Necro's FPH2 and Asok in ESB

More Progress:
IMG_0561_zps9d73ccb1.jpg

I cheated a bit and used my panel templates to draw out where the bigger gray parts were in the giant mass of silver paint before laying down any other paint.
IMG_0562_zps440ef1a1.jpg

It will hopefully make the relative size and placement of the rest of the paint in the silver easier and more accurate. Here's the FPH2.
IMG_0563_zps9c7b6c99.jpg

And here's the Budget helmet.

Cheers!
 
Nice! I paint on some gray "landmarks" before painting that big expanse of silver, too.
Makes it easier to go back and do all the really small chips and scratches.
 
Looks great man! :D When i did mine, it was layered and quite a bit of work...and i was trying to work quickly so i could troop my Fett again...when i get my FPH2, im going to go alot slower...i want it dead on!

This is coming out great bud! Im glad the templates fit well also...on mine they were a little off because my helmet(DVH) is a little off in proportions
 
I custom sized the templates with much trial and error, skewing, and such to get the Raf templates to fit the panels perfectly. I am going for a pretty much dead-on look for the FPH2. I'm allowing myself a little leeway on the Budget bucket though.
 
Necronaut's Necro-thread back from the dead!

2789b45dc164d485d7b46f624bdb4812_zpsbd3gjitf.jpg


My ASOK Budget (the one I was doing as an AOSW paint job) got a really bad warp and crack in the middle of both cheeks from the steel bracing bar I epoxied. Funny thing is that I epoxied it in to prevent the cheeks from warping in or cracking!?
 
Wow! Your paint job looks great and almost all those small details are in the right place and shape. There are 2 areas that have missing details:

2789b45dc164d485d7b46f624bdb4812_zpsbd3gjitf.JPG

Keep up the awesome work!
 
Done the panels!
909B5C46-A761-48AE-82F1-7DE74C0E0AD7_zpss9myfwti.jpg


D408E2B6-38A1-4B7A-AE66-3998EC4C592A_zps56oy778u.jpg

This is what I think is an old Budget Fett helmet, possibly made by ASOK years ago. Its got a cold cast finish. It takes all of the AOSW ESB helmet scratches really well! I'll do the rust stains and ink stains on the helmet as finishing for the helmet once its got all its paint.

03F93366-F662-4680-9175-E79FBD04D639_zpsyxeatapq.jpg

My FPH2 helmet. I'm going for the screen used ESB look.

Next, I'm going to follow Ponte's layered paint-up recipe for the rest of the helmet. I'll be airbrushing the rest of the helmet in Model Master Acryl LichtBrau RLM 76, to create the base gray. After that, lots of printing and modifying existing Raf templates to mask off the base gray in prep for Humbrol 11 silver.
And don't mind the purple spot in the middle right of the pics, they're bad pixels or something on my camera.
 
Aside from some major work related events, duties, etc., I have been working slowly and steadily on both of my helmets. Both helmets had their rear panels masked off, then were sprayed with the MM Acryl LichtBlau RLM 76.

Then, I first took Raf's ESB templates and used Inkscape to custom resize each template to both of my helmets. I resized and saved only the full color shot of each template, custom sized to each helmet. This took lots of measuring, cutting, and even some trial and error.

Once I was satisfied with the templates and their alignment marks and points on the helmet, I went about scribing on the primer blue layer. Each helmet took about 2-3 days to scribe and fill in the masking. It was masked off with Humbrol Maskol.

8DDA74C7-1915-45C1-BBF7-40D4C1AF8288_zpstkrlfg73.jpg

Here's both helmets, moments away from receiving their Humbrol 11 silver. You can see the color of the LichtBlau base paint layer.

20CF849F-5941-4615-A8A4-647B51D51189_zpsz3hnbitg.jpg

On the left is the FPH2 in its LichtBlau paint. The Budget bucket just got its coat of Humbrol Silver 11.

92C4DD50-38A9-42EA-B5CF-6314B1457284_zps4ghhmvqe.jpg

This is a close-up of the Humbrol silver paint, under incandescent lights.

C9517484-EA0D-4B5A-9B72-0DC229070C70_zpsgiontek6.jpg

Here's the FPH2 a day after getting its coat of Humbrol Silver 11. I have my trooping GMH bucket, painted topically by hand, mostly using superjedi's paint list. The silver on the GMH is the piston silver acrylic from PollyScale. This pic was taken in the early evening outside. The sun was behind some trees.

472987D7-B55E-43D1-8A6E-044E0E39ED26_zpsb0xgzshz.jpg

A close-up of the FPH2 and its Humbrol 11 silver.

I gotta say, it looks pretty gray. It only has the slightest hint of pearlescence and metal fleck. I know I whined about this in my ESB 2.0 thread :lol: but I really do want these to turn out as stellar looking as possible.

I do have another different tin of Silver 11. Should I crack that one open and try to re-spray these helmets? Or is this what it is supposed to look like?
DD51DBF5-B261-4DC0-9629-DB9F24DC85BA_zpsprxio1xj.jpg

This is my test bed of these two colors. You should be able to see where I masked off a bit of the blue under the Humbrol 11 silver.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Not sure if its my computer or not, but I'm finding it really hard to see silver, grey maybe but not silver....I'm sure it's just my computer....
Great paint up so far, loving it:love
 
Been working hard on these I see!
Don't know if it's just my screen, but that silver does look pretty gray...

What do you think of the acrylic piston silver? I picked up a bottle a while back but haven't used it yet except for some small color tests. I think it looks pretty good, but it doesn't brush on as smoothly as the enamel bright silver.
 
