Superjedi's GMH as ESB for Terrantula

Thanks, guys. :) Scott, I just saw a little while ago that the metal Bordens
are starting to show up. Hopefully yours will get here soon!

UPDATE: May 29, 2013

Round and round we go. Got a bit more done on the dome today.

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Next I'll move in front of the right ear and get that little "humped" area, then the cat scratch!
That's one of my favorite features on the ESB. :)
 
Well, I think a lot of credit goes to the paint. Floquil is excellent for leveling and not
showing brush strokes.
I make sure that my brush is well saturated with paint. Not so much that the paint
will "blob" when I touch it to the helmet, just so that I can get a nice smooth stroke.
I begin by painting a portion of the outline of an area, then when it seems that the
brush is almost dry, I go back and feather the outline into the area a bit.
Working quickly helps. I have found that if I overlap the areas slightly, and blend
them together while the paint is still wet, it really helps to eliminate brush strokes.
 
That's one of the things that impresses me about Superjedi's work. He can make a topical paintjob not actually look topical. If I tried something like that, at best it might result in something that looked worthy of being sold in a Walgreen's toy section...
 
Wolfsburg, thanks! It's not something that happened overnight. I've been doing this for
quite a while now, and it's a lot of trial and error-finding out what works well and what doesn't.

UPDATE: May 30, 2013

Not as big an update as I had planned. My throat is feeling a little gross today. Hope I'm not
coming down with something. :facepalm

I got the cat scratch and surrounding areas stenciled on, and got the silver painted before I
decided that I'll pause here for the day. Hopefully tomorrow I'll feel better and get the gray
areas done. It looks a little weird right now, but these are the "in between" stages that are
associated with a topical paint job.

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If everything goes according to plan (insert evil laugh here) I should get to the dent
sometime on Saturday. (y)
 
UPDATE: May 31, 2013

Feeling OK, so back to work Superjedi, you slacker! :lol:

Got the remainder of the cat scratch done, as well as the surrounding areas.

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Also did the smaller area above the turn signals.

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I did the very fine scratches all through this area, too.

Next up. . . the dent! (y)
 
UPDATE: June 1, 2013

Dentage! :)
Continuing to move around the dome, I've reached the dent. Arguably the most
recognizable feature of the helmet, there's a ton of juicy detail to apply.
As with the other sections done with a topical paint job, it begins with the main
silver area blocked in.

IMG_3291_zps39061eb4.jpg


After working in the gray, along with the big streak coming back from the dent,
the nearly finished damage looks like this.

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There will be some final detailing added at the end of the project. The area surrounding
the dent will receive some pastel weathering, a couple spots of slightly lightened green,
and some of that contrasting pale color within the silver.

Only a couple more damage sections to apply to the dome, then it'll be on to the cheeks!
 
UPDATE: June 2, 2013

I love weekends, I can really get a lot done. :)
OK, several steps for this update. After the dent and streak were done, I did the
smaller area under the streak, and the big area on top of the dome.

IMG_3309_zpsf59de161.jpg


IMG_3308_zpsc9e03a01.jpg


That completed all the major damage sections on the dome. There are a few minor details
left to do, but I need to get the killstripes on first in order to make sure they're positioned right.

It probably isn't obvious in the shots above, but I have also misted on some lightened green
on the dome and lower cheeks. The patterns are very diffuse, but it helps to break up the
one-dimensional look of the base green. It's sort of visible in the pics as a kind of blotchy look
to the finish, but once a clear coat is applied, the reflectivity will be evened out, and the
color difference should be slightly more apparent. It's a subtle effect overall, and it's more
readily visible to the eye.

After "blotching" the dome and cheeks, I did the upper cheeks with PRR Brunswick Green. This
was applied in 2 coats with a 1/2 inch flat brush. If I remember right, the upper cheeks were
brush painted on the original. (Someone correct me if I'm wrong.)

IMG_3310_zps996bf774.jpg


I did the detail painting on the right cheek first. Still using my Bright Silver, and 2 different
grays: my custom gray on the lower cheek, and SP Lark Dark Gray on the upper cheek.
In the shots above and below, I've also chipped out the physical damage using an X-acto blade.

IMG_3311_zps252eaab7.jpg


Next up is the left cheek. :)
 
UPDATE #2: June 2, 2013

Whew! As the sun begins to sink slowly in the west. . . I'm done for the weekend.
I got the left inner cheek done. This part of the helmet contains the third and final
custom mixed color that I use. It's a blend of SP Lark and the dark green mixture
that I use on the back panels. It's just different enough from the "standard" custom
gray to be visually different.

