Superjedi's GMH as ESB for Lucksy31

Thanks, guys! It's getting there. . .

UPDATE: January 24, 2013

OK, had some good light this afternoon and I set up the helmet in a better
location than sitting in front of our DVD collection. :lol:
The helmet itself is complete now, except for the tan spatter. Here are a
few pics showing an overall look.

IMG_2931_zps915ea8e0.jpg


The front left view above shows the pastel weathering around the dent, as well as
on the lower left cheek. The white thumbprints are also visible from this angle.

IMG_2937_zps93582534.jpg


The opposing front angle. It's hard to capture with my camera, but I attempted
to show some of the subtle color variation in the dome/cheek green. I used a
multi-step process of darker and then lighter mixtures of the base color.

IMG_2932_zps3c5dd813.jpg


The left rear angle shows the thumbprints again, as well as some of those
brownish grease stains. It also shows how the silver can still appear fairly
bright even though the helmet has been misted with Testors dull coat.

IMG_2935_zpsce58fe01.jpg


The right rear angle shows more of those greasy stains and the overall detail
of this section.

IMG_2944_zps789ab68b.jpg


Finally, a close-up of the rear of the dome and part of the rear panels. The
grease stains are visible here as well. The very fine scratches look even finer once
the airbrush toning is complete.

So there she sits! I'm still waiting on the arrival of the aluminum ears, but once they
get here, I'll post some more progress as I paint them. Hope you like it, Scott!
 
Looking great Eric. Am I right in saying the powder streaks from the dent going towards the back of the helmet appear darker on the helmet during its screen use? As though they have been partially rubbed off by handling over the years as now seen in the exhibit pictures...
 
Thanks, Garrett. I find this to be one of the greatest advantages of a topical paint job.
Whenever I use masking fluid on the rear panels, I always find that I need to do minor
touch-ups after removing the mask. Maybe I just don't have the right tools, but I can
never seem to get all the intricate shapes exactly right when using a layered technique.

I mentioned in another thread that when I delivered Shabad's PP2, I got to see one of
your ESB helmets up close. You certainly seem to have conquered the layered method!
That thing is just amazing.

(Minor update: The pastels and clear coat have been applied to the helmet. :))
And the ESB helmet was topically painted right? I mean ROTJ yeh layered but ESB wasnt
 
That's an excellent question, Garrett. There's so much that has happened to that
poor hero ESB helmet over the years.
What I try to do when I weather my helmets and armor, is to approximate the level
of contrast that I see against the base color. I know that's subject to
interpretation. It's the "eye of the beholder" factor. One person may say, "Well I can
barely make out that streak/splotch/mark/etc." While someone else will say, "Oh yeah
I can see it plain as day."

For the dent streaks in particular, I view them as having a good amount of visual
contrast from the background green. This is one of the clearest HD screen shots I have
in my picture collection. Here, I've thrown a similar view of Scott's helmet in there as well.

Compshot_zpsf4bead24.jpg


If you try to ignore the obvious differences in color due to the screen shot being lit for
filming, as well as color-timed, then further processed for transfer to digital media, I tried
to hit the right level of contrast. Some may say I did, and some may say otherwise. :)

Pastels are also like any other media that's applied to a curved surface. Its appearance will
change depending on the angle and level of lighting. If you look at the streaks at an
oblique 90° angle, they'll appear darker than if you view them from a shallower angle.
 
Why? Look at the close ups of the PP3 helmet...same painter, same technique...the silver is on top of all the other colors.

This pic of the PP3 speaks volumes, hats off to that brush work with the silver! It looks like the grey has been pulled of the silver base coat with masking tape or similar...

Picture 1.png
 
Thanks for the detailed explanation Eric, very interesting. This is the shot i had in mind of the ESB helmet during filming illustrating how i imagine the powder burn to have looked at that time.

Picture 3.png
 
Oh and sorry to go off on a tangent in your thread Eric, (but you may like this) but i have a theory that the main mandible and trim dark red isn't the colour it appears to be. It only appears to be that colour because it is layered on top of the purple/maroon colour, as illustrated in this picture of the PP3. Bottom right hand corner, the red is on top of the purple and silver and changes colour accordingly...

