlan Mud" is a paint from Citadel/Games Workshop which consists in a Dark Brown wash with a sheen finish if not shaken and a strong covering power if not thinned.
a. b. c. Now the most important step. With this same "Devlan Mud" but lightly thinned this time, i traced wood veins on the stock. The objectif is make the veins more and more opaque with successive layers of wash to blend them in. For this step i like to keep my hand light but fast, not overthinking it. However i did take a good look at real wood veins on stock, or tree before starting to have an idea of what would look credible.
d. I needed a forth pic, so here's what the "Devlan Mud" looks like out of the jar
.
a. b. c. d. e. f. After that with "Nuln Oil" (which is the same type of paint from Citadel/Games Workshop but Black), i darkened certain areas of the stock: dents, around the sling ring and nuts, edges, the place where the wrist rests, etc... Here again, the objective is to darken them progressively with several successive washes so the blends are invisible.
a. Lastly, i painted in metallic the nuts which normally serve to secure the stock to the D-bracket (non functionnal here).
b. The sling ring is painted black.
c. I then applied few black washes on the nuts, with silver enhancements.
a. b. c. d. e. I finished with 4-5 coats of Gloss varnish, making sure that i had masked the ring and nuts before.
26)
a. b. Once varnished i finally was able to glue the stock greeblies into position. As you can see i also painted the central greeblie in its distinctive red before that.
Side note:
a. The central greeblie can also be glued this other way around as we can see it on this reference pic (b.). It most likely fell off and was reglued afterwards in a different orientation than during this reference picture.
27) The sling.
a. b. c. Around the stock ring i did a basic node to secure it, however i'm pretty much certain it isn't accurate.
d. To me the accurate way seems to be the way illustrated on this picture. Unfortunately, the leather strap i had was too thick, and i was too clumsy with it to reproduce it.
a. About the extremity that goes around the handle ring, i cut a tongue with a notch.
b. c. Once the extremity fed through the ring, i stuck the tongue in its notch. After that i glued the two parts of the sling together for more safety, but i'm quite convinced that there's a rivet on the original sling to keep them together (hard to see however).
28) One last tiny detail.
a. Piece of wire.
b. c. Wrapped around the two screws that normally serve to tighten the front barrel mount. I've wondered about the possibility to be two washers instead, but finally i think they put this wire to bring closer the two legs of the barrel mount, and thus to help securing it and prevent it to twist. The washers however would have served no purpose, that's why i tip toward the wire hypothesis.
The blaster finished 1
The blaster finished 2
The blaster opened.
Size comparison with my old E-11.
Finally... Done! Just need to buy an Airsoft grenade to load inside the barrel.
- T5H
