Help with layer paint job?

Recently recieved my boba fett helmet from Daz Bobamaker and im gathering ideas and stencils to "attempt" to paint the mother! I have
attached a picture of the mandibles with the weathring on....were do i start basically? Is it a matter of starting with the red then masking the red out for the next colour? then what? Is the rest done free hand??
Please help a plank novice like myself!

well, i am no expert on doing layered paint jobs, but i do believe you want to recreate actual damage to the helmet, where the paint gets chipped off, or discolored with grime...so think of the helmet as metal, meaning the first layer should be silver...then you mask off the silver damage using a liquid mask, then paint the grey, mask, then dark red, mask, and finish with the actual mandible color...

i personally painted mine topically...i put the main color down, then followed the stencil for the damage on top...first i did the silver, to give me a good reference for the other colors....be careful to not do your silver damage to large, or any of them for that matter...you want to space yourself out in each area...i would recommend making reference points from the stencil to the area that you are painting...try to print the stencil off the same size as your helmet, then find specific points in the damage, measure, and put that same measurement on your helmet so you dont make the damage too big...once the silver is down, you can then go in with the grey, put it down, and then finish off with the maroon...hope that helps a little...

Cheers fettdadd you menitoned: "you mask off the silver damage using a liquid mask, then paint the grey, mask, then dark red, mask, and finish with the actual mandible color" after you have masked the silver and painted the grey for the stage after that do you mask both the silver and grey before you paint the red...do you use spray?

You should check out terminal fettlers thread on how to paint it. I used it with good results.

You can find it here: http://www.thedentedhelmet.com/f23/one-last-wafer-thin-esb-paint-job-30707/

Great cheers for that i stumbled across this a while go. How much liquid mask do
you end going through from start to finish?

In regards to masking,

Your mask will grow. You dont perse have to take off the prior mask. It wil get bigger and bigger to encompass what you had, and what you just painted.

There will be points where you will have a difficult time with 'islands' of paint, that are seemingly out of order, those you may have to do topically, or take into consideration while masking.

When I did mine I went through about a half a jar but it was a small jar plus I layed it down thick to. I wanted to make sure that the area that I was masking out was completly covered.

Cheers.. I noticed on Terminal Fettlers thread that he used masking tape over large areas even after that section was finished. Whats the risk on removing the paint job when finally removing the tape?

I spent almost one full jar of Humbrols Maskol.

As for masking over the paint with tape, no problem as long as the paint is fully cured. And to save masking tape, tear up some plastic bags to cover larger areas

Cheers for that matey boy!!!

you shouldn't have any problem with masking tape peeling off the paint if it's enamel. with acrylic you will.

Layered paint takes a lot of time and patience and PLANNING! The results are awesome though. I use pieces of contractor paper and tamyia hobby tape (scotch makes thin a blue version of the "blue" take that's pretty low tack that won't take the paint off if you're using acrylics).