IMG_3313_zps8c2a8b0b.jpg


It's weird that the gray damage on this part of the helmet is two different shades,
but it's one of those cool details that's fun to capture. :)
Tomorrow I'll do the upper left cheek, then the helmet will receive a quick spritz of
Testors Dull Coat to seal the paint work thus far. After that. . . killstripes. (y)

Gettin' there, Scott!
 
Eric,

I can't even describe how amazed I am by your work and can't wait to troop this work of art....that is if I don't put it in a glass display case ;)
 
Hey Scott, glad you're enjoying the progress. (y)
Little more work done today, but nothing really to show picture-wise.

I did some adjusting of the dome/cheek misting. When I sprayed the
Dull Coat on yesterday, it appeared to have absorbed most of the lighter color.
No big deal, just reapplied some of the lighter green today. I started losing
the light in my hobby room as I was getting finished, so tomorrow I'll evaluate
how it looks, and possibly reapply some of the original darker base green in
certain spots. The dome/cheek color is really muddied up, and it might take
2 or 3 passes with varied shades till I get it where I want it.
It's a process! :)
 
Thanks fellas. :) Biggish update today.

UPDATE: June 6, 2013

Killstripes!

I've taken a little extra time with the killstripe stage to show the complete method I use
to apply them. So this post is a little pic heavy.

First off, measurements. I've come to a "standard" group of measurements for putting the
ESB killstripes onto a GMH helmet. These are absolutely not cast in stone, I just think they
give the best looking result. I space the bottom of the killstripes 6.5 mm above the red band.
Each stripe is 27 mm tall by 8 mm wide, and there's a 6 mm space between each stripe.
To position them on the dome, it's just a matter of carefully checking the reference pics.

I cut a strip of blue painter's tape 6.5 mm wide and apply it to the dome.

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After checking and rechecking the positions of the stripes, I begin to lay out some tape
to mark the spaces between the stripes. I use Tamiya masking tape for this, and it just
so happens that it's exactly 6 mm wide!

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Then, I make a pencil mark on each piece of Tamiya tape, and lay a strip of blue painter's tape
across the top so that each stripe comes out to 27 mm tall.

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Then using the reference pics, I apply some masking fluid to mark out the chips within the
stripes. I use Winsor & Newton and a Microbrush.

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After that, I mask the entire helmet off with plastic wrap and tape. I don't take any chances
at this stage. I've done too much work on the helmet to risk any yellow spatter! :lol:

IMG_3319_zpsdd609ac3.jpg


The last thing I do before airbrushing is to burnish all the edges of the tape. This really helps
to get those corners down nice and tight. I've forgotten to do this step before and usually wind
up with yellow paint that has bled thru a little bit, leading to some tedious touchups afterwards.
I use a small burnishing tool that I picked up from Michael's. Not sure what its intended purpose
is, but it works great for Fett helmets!

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Now it's on to airbrush time. I use Polly Scale UP Armor Yellow to do the stripes. I always do
a couple of light coats rather than try to get solid coverage with a single coat. This also helps
prevent bleed through. Today, I did 3 light coats for these stripes.

After putting the basic yellow down, I go back with an orangey-red color (I've used different
ones in the past, depending on what I have on hand) and tone the back half of the killstripe run.
Once that's done, the helmet looks like this.

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When everything's nice and dry, I unmask the helmet in reverse order. I begin by removing
the plastic wrap.

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Then I use a rubber cement pickup to rub the masking fluid off, and finally, carefully peel
up the tape between and around the stripes. Here's the final result!

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Now I'll be able to do the gray and silver damage that is mingled in between the stripes, and
make sure the position is really accurate. Here are another couple of views of the killstripes.

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Still a tiny bit of yellow to add in the "voids" in a couple of the stripes, and I'll do that
with my 000 brush.

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So it's getting there now. :) Next up will be the damage areas within the stripes, the odd
faded color beneath the stripes, and finally. . . some red for those crazy mandibles!
Thanks for following along so far.
 
This is just absolutely terrible.

I'll tell you what I can do, but only because I feel bad for Terrantula. I've got an untouched ASOK CC GMH sitting here. You go ahead and finish that one up and send it to me and I'll send you this brand new one so you can try again, hopefully doing a better job this time. I'll dispose of that one for you to make sure it doesn't get seen in public causing you any further embarrassment.

:p
 
Excellent tutorial, Eric! I encourage you to do a separate thread with your accurate step-by-step killstripe tutorial as a reference for others and maybe one of the admins will make it a 'sticky'. Keep up the excellent work!
 
OK, superjedi, I answered your question, now you gotta answer mine :D

You use POG (Panzer Olive Green?) for the dome and cheeks. Who makes the color you use? Is it a Pollyscale color as well?
 
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