weathering shoulder & knee armor

O K boys & girls I'm almost there . I must say working with mustard has its problems but the end result is pretty good although the silver takes a beating during the scratching.Working with liquid mask is much easier though it sometimes tends to lift the coat under it a little. The shoulders ( mustard ) the knees (liquid mask) . OK now what ........... I need to dull these up a bit . I misted with black and rust . I rubbed the armor down with fine steel wool . I need to take more shine away . I have heard that some use this .... black acrylic backwash??? How does that work ? And last what is the best way to put straps on this knee armor . 1 continuos loop or attached to the sides ? And what is the best way to attach and make sure a strap wont break away ?

Mike

Looks Good .......can't wait to see the whole suit.

I had the same problem with the straps, and asked around. various people told me to use a quick drying, 2 component epoxy.

But I just drilled 2 tiny holes in my armor and put little bolts through them, so my elastique is actually replacable, but most importantly: the epoxy glue was like 17 euros for 1 package, and the 2 hardly noticeable bolts about what...10 cents each??

I know it's not acc... but I trust bolts better then glue... finished up on screwing the allready kitted greeblies to my gauntlets this weekend... now theyre finally fermly attached (maybe just between my ears anyway, but I feel alot more secured gearing up this way).

and as for the weathering?? uhw... whats wrong with what people call:"just buffed on silver"? ill post some pics later... really.... its not that bad...

well heres the "buffed on silver paint look"
if ya ask me.. you're in much more control of your actions with a brush then with a tube of mustard...

ow and the black wash? just get some black paint, a towel, dip the towel in the paint, rub it out on a piece of paper..wood or whatever, and then rub something on ur armor, make nice spots an stuff, dont be afraid to actually drip big drips of paint on ur armor, and then rub it out with a towel either.


If ur not satified, when ur using a water based paint, it's easily removeable, using alcyd based , just wash it of with terpentine, nothing with paint that cant be redone or fixed later on, so dont be afraid, test some if youd like. take the same colour of yellow or orange that you've used on ur armor and put it on a smooth surface, let it dry and test ur black washing.

if ur not satified with the end resluts, cause you can see these obvious towel marks or spots.. go in with a black spray can (misting is what we cal this)... very gently spray some over it from a "large" distance, this really blends it all together, dont get to enthusiastic thou, but even if you do, and it comes out to dark, "yellow/orange wash" it afterwards.

something I did with my "buffed on silver", is that when ur done with the misting, work out new silver scratches (just buff on more silver) over the dulled, black washed silver scrathes, this way you have 2 colours of silver 2 work with, the dulled black one and the new bright one, worked very good on my stuff.

hope that helps

on pic #1, notice the "washed on" darker green dots on the dome section.

also the more sterile look on #1 (pre-blackwash and misting), versus the darker dirtier look on #2.

(dont mind the T-visor, I had redone that later on, from a more purple look to an overall red look)

I also just sprayed the dome section, the rest was hand painted on, and after black mist, you can hardly see any brush stripes on it.