Picture 5.png
 
Superb Eric - I think you've captured the tone of the powder burns very nicely. The grease stains that you added look fantastic - I wad more under the impression that they were part of the 'extra stuffs' that the AOSW version had, and didn't appear on the hero helmet, but with fairly limited resource pics avail, and the fact it all looks superb anyway, it really isn't a huge issue. Bravo on the lid my friend! :)

I tend to go with Garrett line of thinking that the silver layer at least seems layered in that PP3 pic :)
 
Eric, that helmet is a pure beauty! You did a great job!


Here is a comparison image between the ESB Hero and the ESB C-IV helmet:
ESB Helmet Comparison.jpg

I did a bit of color correction of the ESB Hero helmet to match up the ESB C-IV colors. Although the burnt dent look darker in the Hero image, it's kind of hard to tell for sure because the different lighting and the grainy Hero image, but as already said, the miss-handling for over 30 years might be a great explanation of the color fading.

As for the Pre-Pro #3 helmet, looking at some of the close-ups from the Gallery, it looks that most of the colors were layered on the mandible/brow/around ear/rear keyhole area and partially topical on the back rim area, and only the silver on the back plates and the dome/cheeks. But the paint job is so cleverly and professionally made that is hard to see some of the differences. It is possible that this helmet was also painted by Joe Johnston (it looks close in technique to the helmet painted by him for the 'As You Wish' project) and I think that the ESB helmet was not his work.


Off Topic
-------------------
That red shade noticed by TF is close to the left ear's red (which was painted later by Joe) and it looks like a touch-up of some areas:

PP3 Touch-Ups.jpg

Notice that the dark brown shows those touch-ups too, and some of these 'repairs' are present on the dome too, mainly around the killstripes:

PP3 Touch-Up.jpg
 
But the brighter red appears else where on the PP3 in and around the silver damage and most noticeably also on the ESB hero on the complicated right hand mandible area?
 
But the brighter red appears else where on the PP3 in and around the silver damage and most noticeably also on the ESB hero on the complicated right hand mandible area?

On the ESB helmet those red areas looks like touch-ups of the silver or even the helmet surface (possibly masking fluid peel off accident) and are quite deep:

ESB Red Chip.jpg
 
Sorry mate, i meant the OTHER right mandible! :) ( And sorry SJ for derailing your thread Sir...) :facepalm

OK in this picture of the RIGHT mandible i see the red continuing on top of the purple, the purple ends and it goes on top of the grey, same again as the grey ends and its on top of the silver. Each time slightly shifting in colour. Which could mean one colour red as one layer on top of the other colours?

Picture 4.png
 
You have some valid point there!

ESB Red Chips.jpg

My guess is that after the base coat the silver was painted then masked in some areas and the same thing was made with the dark grey and after that they painted the base red color. After the base color they painted the dark brown topical then the whole masking fluid was removed, this is why the red looks brighter around the silver scratches and it looks darker next to the dark grey. But some portions were corrected with the base red to break up a bit some of the colors (similar to the Pre-Pro #3 paint job).
 
By the dark brown are you referring to what i call purple? The colour between the red and the grey?

Here's a shot of the PP3, unusual as it is one of the few shots where you can see an edge to the red layer, the purple layer clearly underneath this red. This also shows from the edge of the paint that the masking fluid has been removed with an adhesive tape, randomly removing paint to make it appear 'chipped'.

Picture 6.png
 
I love that image (and there are others like that)! I was wrong with the dark brown/purple color being topically applied, because it was layered, the same way we see in that PP3 image. You sure have the eye for the small details and because you did lots of paint jobs (and I didn't) you know what you are talking about, and I should listen to you more often. Whoever did these paintjobs, they did an excellent job:

ESB PP3 Scratch Compare.jpg

I reduced 20% from the blue level from the ESB image to match up the Pre-Pro #3 image (the dark gray had a blue hue) and now all the colors looks the same.

Let's give back this thread to Eric.
 
Agree with what you said, apart from the listening to me bit of course!

So Eric, what i meant to say was are you going to darken the powder burn around the dent?
 
This thread is more than 10 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