Helmet damage question

I was curious how everbody puts on the scratches and blast marks on their helmets. I keep seeing home painted helmets that are darn near perfect as far as accuracy is concerned.

How do you do it? Lots of reference photo studying? Stencils? (If stencils where can I get some?!! ESB style damage plz. )

The reason I ask is because I'm really not all that good at hand painting and although I've gotten the main colors on my I stink at details. It took me 3 hours to do 1 scratch with very small paint brushes.

I use masking fluid or paint on.

im still scratching mine and im not an expert but i drew mine on my helmet using other peoples scratches and usen an x-acto to scrape away the top layer of paint. im almost finished then im going to use some different colors and some small paint brushes to make the dark red and silver places around the helmet.

you can see how i did my latest one on my web page:
http://tk7602.com/bobafett/ms3.php

it's not uncommon for those great paint jobs to take weeks or even months, so don't feel bad if you spend 3 hours on one bit of damage!

Originally Posted by Desert_Beagle

The reason I ask is because I'm really not all that good at hand painting and although I've gotten the main colors on my I stink at details. It took me 3 hours to do 1 scratch with very small paint brushes.

Welcome to the world of painting a Fett helmet. 3 hrs. is not unheard of for one scratch if you are really wanting it to be screen accurate. I've spent up to 8 hrs on one scratch. These things just can't be rushed.

where is the best place to find masking fluid? I've had to get mine on the web.

Originally Posted by AFettFullofDollars

Welcome to the world of painting a Fett helmet. 3 hrs. is not unheard of for one scratch if you are really wanting it to be screen accurate. I've spent up to 8 hrs on one scratch. These things just can't be rushed.

You've got a point there. The scratch that took 3 hrs came out pretty good, too. Up close it looks real good and from about 3 feet it looks REAL compaired to the rest of my which has yet to have had any sort of "damage" done. I'm pretty good with hand painting these things as my experience with model planes has shown to be quite useful.

My main mistake was not painting the entire silver first though. I thought I would be able to apply the scratches on top of the main colors easily, but I guess not. Oh well. I'll post a pic or 2 when I get some more done and dremel out the visor area.

Thanks for that link TK 7602! I'll be painting a BM helmet soon, and your tutorial should help me a lot!

Originally Posted by Fett prop artist

where is the best place to find masking fluid? I've had to get mine on the web.

i've been able to find it at any art supply store i've been to. usually with the watercolor paints.