I must have two faulty screens just looked at it on my iPad and it still looks grey.... :rolleyes

Im a big fan of Floquil silver, paints smooth, and sprays like a dream..... Hard to find round these parts(NZ) what I call a treasure, because when I do find some I hoard as much as I can for a rainy day :lol:
 
Let me preface this post by giving a very serious and well-deserved shout-out to all the talented helmet painters out there, whether you are working on their own helmets, and/or doing commissions for others.
lwzf5.jpg
via Imgflip Meme Maker
That being said, I am going to be referring to what Ponte had to say about his latest ESB helmet paint-up, one of the best ESB helmet paintjobs I have ever seen. It is jaw-dropping, gorgeous, and a standard I hope to merely approach.

If you've read my last post, you know that I have some problems with the Humbrol Silver 11 I tried to lay down on my helmet this week. Rather than a pearlescent sparkly silver, it came out gray. Now in all honesty, it looks a little like that reflective high-visibility material on safety vests, running clothing, etc... just a defective version of it. It looks like it would be highly reflective, if only the light would hit it at the right angle. Alas, here isn't an angle it will suddenly 'pop' at. For the TL;DR version, "It's just not working as a proper silver. At all."

Scouring the Web, around 2013 people started posting some negative feedback about the new formulations of Humbrol enamel paints, silver being one of the ones receiving a lot of this flack. Apparently I wasn't the only one getting gray out of their Silver 11 tins. Right on the money, it was about April 2013 when I bought the silver enamel I am currently trying to use for my two helmets. The results of airbrushing that silver (I really should have trusted my test cards!! Lesson learned.) speak for themselves, just see my previous post.

In general, we in the prop and costume community are looking for realistic looking metal finishes. The current "unicorn chaser" in the SW community in terms of metal finishes would have to be the upcoming Captain Phasma costume (how the heck are we going to do that?!). In fact, at a troop this morning, I was consulted by almost everyone there about what we should do to achieve that finish. I guess they think I know what I'm doing, when it comes to paint and weathering? :rolleyes Please! It's just happy accidents!

In regards to the Fett costume, Ponte (and others, I wish I could give you appropriate credit here) have remarked on a couple separate occasions that the screen-accurate metal/silver paint on the original Fett armour and helmet appears to be a metal flake paint.

With modern paint formulations and techniques, we can now easily achieve a very seamless metallic look with a simple rattle can. The key to its success, and the issue with this paint that kind of renders it a surprisingly poor choice, is that it dries ultra-smooth.
Because it has a very smooth surface with little tooth, it becomes highly reflective. Yay!
Because it has a very smooth surface with little tooth, it doesn't take subsequent paint layers very well at all. There's nothing for the new paint to bite into.

Because of the screen-accurate suggestions on the metal paint being an older metal flake sort, and my previous and well documented issues with trying to get new paint layers sticking to a smooth modern metallic paint, I don't want to use a modern metallic paint. I'm going to go for something that still has a little tooth and texture to it, and will ultimately be more screen accurate. I want a silver metal flake paint. I want an alternative to Humbrol Silver 11. And I think I found it:
CF381010-12E9-4908-B803-A6D2FC6EB1EC_zps1nkame0r.jpg

This is Testors Auto Lacquer 'Diamond Dust' silver paint. It's got sparkle. It's got shimmer. It's got that pearlescent tone (at least according to the plastic cap). The fleck is about the same size as the Humbrol.

6CBA3526-B0C3-462E-9EEF-83A13A9EF3A1_zpsqrsy386m.jpg

Here it is on my test card, and a small shot of it on some spare wood in my paint booth. It is most definitely silver! And it's got sparkle! (y) This is under fluorescent light.

7184A4B6-9461-4218-998D-FFA72565EB2B_zpsdgkbefxv.jpg

Here it is in direct sunlight, laying at an angle to the light.

4CFA9802-E001-49D9-A982-132C51FAFAF6_zpsorohk3yp.jpg

Here it is outdoors, in the shade.

Thoughts?
 
Looks pretty good man. Might have to try it myself. I'll be watching....just finally got my airbrush so I'm reading everything I can now lol.
 
Upon further testing, I have found the following based on the presumed or theoretical color/color of the tin cap of the Humbol Silver 11...

The size and quantity of the metal flake seems consistent between the Humbrol Silver tin cap and the Testors Diamond Dust.

The color of the pigment mixed into the paints is different though. The Testors tends towards a very slightly blue tone, while the Humbrol tin cap maintains a white or ghost gray tone to it. It is a very minor difference in color tone.

In my opinion, it's pretty much not noticeable except in a side-by-side comparison of the two metal paints. If this is of consequence to you, I suggest you steer clear of the Testors and find yourself a vintage bottle of Humbrol 11. However, if you want a slight pearlescence in your silver paint, you should expect to see some actual blue, red, and yellow reflection and refraction tones in your paint. You may be able to explain away the really only a very little blue tone in the Testors as a mere variance brought on by the metal fleck shifting the light and color values ever so slightly.

TL;DR: Not an exact match, but once you look at it in a finished and properly weathered helmet I doubt anyone could tell the difference.

IMHO: Looks good to me, so I coated my Budget helmet with it already. It's drying as we speak. I will post pics of the Budget helmet soon for feedback.
 
This thread is more than 8 years old.

Your message may be considered spam for the following reasons:

  1. This thread hasn't been active in some time. A new post in this thread might not contribute constructively to this discussion after so long.
If you wish to reply despite these issues, check the box below before replying.
Be aware that malicious compliance may result in more severe penalties.
Back
Top